2 Easy Ways to Love Your Chinese Greens

If you've ever walked into an Asian supermarket, marveled at the variety of beautiful greens available and wondered what on earth to do with them - keep reading. 
Growing up in Malaysia,  we were blessed to have the bounty of the Chinese vegetables available to us all year round.  We enjoyed gai lan, various mustard greens, choy sum, bok choy, snow pea shoots, Chinese cabbage, snake beans,  winged beans or dragon beans,  water spinach, mustard spinach, radishes, turnips, lotus root, jicama, taro and I could go on for days.  My mum's style of home cooking was a wonderful combination of all the various cultural influences that existed around us but when it came to vegetables she almost always cooked them Chinese style.  Her reasons?  a.  Ease and quickness of prep,  b. The Chinese way of lightly cooking vegetables maintains the freshness and nutritional value of them,  and  c. Mum always enjoyed the crunch of quick-sautéed greens and taught us to love the same.  In most Indian and Malay cooking (the other two main cultural influences in Malaysian cuisine),  vegetables are often cooked to within an inch of their lives.  The vegetables are murdered, massacred and mutilated beyond recognition and I'm pretty sure that all nutrition-related intentions for eating healthy can be forgotten.  You may as well be eating potato chips. This is not to say that I don't enjoy the incredible vegetarian feasts that are served on banana leaves at Indian restaurants all over Malaysia - trust me,  a banana leaf vegetarian lunch is high on my list of favorite meals and a life-changing experience for those of you who have yet to experience it.  However,  on a daily basis and on weekdays when time is a commodity nothing beats cooking veggies the Chinese way. I can whip up a delicious veggie side dish in 15 minutes or less, while something else is cooking and so can you!  My husband tells me that he never loved vegetables until he met me,  and my four-year old LOVES her greens.  He's my husband and has to say such things - she, however has no filter and is brutally honest.  Tonight,  as we were eating a dinner of soy sauce chicken,  jasmine rice and blanched baby bok choy with garlic oil,  she said "The bok choy is the best part!"
There's no reason to serve boring, bland, blah veggies - trust me,  anyone can make these dishes.  There are definitely more complicated, time-consuming ways to cook vegetables Chinese-style, but these two preparations are designed to be quick and easy, and get you into cooking Chinese greens regularly.  Take a look at these simple instructions,  go to your favorite Asian supermarket, get some greens and try your hand at cooking them.  Give yourself a few tries - in no time at all,  you'll be a superfood,  veggie-cooking machine.  We won't go into the health benefits etc. We all know greens are good for us.

Easy Chinese Greens,  Style 1 (serves 3 - 4 as a side dish)

1lb Chinese greens  (Gai Lan or Chinese Broccoli shown in these pics)
3 tablespoons peanut oil
5 garlic cloves - minced or sliced thinly into garlic chips
Vietnamese fish sauce, oyster sauce or soy sauce (optional)
Salt to taste

 1.  Mince garlic or slice into garlic chips.  Depending on how I feel,  I use both methods pretty interchangeably.  If I'm tired, lazy or crunched for time - chips.  If I'm enjoying a glass of wine while cooking and pretending to be a famous chef on my own tv show,  I mince my heart out. 

 2. Separate leaves from stems,  particularly if the greens you are using have tough stems.  Cut leaves and stems into bite size pieces.  Try to keep the pieces the same size, however there's need to be a stickler for perfection.


3. Heat the oil in a wok over high heat.  Add garlic and salt. Sauté for about a minute until fragrant.  Be careful of the temperature of your wok at this point - with so little stuff in the wok,  the risk of it getting too hot too quickly is high.  Turn it down to medium if you feel it's too hot.  This just takes a couple of tries and experience to get the hang of it.  We want to make sure the garlic cooks and releases that great flavor into the oil,  but we don't want it to burn.  If by any chance the garlic burns,  please start over.  The bitterness of the burnt garlic will make the dish inedible.  Once the garlic is fragrant and your kitchen smells divine,  add only the stems.  Give them a few stirs,  then add a couple of tablespoons of water - the steam will help them cook.  Cook for about three minutes,  adding small amounts of water to generate some steam.
4. Add the leaves.   At this point,  add whatever other seasonings you like - oyster sauce,  soy sauce,  fish sauce.  Just a teaspoon or so of any one of these is enough.  Two quick stirs to mix the seasonings through and you're done.  The leaves literally cook in about 15 seconds.  You'll know they're done when they turn a bright, beautiful green and are slightly wilted. 

Easy Chinese Greens,  Style 2 (serves 3 - 4 as a side dish)

1lb Chinese greens  (Baby bok choy shown in these pics)
3 tablespoons peanut oil
8 garlic cloves - minced or sliced thinly into garlic chips
Vietnamese fish sauce, oyster sauce or soy sauce (optional)
Salt to taste

1.  Peel and mince garlic.  No garlic chips for this recipe - only minced garlic will do.  

2.  Slice each baby bok choy in half lengthwise,  from bottom of stem to tip of the leaves.  Doesn't this look beautiful?  At this part of the prep,  I am singing with gratitude at the bounty of the earth's goodness.  Ok,  I'll stop before I go too far with this singing in the kitchen business!

3.  Bring a large pot of water to a rapid boil.  Add baby bok choy and cook until bright green - about one minute depending on size.  Work in batches if you need to,  to avoid over-crowding. 
As you're removing them from the pot,  arrange them in a dish in a nice pattern.  Sometimes I use a large round dish.  Here they are in a square pyrex dish.




4.  In a wok or sauté pan,  heat the oil over high heat.  Add minced garlic and about a half teaspoon of fine salt,  and turn down to medium.  Stir the garlic,  keeping a watchful eye for when it begins to brown.  As it begins to brown,  you have to really baby it - the key is medium heat and moving it around in the pan a lot.  Once it turns a gorgeous nutty, brown color,  add whatever seasonings you would like and remove from heat.  I generally don't add any seasonings, and prefer it with just the oil, garlic and salt.  It's deceptively simple,  but incredibly delicious. 

 5. Pour the garlic, oil and seasoning mixture slowly over the baby bok choy,  being careful to get some on every piece.  If you're looking at this,  and you're not compelled to eat it - geez,  you must be from another planet! :o)

 

And here's the same dish made with mini bok choy,  which seem to be popping up at Asian markets everywhere these days.   I've only cooked with these twice now,  but they're always a big hit.  In this version of bok choy,  the stems are very tender and thin.  

Once you've mastered these two preparations,  you can play with adding things such as Chinese rice wine,  carrots and red & green peppers for color,  slivered ginger, mushrooms etc.  Once you've gained an understanding of how simple it is to cook this way,  you will have as many different variations as you can think up with whatever ingredients are available.  The sky's the limit. 

Happy cooking and happy, healthy eating!