Stir-fried Mixed Colored Long Bean With Prawns and Cashew Nuts

After a nice lunch celebrating my birthday (yep, am getting wiser another year! LOL) in a Japanese Restaurant, my family decided to get some grocery at this mall. It's Sunday and this place was crowded as usual. Judging by the hot weather, I bet lots of people were enjoying the 'free' air-conditioning in such malls besides bringing their families for shopping. Yours truly, preferred to be near the freezers LOL!

What a coincidence, someone we knew participated in a local Model Search held at this mall and we're glad that he was in the final. Later on, I learnt that he didn't won anything because the main awards and other sub-titles (is this the correct term?) were won by the sponsor's own models! OK, the 14 Finalists got something like RM 400 worth of Prizes (Vouchers? Toilettries ... worth € 84.70/ USD 111.08?) I found it strange... First, they advertised for Model Search which was opened to the public. If they voted their own models (which obviously already searched and founded) as winners, what's the contest for? I suspected it's part of their gimmick to promote their agency but what a biased and unprofessional etiquette! Could it be such practice is confined locally or the same as any model agencies through out the world? Is there any models or agencies that can shed some light in this matter? Yes, I felt it's not fair that my friend didn't win a single thing but I also pitied the other hopefuls I saw that day. They should get a fair judgement and votes! I remembered I saw a petite model about 5 ft 2 in who wore a 5 inch tall high heels... blessed her feet!

Ok, now back to this recipe I wanted to share :-D I found an interesting item (also rare) among the shelves of multi colored hues of vegetables! I read about it before but never thought I saw it with my own eyes this long garnet colored long beans! This is the end product... :-D

Here's the stars fo the dish... the Red or Purple Long Bean or Yard Long Beans (Vigna unguiculata)! I pictured it with some left over, common Green Long Bean variety. There's definitely differences between these 2 species; not only it's color but taste and texture. Which one is my favourite? Any guesses?

Let's get to dish! I mixed the two types of Long Beans with some prawns and nuts. The taste came out nicely balanced with the extra creamy, cruncy cashew nuts. I admitted, I was worried that the Red/Purple Long beans may lose their color and turned mushy, just like their green cousin. I decided to give it a good stir with high heat like I usually did with vegetables - the way I preferred. Voila! Here's the result... The dark color still there and guessed what? It tasted crunchy and not mushy at all compared to Green Long Beans which is still crunchy but slightly softer even though I tossed them into the pan the same time after I mixed them up first in a colander.

Stir-fried Mixed Colored Long Beans With Prawns & Cashew Nuts

Serves 2-3

100 g Green Long Beans

100 g Red/Purple Long Beans

100 g Prawns - cleaned and deveined

50 g Cashew Nuts - toasted without oil

4 pips Garlic - minced

½ cube Chicken Stock or ½ cup homemade stock

Oil for frying

Garnishes of your choice

Method:

1. Wash the long beans and trim into 3-4 cm lengths. Set aside.

2. In a deep pan or wok, heat some oil until it's hot.

3. Add in the minced garlic and stir-fried until it's slightly brown and fragrant.

4. Add in the toasted Cashew Nuts and stir.

5. Add in prawns and stir quickly (it would curl slightly; do not over cook the prawns or any seafood too long. The texture would be hard or rubbery).

6. Quickly, add in the trimmed long beans and stir to mix thoroughly. By now, the prawns already cook properly with the long beans.

7. Dish it out and serve with your choice of garnishing.

Enjoy!