Nutritious Chinese Vegetables by Ruth Paget
The appearance of more and more Chinese vegetables in supermarkets prompted me to purchase The Chinese Kitchen Garden: Growing Techniques and Family Recipes from a Classic Cuisine by Wendy Kiang-Spray.
This cookbook lists 38 Chinese vegetables with photos, nutrients, best growing conditions, and a recipe for each vegetable. Three stand-out recipes for their ease of preparation and important nutrients follow:
1-Chinese Garlic Chives
These are eaten as vegetables in Chinese cuisine and not just as flavorings according to Kiang-Spray. The author writes that garlic chives have the following nutrients and properties:
-fiber
-vitamins A and C
-folates
-beta-carotene
-anti-bacterial properties
-anti-fungal properties
Kiang-Spray provides a quick recipe to make the best use of plentiful garlic chives – stir-fried flowered chives with roast duck. (You could easily substitute roast chicken in this recipe.)
The recipe calls for one roasted duck breast, oil, hoisin, chives, and ginger. You cut the duck breast into 2-inch sections and then cut these sections into thin julienne strips. Next you heat oil in a wok to stir fry the duck and chives. It takes 6 minutes to cooks this dish after minimal preparation work. Serve this economical dish with steamed rice.
2-Snow Peas and Sugar Snaps
Kiang-Spray lists the following nutrients and properties in snow peas and sugar snaps:
-protein
-fiber
-vitamins C and K
-folates
-iron
-antioxidants
-anti-inflammatory properties
Kiang-Spray provides another easy recipe full of nutrition called chow fun, which is made with 4 cups of vegetables, soy sauce, shaoxing wine, oyster sauce, peanut oil, and noodles.
To make chow fun, cut the noodles into ¾-inch strips. Stir fry the noodles in a wok and set aside. Add more oil to the wok and the 4 cups of sugar snaps and other hard vegetables. Cook the vegetables until tender and serve over the noodles.
3-Bitter Melon
Kiang-Spray lists the following properties in bitter melons:
-anti-viral properties
-antioxidants
The recipe the author provides features just the peeled skin of the bitter melon along with garlic, tofu, and fermented black beans. These ingredients are stir-fried together and served with steamed rice. The tofu is marinated beforehand in shaoxing rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, white pepper, and salt.
The complete recipes for these three dishes are in the cookbook along with others for the 38 Chinese vegetables that Kiang-Spray writes about. Each vegetable entry has a photo, growing notes, nutrients, and cultural background for some entries.
Gardeners might be interested in learning how to design a Chinese garden, grow vegetables using raised beds and container gardens, and Chinese gardening tools. Kiang-Spray also discusses compost and how it helps soil for growing produce.
I like the easy recipes in The Chinese Kitchen Garden: Growing Techniques and Family Recipes from a Classic Cuisine by Wendy Kiang-Spray as well as the information about how to grow a vegetable garden in a variety of soils and climactic conditions.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
