Braised Winter Vegetables

Although the original recipe calls for potatoes, carrots, and Chinese cabbage, a variety of vegetables would work well in this dish. The finished dish has a sort of sweet and sour flavor – you can play with the amount of sugar and the amount and type of vinegar to get the flavor you like best. Black vinegar will affect the color but has a stronger, almost smoky flavor. Rice vinegar will make it milder and will not change the color of the dish. Use a waxy variety of potato rather than a starchy baking potato – we like Yukon Golds for this.

ingredients:

• 1 T light soy sauce
• 1 T vinegar, either rice wine or black
• 1 T raw cane sugar, or to taste
• 1 c water, stock or broth
• 1/4 lb carrots, peeled and cut into approximately 1/2 x 1/2 x 2″ lengths
• 1/4 lb stem ends of bok choy or the core of a napa cabbage, cut into 1/2 x 2″ lengths
• 1/2 lb potatoes, peeled and cut into approximately 1/2 x 1/2 x 2″ lengths
• 2 T oil
• 1 scallion, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 slice fresh ginger root, minced
• 1/2 tsp sea salt, or to taste
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil, or to taste

method:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil, blanch the carrots; then blanch and shock the cabbage separately and set them aside.
2. While the water boils for the carrots and cabbage, combine the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and water in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Heat the wok over medium high, add 1 T oil just until it shimmers.
4. Add the potatoes and stirfry just until lightly browned in places, then remove from the wok and set them aside.
5. Add 1 T oil to the wok and again heat just until it shimmers – it’s fine if there are bits of potato stuck to the wok.
6. Explode the scallion, garlic and ginger just until fragrant.
7. Add the vinegar mixture, bring to a boil, then add the vegetables to the wok. When the liquid returns to a simmer, keep the heat low and braise just until the vegetables are the doneness you prefer.
8. Adjust the seasoning to taste with salt, vinegar, and sugar, then drizzle with sesame oil before serving.

Braised Cabbage

Well, the pickings are pretty slim for Chinese vegetables in Michigan in the winter – so bad that every time we cook Chinese food, my daughter groans, “bok choy agaaaaaaaain?!?” I do miss the Asian vendors at the Torrance Farmers’ Market, but we’re making do with napa and bok choy, which seem to be the only Asian produce most non-Asian stores here stock.

This recipe can be made with either napa or bok choy, although I prefer the crinkly napa for this one – it makes for an almost soup-like, warming winter dish. Want it heartier? Use a homemade chicken stock or broth. Want it vegan? Use water or vegetable stock – you may want to adjust the seasoning a bit in that case. Romaine or even iceberg lettuce is also a good vegetable to use for this dish!

ingredients:

• 1 lb napa cabbage
• 1 T oil
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced on the diagonal
• 1 T soy sauce
• 1 tsp fermented black beans, optional
• 2 c broth, water, or stock

method:

1. Break the cabbage leaves apart and soak in cool water – rinse and repeat if it’s particularly sandy.
2. Heat the oil in the wok until it shimmers, then explode the scallions just until fragrant – don’t brown them!
3. Add the cabbage leaves just until coated with oil and barely wilted.
4. Add the remaining ingredients, cover lightly and simmer just until the cabbbage is tender. If you cover too tightly or cook it too long, the color will be very drab. Adjust the seasoning and serve.

Quick Soupy Noodles – move over ramen!

We’re deep into the school and after-school schedule now, which means trying to get dinner on the table before swim class or Tae Kwon Do or…. This is a super quick twist on the Pan Asian Noodle Soup recipe posted a long time ago. For noodles, I like to use yaki-soba, but you can use any sort of instant noodles, fresh or dried. Try to buy the least processed noodles you can find and throw the seasoning packet directly into the trash! If you have time to make chicken broth and/or stew a chicken on the weekend, you’ll have homemade broth and cooked chicken meat on hand; if not, use organic free-range low sodium (phew!) chicken broth and cubed tofu in place of the chicken – storebought cooked chicken is usually not sustainably raised and is frequently full of chemical fillers and preservatives.

ingredients:

• enough noodles for 4 portions
• 8 oz cooked chicken, cut into 1/4″ slices across the grain
• 2 heads baby bok choy

broth:

• 1 T oil
• 1 T fresh ginger, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1.5 qt water, stock, or broth
• 3 T Asian fish sauce (nam pla or nuoc mam, available in Asian markets or in Asian section of conventional stores
• 2 tsp light soy sauce
• 1&1/2 tsp brown or raw cane sugar
• 3/4 tsp sesame oil
• 1/8 tsp salt (you may want to start without the salt and add to taste – the need for it varies based on your choice of liquid)
• 1/8 tsp dried pepper flakes (optional, or you can serve chopped salted chilies, sriracha, hot oil, etc. to taste at the table)

method:

1. Soak the bok choy in several changes of cool water until no more grit remains. Cut the leaves into 1/2″ ribbons and the stems crosswise into 1/2″ slices.
2. In a large pot, heat the oil until it shimmers, turn heat down to medium, then explode the ginger and garlic just until fragrant – do not allow the garlic to brown.
3. Add the curry powder, and again cook just until it is fragrant.
4. Add the water/broth/stock, fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, salt, and pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer for 5 m.
5. Add the noodles, chicken, and bok choy to the broth, turn the heat back up, and return to a boil, by which time the soup is ready to serve.

Stirfried Bok Choy

We’ve been mourning the fact that we can’t seem to find decent Asian produce in Ann Arbor (this may finally commit me to a garden next summer!), but this past Thursday’s CSA share included some gorgeous, delicious purple bok choy. For more information on the vegetable, visit Kitazawa Seed Company. It was almost too fresh to cook (I ate a few leaves straight out of the rinse water), but I ended up making a simply stirfry, separating the stems and leaves so that the kids (who don’t like the leaves) would also enjoy it. Make sure to keep the cooking time to a minimum so that the gorgeous color, delicious crunchiness and clean flavor remain, particularly in the stems.

ingredients:

• 2 heads purple bok choy
• 2 T oil
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• salt to taste

method:

1. Soak the cabbage in cool water, then remove and separate into leaves.
2. Soak in fresh water, then remove to a dry bowl. If a lot of grit remains in the rinse water, soak a 3rd time.
3. Cut the stems into 1/4″ sections, the leaves into 1/2″ ribbons and keep them separate.
4. Heat the wok over medium high heat, then add the oil, heating just until it shimmers.
5. Add the garlic and explode just until fragrant – do not let it brown and become bitter.
6. Add the stems and stirfry briefly, just until the color is vibrant and some crunchiness still remains.
7. Season with salt and remove to a plate, spreading into a circle around the edge.
8. Add the remaining oil to the wok, heat just until it shimmers, then stirfry the leaves until they are wilted and just turning tender.
9. Season with salt and arrange in the middle of the serving plate.

Stirfried Chinese Cabbage

Stirfried Napa Cabbage (or Bok Choy)

This was the very first Chinese dish I learned how to make and it remains one of our favorites – the flavor is clean and light, and cabbages are available almost year round at the from a wonderful vendor of Asian vegetables at our local farmers’ market in Southern California. Unless you have an enormous wok, don’t try to cook the cabbage all at once – it will get soggy and steam rather than stirfry. If you are making a multi-dish meal, this should be one of the last dishes you make, as it should be served immediately.

ingredients

• 6 shiitake mushrooms, fresh or dried
• 1.5 lb napa cabbage
• 2 T oil
• 1/2 -1 tsp salt
• up to 1/4 c water (or broth or mushroom soaking liquid)

method

1. If using fresh shiitakes, remove the stems (save for a stock!) and cut caps into 1/4″ strips. If using dried mushrooms, soak them in boiling water until softened, reserving the water for use later.
2. Separate the cabbage leaves and wash thoroughly – a good soak won’t hurt them and will get rid of any grit by the stems.
3. If using napa, cut the leaves in half lengthwise, then into 1″ ribbons across the leafy parts and 1/2″ strips across the crunchier stem ends.
4. Heat 1 T of oil in the wok over high heat until it shimmers, then add the mushrooms, stirfrying quickly.
5. Add 1/2 of the cabbage, and stirfry until it is coated with oil.
6. Add 1/4 tsp of the salt and continue to stirfry as the cabbage releases its juices. If necessary, add a bit of liquid to keep the mixture moist until it reaches the desired doneness – some people prefer it crunchy, others like it cooked through.
7. Repeat with the second 1 T oil, 1/2 of the cabbage, and 1/4 tsp of salt.
8. Return the first batch of cabbage with the mushrooms, mix together, adjust seasoning, and serve.

variations

• In place of or in addition to the mushrooms, you can add 1 T tiny dried shrimp (soak as the dried mushrooms, reserving the liquid for use in the recipe) or 1/4 c cooked tiny shrimp for a more complex flavor.
• If you like bok choy, this is a great recipe for that cabbage as well: when cutting, separate the leaves from the stems; cut stems into 1/4″ diagonal strips and leaves into 1/2″ ribbons crosswise. When cooking, stirfry the stem pieces as the first batch of cabbage and the leaves as the second, recombining at the end. This allows you to cook the stems longer without overcooking the more tender leaves.