Still Here: Asian Greens, Chinese Restaurant Style
22 Jan
Sorry, guys. I’ve been totally MIA lately, I know. It’s not my fault! OK, well, it is my fault, but let’s just move on.
On Christmas Day my friend Melanie and I observed the time honored Jewish tradition of Chinese food and a movie (Dim sum at Madarin Court on Mott Street and Up In The Air, if you’re wondering). Mandarin Court is the place where I discovered how much I love baby bok choy–simply steamed and slathered with a bunch of oyster sauce. It’s so good, and there’s no reason you wouldn’t be able to do it at home.
Sure enough, How To Cook Everything has a recipe for Asian Greens, Chinese Restaurant Style. It suggests using gai lan, but I opted for mustard greens (you can use any kind of Asian greens or broccoli, kale, collards, and the like). Basically you just separate the stems from the leaves, sautee the leaves in some neutral oil until the wilt, put them on a plat, sautee stems, add some water, and toss until the stems are tender. Then add the stems to the aforementioned plate, hit it with a bunch of oyster sauce, and you have pretty much the best preparation of greens possible, and also the easiest. It might not look like much, but it’s damn tasty and really good for you.
