Homestyle Taiwanese Braised Chinese Cabbage

Whenever I ordered 3 cups chicken take-away lunch set from my favorite Taiwanese restaurant, I always hope they packed me extra braised Chinese cabbage side dish. I can omit the meatball or the braised bean curd (鹵豆干）but I can never forgo the delicious braised Chinese cabbage (鹵白菜). In fact I hope they could give me extra. Too bad, it is not always the case. 

Because my 'great love' with braised Chinese cabbage, I decided to cook it myself , so I can enjoy it like a feast. It is quite a simple dish to make but require some patience as you will need to stew it for 20 minutes to soften the cabbage.

Ingredients
Chinese cabbage (medium size), 6 shiitake mushrooms (sliced), 3 stalks of scallion (cut into 2-3cm length, 5 slices of ginger, 5-8g of small dry shrimps, shredded carrots, white pepper, salt, oyster sauce, sugar, water, corn starch solution, cooking oil, sesame oil (optional).

Direction
1. Slightly fry the Chinese cabbage in hot oil (1 min). Alternatively you can boil the Chinese cabbage in hot water for few minutes. Set aside for later use.
2. In a pot, heat up some cooking oil.
3. Stir fry the dry shrimps and sliced shiitake mushroom till fragrant. Follow by scallion, ginger slices and shredded carrot.
3. Add in the fried or boiled Chinese cabbage and water and cook about 5 minutes.
4. Now, add in the seasoning - oyster sauce, sugar and salt according to taste.
5. Braise the cabbage for 20 minutes.
6. Add in the corn starch solution to thicken the sauce.
7. Sprinkle some white pepper and a dash of sesame oil, a quick stir and serve the braised Chinese cabbage with rice.