I love introducing people to garlic shoots (also known as garlic scapes – note, that’s scapes, not scraps  😉 ).  I make this dish often and people always love it.  In North America, the green shoots that grow from garlic bulbs are usually discarded.  But these garlic shoots, when harvested while young and tender, are actually very tasty and have a light, garlicky flavour when cooked.  You can find it in Asian grocery stores and the younger the better, so you want to avoid the really darkly green coloured shoots.

Picture above from top moving clockwise: tomato eggs, stir fried garlic shoots with shrimp, hot and sour soup, mongolian beef.  See the Asian category for the rest of the recipes.

Picture below: Stir fried garlic shoots with shrimp and pacific clams.

Stir Fried Garlic Shoots and Seafood Recipe

serves 4 alongside other dishes

1/2 to 3/4 lb garlic shoots, cut into 2 inch long pieces with the curly tip discarded

1/2 of a 14 ounce can Chinese straw mushrooms

10 large shrimp, peeled and deveined

Optional:  10 pacific clams (from a can) or 6 large scallops

8 crosswise slices of a large carrot with 3 or 4 triangles cut out of the edge for a restaurant look

2 slices fresh ginger cut into thin strips

2 tbsp oil

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp shaoxing rice wine

1 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp fish sauce

3/4 tsp cornstarch

pinch coarse salt

pinch granulated white sugar

dashes of ground white pepper to taste

Gently massage a pinch of salt into the shrimp and set aside.  Make the sauce by mixing the oyster sauce, rice wine, fish sauce, sugar, sesame oil, white pepper, cornstarch and 5 tablespoons of water in a small bowl.  Set aside.  Heat up a wok over high heat.  When the wok is very hot, add the oil and swirl to coat the bottom half of the wok with oil.  Add the ginger and spread the shrimp across the bottom of the wok.  Stir fry until the shrimp is pink and almost cooked through, about 30 seconds.  Dish out and set aside.  Add the straw mushrooms, carrots, garlic shoots, and clams.  Stir frequently until the garlic shoots are tender but crisp, about 3 to 5 minutes.  Do not overcook.  Taste test one of the garlic shoots to make sure that the garlic flavour is mellow and that it is still crunchy.  Then add the shrimp and sauce.  Stir a few times to mix everything together.  Dish out and serve hot with rice.