Vegetables of the World - Chinese - Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli)

Hi, there! Let's talk vegetables, since we're so health conscious and looking back when I was growing up in Hong Kong, our everyday diet was focus on Rice & Vegetables!!!  Meat was an accompaniment to add flavor, but our main portion at dinner besides rice is Greens, Chinese Greens! And they are God sent! Fresh, crisp, chewy, sweet, salty, yummy, & satisfying!  One of the top three Chinese vegetables has to be Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli or Kai Lan) in my opinion. It is the staple vegetables if you go to restaurants in Asia and simply order a dish of vegetables. Gai Lan or Choy Sum is what you'll get depending on the season, generally colder weather flavors Gai Lan and warmer weather flavors Choy Sum (will introduce in my next post or two). I remember my mom would get them fresh in the morning from the market, in Asia, farmer's market is a permanent display for every residential neighborhood. 

In Los Angeles, you can actually get them in some big grocery stores like Ralphs or Vons, but best to get Gai Lan from Asian market as the turnover is great and sourcing seems better.  I usually go to 99 Ranch market but there's one market in my "Dim Sum" post that has the greatest baby Chinese vegetables I've seen. They are very reasonably priced, about $2 per bag.

Here's a nice looking plate of Gai Lan in oyster sauce! Let's go step by step, here we go...

Get them in package like this, look for the green healthy looking leaves & the bottom of the stems to see if they're still fresh (not dried up!)

 we'll need sea salt, oyster sauce, & canola oil (you can use peanut oil or vegetable oil if you like, try to avoid using olive oil cause I don't find the olive taste matches Gai Lan)

take them out from the bag and we need to pick out the bad leaves

if you enlarge this picture you'll be able to see the bruising, spots, or anything that doesn't look right.  The rule of thumb is if you don't want to eat that then discard them.  These are the examples of my discards

 went through the whole bag and these are the toss out

here's one single stem of broccoli looks like

after the careful picking, these are what we'll use

soak them and wash them carefully, I open up each branch to rinse through

close up

all cleaned and set aside. Now is the time to boil a big pot of water

once the water is boiling, add a tablespoon of sea salt.  Since the stems are thicker and take longer to cook, we drop them into the boiling water stems in first for a couple minutes...

then push all the green leaves and have them submerged in the hot water until

the water is reboiling for about 2 minutes, add a teaspoon of canola oil to the water, this will add gloss and help separate the leaves, then fish them out onto a plate

can you see the steam rising?

 

use a tong to hold down the Gai Lan then use a sharp knife to cut them into 2" pieces and drizzle with Oyster sauce. You can put the sauce on the side if you like.

I hope you'll try it and taste for yourself, please ask any questions you may have, I'll try best to answer. A little further details about the specific vegetable family >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai-lan

Happy Eating!

Grass Jello

Hi Folks! Thank you for visiting my blog. Sorry for not posting for quite some time, I'll try making it a weekly contribution whenever possible.

Let's get right to it!  What exactly is Grass Jello made of?  I did a bit of the research and here's what I found:

First of all, the black cubes here is the Grass Jello, it's usually added to dessert like this snow ice, along with mango, red bean, & condensed milk drizzle.

 with shaved ice, ginger syrup, and red beans

 with green tea snow ice, green beans, red beans, & boba ( I prefer grass jello!)

It can be purchased in a can like this...you can find them in Asian markets

 Looks like liquid Obsidian, don't you agreed?

Cut them into cubes

Add some simple syrup & lego ice cubes to make a refreshing, simple, & fun dessert

Add fruits, syrup, & evaporated milk

So delicious with just watermelon...yum!

Here's one with red beans, lotus seeds, mochi, & some good old fashioned vanilla ice cream. Of course, you can use any ice cream you like, my preference is green tea ice cream :)

 This is the type of plant that Grass Jello is made from, it's called Mesona Chinensis

Scientific Classification: Kingdom > Plantae, Order > Lamiales, Family > Lamiaceae, Genus > Mesona, Species > M. chinensis

 Here's what the plant looks like, many were grown under fruit trees as a second crop.  Mesona chinensis belongs to the mint family, it grows extensively in Southeast Asia, for example China and Taiwan.  The plant prefers ravines, grassy, dry, and sandy areas, it grows from 15-100 cm tall with hairy stems and leaves. The leaves are of tear-drop shape and serrated edges.
In Chinese, it's called XianCao (仙草) or (涼粉草)
In Vietnamese, it is sương sáo 
In Thai, its name is เฉาก๊วย 

 Mesona Chinensis is allowed to oxidize and slightly dried to develop a concentrated flavor and darkened color

 Then, thoroughly dried and compressed into a drum for transportation to the factory 

 After cooking, the liquid is strained and separated

Finally, the freshly made Grass Jello is ready for consumption.  Restaurants or street vendors scoop these fresh grass jello, add all kinds of accompaniments and transform them into one of the favorite desserts of the Eastern culture.

Medicinal value:  Since the plant came from the mint family, it has cooling property and can offer heat relief in hot summer days. Some herbal medicine doctor recommend this to lower blood pressure.  If you taste the grass jello by itself, it's a bit bitter, that's why we use it in dessert.  The after taste of grass jello is wonderful, feels healthy and light.

Chinese Donut

The latest edition of Saveur magazine was covering Donuts of the world!!! Chinese Donut is one of my favorites, but did you know you can eat them not only by itself but pair with Congee, Soy Milk, & very thin Rice Wrap?

Chinese Donut fresh out of the fryer
a quick dip in the hot oil, the 3 inches gluey stretchy dough turns into this golden yummy donut 8 times its original size. It's hot, crunchy on the outside, soft & little chewy on the inside, with slight savory taste.

Cut into 1 inch pieces ready to add to the simple Congee

Plain Congee - with scallion and roasted peanuts sprinkled on top

Congee with Thousand Year Old Egg and salted Pork - this is my favorite congee or porridge  when I was growing up in Hong Kong, and it still is after I moved to Los Angeles, I make them at home & seek this out in the restaurant as often as I can... 

Another way to eat the Chinese Donut is adding it to a bowl of Hot & Sweet Soy Milk! My family LOVES Soy Milk, a classic Shanghainese and Northern China breakfast, also popular in Taiwan.

An elaborate breakfast set up with Hot Savory Soy Milk, Chinese Donut, Pork Floss, Scallion, Pickled Turnip, & Chili oil to turn up the heat...

Wrap it with a thin layer of Rice Paper and a little soy sauce instantly transform the ordinary donut to something heavenly: soft pillowy feel and crunchy & savory goodness burst in your mouth all at the same time....mmm so good!

There you have it! A nice, comforting Chinese Breakfast. Hope you like it or want to try it...Enjoy!

Pineapple & Chicken Salad

My college kids are home for the weekends, something refreshing, sweet, & quickly prepared. Very simple ingredients, no time to cook the chicken...no problem. Trader Joe has this grilled chicken that's very moist, just warm it up in the microwave for one minute and it's ready to go on top of the salad. Add a dash of freshly ground pepper and ready to enjoy!

Fresh Pineapple & Chicken Salad

 put together with the help of:

Fresh pineapple

Steamed chicken

Iceberg lettuce

Persian cucumbers

Heirloom baby tomatoes

Hawaiian onion

White button mushroom

Dash of ground pepper

Champagne Pear Vinaigrette

This dressing is not bad, you can use any vinaigrette based dressing you like, I find this one pretty light & has interesting bite of Gorgonzola cheese & fresh flavor of pear that's not too sweet.

Beef Vegetables Soup

Getting a little sick of salad, feel like something hot and comforting. And voila! not fattening at all :)
Enjoy!!!

Beef Vegetables Soup

put together with the help of:

beef stew meat

onion

garlic

celery

carrots

yukon gold potatoes

tomatoes

cabbage

cilantro

sour dough toast

chicken stock
tomato paste

red wine

bay leaf

thyme

rosemary

peppercorns

salt & pepper

<use hot house tomatoes if you can, get a nice crusty baguette, add a glass of fine wine, and your dinner is served!>

Another Salad

cobb salad seems easy enough as it turns out, not quite easy, but I'm glad with the result for a first timer.

Cobb Salad

put together with the help of:

Lettuce

Tomatoes

Avocado

Mushroom

Soft boiled egg

Poached chicken tender

Turkey bacon

Blue cheese

& Champagne vinegrette

<get the uncured, all natural, no preservative turkey bacon if you like>

<Poaching liquid for chicken tenders: chicken broth with Xiao Xing wine, thyme, bay leaf, Xi Chuen peppercorn, regular peppercorn, & one star anise)

Japanese Salad

Second day without having to get up and work at a job, feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulder...and found energy to make food :)  at the end of the meal, my vege salad hating daughter cleaned up the bowl except the tomatoes :)

Japanese Salad

put together with the help of:

iceberg lettuce

japanese cucumber

daikon sprouts

cherry tomatoes

& miso ginger dressing