Stir-fried Asparagus in XO Sauce

Since my family loves asparagus, I am trying my best to cook them as much as I can, before the current Mexican asparagus (the thicker variety) ends. The prices are really cheapest this week, so I reckon it must the peak of the season.

See Also:

• Tutorial: How to Prep Asparagus
• Recipe: Stir-fried Asparagus with Scallop
• Recipe: Roasted Asparagus with Garlic, Lemon & Thyme

This stir-fried asparagus in XO Sauce a very easy dish, because XO Sauce on its own is so flavourful, one doesn’t need much further seasoning when wokking the dish.

This is the Mexican asparagus I cooked with. To me, the pencil-thin variety of asparagus doesn’t make a good pairing in terms of status with the expensive XO Sauce (lol). Cooking this home costs only a fraction of the price charged at Chinese restaurants.

XO Sauce is a seafood sauce popular in Cantonese cuisine and it’s rather pricey (about S$20 per bottle) due to the dried scallops which is a premium Chinese dried good. To me, foods coated in XO sauce simply taste good, so it is a god-sent sauce for stir frying for lazy cooks like me.

Print

Stir-fry Asparagus in XO Sauce Recipe

You may substitute thick asparagus used in this recipe with 200 grams of thin asparagus. It is not needed to blanch thin asparagus prior to stir-frying.

Serves: 2-3

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

• 6 (200 grams) thick asparagus spears
  
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 heaped tbsp xo sauce
  

(A) Sauce

• 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 tbsp Chinese wine
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 3 dashes white pepper powder

Directions:

1. Prep asparagus by trimming and discarding the lower ends of each spear. Using a vegetable peeler, shave and discard the outer skin of the stalk. Read this detailed tutorial for more information.  Slice prepped asparagus diagonally to 1 cm section.
2. Blanch asparagus spears in a boiling pot of water for 1 minute. Drain and set aside. Combine (A) in a small bowl, set aside.
3. Heat oil in wok. Stir fry garlic and xo sauce for a few seconds until well-mixed and fragrant.
4. Add blanched asparagus and (A). Stir-fry briskly until everything is cooked and well mixed.

Ingredients Used: asparagus • Chinese wine • garlic • sesame oil • soy sauce (light) • xo sauce