Friday, 7 October 2011

Choy sum on the side

 
I am not good with Asian greens.  Don't cook them often.  Stood at the supermarket the other day thinking I might cook bok choy.  I was overwhelmed by all the Asian leafy greens on display.  Didn't have a clue.  Made a choice anyway.  When I got home I had a bunch of Choy Sum.  And a bad photo of the greens display.

Choy sum is sort of like spinach on stalks.  In the past I have admired Ricki's and Heidi's greens dishes.  I tried their recipes.  Highly recommend them.  But now I am a fan of Vicki's Greens.  Vikki Leng has lots of recipes for simple vegetable dishes.  It was her recipes for Bok Choy Stir Fry and Succulent Broccoli that inspired me. 

I had some leftover Matthews Delicious Tofu.  I used some inspiration from Vikki to cook the choy sum to serve with it.  Fantastic!  I'm sold!  Choy sum has already been back in my kitchen (stay tuned) and will be a regular visitor.

This post is timely because tonight we had Matthew's Delicious Tofu again.  I love this dish.  It is great to make with a picky toddler.  I chop tofu and vegetables for the dish and put some aside for Sylvia.

Tonight Sylvia started by eating the lightly cooked asparagus, then had some crunchy fried tofu (because I didn't have time to make Tofu Nuggets) and then she started eating all my marinated tofu!  It gives me hope that one day she will eat the same food as we do!  A great way to celebrate my first week of daily posts for Vegan MoFo.

Other ideas for eating your greens on Green Gourmet Giraffe:

Choy Sum with Mirin
Adapted from Vikki Leng's Vegetarian Feasts
serves 2 as a side dish

1 bunch choy sum, washed and chopped into 1cm slices
1 tsp sesame oil
1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp mirin
splash of soy sauce

Fry garlic gently in oil for about 1 minute and then add choy sum, mirin and soy sauce.  Fry over high heat for about 5 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated and the stems are tender.

On the Stereo: 
Danny Kaye for Children

This post is part of Vegan Month of Food October 2011.  Go to my Vegan MoFo list for more Vegan MoFo posts.
Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

7 comments:

  1. Joanne7 October 2011 at 22:58

    There are certain greens that I'm really good about cooking but Asian greens are NOT on that list. I need to try out some of these recipes!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ricki8 October 2011 at 08:06

    I'm pretty sure that choy sum is the same dish we get at our favorite Malaysian restaurant, which they call Chinese Water Spinach. They do it in a garlic-oil saute, and it is the most delicious green I've ever eaten. Yours sounds great, too--I bet the sesame oil adds a lovely flavor.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hannah8 October 2011 at 13:14

    Oh gosh, mum used to cook baby bok choy often that I got a bit sick of it and have barely used Asian greens since moving home. Thanks for the reminder that it can b delicious (and I'm also now thinking of Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce at yum cha!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kari8 October 2011 at 17:06

    I love Asian greens but am actually quite terrible with cooking them too. I think part of the problem is that many are so big, and they take up too much space in my fridge! When I do manage to buy a bunch of something it's usually bok choy, but this looks like a great alternative - I may just pick up a choy sum cluster tomorrow :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Johanna GGG8 October 2011 at 21:37

    Thanks Joanne - I made a lot of stir fries before blogging and am getting back into them in a different way and starting to appreciate asian greens for them

    Thanks Ricki - I find that they go by different names in different countries which just makes it more confusing with blogging (hence my photo of the stuff) - don't think I have ever eaten it out at restaurants

    Thanks Hannah - I think I made stir fries so often that I got sick of them but am now getting a bit more into them as I discover some new and interesting ways with them - I think Chinese broccoli was in the supermarket display but I am not familiar with that either

    Thanks Kari - I have usually bought bok choy in the past but I think it is only because I don't know what others are - hope you try choy sum - it is yummy

    ReplyDelete
  6. K9 October 2011 at 09:05

    Glad you are still enjoying the matthew tofu, its such a regular dish in our household because its so easy and generally have everything on hand to make it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. eatme_delicious27 October 2011 at 05:13

    Oo I should try adding some mirin the next time I sautee greens! I usually just stick to garlic. My favourite Asian greens are gai lan and pea tips mm.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for dropping by. I love hearing from you. Please share your thoughts and questions. Annoyingly the spammers are bombarding me so I have turned on the pesky captcha code (refresh to find an easy one if you don't like the first one)

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)