rainbow vegetable medley

2 min read

In Cantonese, larp jarp means miscellaneous The best thing about this dish with six miscel-laneous veg is that it is so much more than the sum of its parts: the core ingredients come together in a wonderful burst of colour, and it is propelled far beyond the boring veg’category by the addition of a little luxury in the form of fragrant pine nuts.

Serves 41 tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra for deep-frying 4 tbsp pine nuts 1 tsp finely diced ginger 1 clove garlic, finely diced 1 large carrot (70g), chopped into pea-sized dices 70g frozen peas medium courgette (about 60g), chopped into pea-sized dices 110g canned sweetcorn (drained weight) red pepper (about 80g), chopped into pea-sized dices for the sauce tsp light soy sauce 2 pinches ground white pepper 14 tbsp cornflour salt 1 Fill small saucepan with enough oil to a depth of 2cm and put over a medium heat. To test that the oil is ready, drop in a single pine nut. It should fizz up, but not turn brown instantly. Carefully lower the pine nuts into the hot oil and deep-fry for 1-2 minutes. Keep a really close eye on them, because they will change from pale to golden very quickly and can rapidly burn. As soon as they smell fra-grant and have turned golden, remove and drain on kitchen paper.

2 In a small bowl, mix all the sauce ingredients with 100ml water and set aside.

3 Heat 1/2 tablespoon oil in a wok over a high heat and stir-fry the ginger, garlic and carrots until fragrannt. Sprinkle 11/ tablespoons cold water on top and cover. Steam for 1-2 minutes, or until the water has evaporated and the carrots have softened.

4 Add the peas, courgette, drained sweetcorn and red pepper together with another 1/2 tablespoon oil and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add table-spoon water and cover. Uncover after 1 minute and allow any remaining water to evaporate. Reduce the heat to the lowest setting and gradually stir in the sauce. Increase the heat to medium. When the sauce has thickened, stir in two-thirds of the fried pine nuts. Serve with the remaining pine nuts sprinkled on top.