Recipe: Sarawak stir fried manicai (马尼菜) with eggs

Kelly posted a very simple Sarawak vegetable dish the other day and since I had mani cai growing in our garden, I decided to cook this. Mani cai (马尼菜) is also known as sayur manis or sweet leaf (or its binomial name: Sauropus androgynus). This is the vegetable that you will find in your pan mee noodles or soup in KL. Usually in our home, we would put the mani cai in soup with some eggs. Mani cai is a good source of vitamin K, provita-min A carotenoids, vitamins B, C, protein and minerals. However, excessive consumption of the juiced leaves (which is popular for weight loss) can cause lung damage, due to its high concentrations of the alkaloid papaverine.

Stir fried mani cai with eggs

In Sarawak, it is common to have it stir fried with eggs. According to Kelly, an important step in cooking this is to squeeze out the juice by hand as it can be bitter. For me personally, the mani cai doesn't have any bitter taste but following this step does help eliminate the waxy aftertaste that the mani cai usually leaves on my tongue. Salting and squeezing the vegetable makes the vegetable taste much smoother too.

I cooked this 3 days in a row, first day without salting the mani cai, second day as per Kelly's instructions and third day as per Kelly's instruction with some added chicken stock (just as an experiment). And Day 2 and 3 ones were better. For those interested to try this, you can get mani cai easily in the wet market for RM1 per bunch - pluck off the leaves and you can replant the stalks in your garden, then you will have a continued supply of mani cai. They grow quite easily and require minimal attention.

Stir-fried Manicai with Eggs

Recipe adapted from Kelly Siew
Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 5 minutes
Serves 2

Ingredients
100g Manicai (plucked from stalks)
2 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 egg
1/2 tsp Shaoxing wine (optional)

1 tsp light soy sauce

1/4 tsp chicken stock powder

1 1/2 tbsp cooking oil 

A pinch of black pepper

Garnish

8 whole cili padi, washed (we didn't cut the chillies so it will not make the vegetables spicy -purely for adding colour to the dish)


1. First, wash the leaves thoroughly, roughly tear with hand, and add the salt. Leave for several minutes, then squeeze all the juice out (you’ll inevitably tear some more leaves, that also helps in getting the juice out). Rinse, and squeeze again. Set aside.

2. In a wok/pan, heat the oil over medium high heat and add the garlic. Cook for 2 minutes, until golden brown. Add the leaves in, when wilted add chicken stock powder and cook for about 1 minute. Add the cili padi.

3. Make a well in the middle, crack the egg in and beat with chopsticks to mix. Once the eggs are starting to set, start mixing everything together. Stir in the soy sauce and wine and season with some black pepper. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

A purple water lily ;)

Full set of photos can be viewed on my Facebook page here. 

*This recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel's Facebook page on 12 September 2012.



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