Greek Chinese Food for Breakfast

Here's a Greek cooking up a Chinese dish. I suppose, officially, this might be called fusion cuisine, but I'm just using up vegetables that may expire soon and making breakfast. What am I talking about? Read on.

I am not Chinese, so I don't pretend that I'm an authority. I'm Greek, but according to my Chinese friend, Sunny, the regional cuisine of her native country varies so much that even she is only cooking the food of her region of China. She has been kind enough to show me the proper way to do a Hot Pot, shrimp dumplings and scallion pancakes. I also follow blogs and read cookbooks, so I'm always looking for authentic recipes from China and other countries and cultures. In other words, I'm paying attention.

One of the easiest things to cook in the traditional Chinese way is any type of green vegetable stir-fried with garlic and oil. Add a bit of soy sauce or oyster sauce at the end, and there's dinner. I have my own version of this. Here's how it goes:

1. Wash pea shoots/tip or Chinese broccoli or baby bok choy. With the bok choy, I like to cut into diagonal strips before washing. The stems are thick, so this cuts down on cooking time.
2. Slice one medium onion (yellow or white).
3. Heat a wok, pour in a few tablespoons of oil and stir in some finely chopped garlic and ginger. When you smell the garlic, stir in the onion and then a tablespoon of Chili-Garlic sauce.
4. Next, stir in the greens. Once they're wilted and tooth-tender (al dente) add the bean sprouts (if you have them) and a drizzle of soy sauce or oyster sauce. At this point, you can serve this over rice and call it dinner. 

If you need to eat meat for dinner, before you begin the above directions, toss 4 - 6 ounces of bulk breakfast sausage into the hot work. Break it up and toss it until it's in small pieces and completely cooked. Remove to a bowl and continue cooking the vegetables. At the very end, stir in the meat.

So what do these Chinese vegetables have to do with breakfast? Glad you asked. I often cook what I call a pancake at breakfast. It's not the typical flour/eggs/milk pancake. Actually, it's not a pancake at all. It's an omelet!

1. Whip three eggs with salt and pepper.
2. Stir in a generous handful of grated cheddar if you cannot eat eggs without cheese or you're following a ketogenic diet.
3. Heat a small nonstick pan over high heat. Add three tablespoons of olive oil and pour in the egg mixture. Keep the heat on high.
4. Once the eggs have set a bit on the bottom, place a  few of the cooked greens in the center or the eggs.
5. Swirl the pan, lift the sides of the pancake to allow the liquid egg mix to find its way below the cooked part. Once the pancake is almost completely cooked, flip the entire thing. Continue cooking until both sides are golden brown.
6. Serve with cooked breakfast sausage or bacon on the side.

This is how the entire process looks: