| Made With Lau (2024)

FAQs

How do Chinese restaurants get broccoli so crispy? ›

The Chinese broccoli needs to cook as fast as possible, so that the nutrients and color don't have as much opportunity to leach out into the water. It's best to start with as much boiling water as you can. Restaurants serve amazingly green and crunchy Chinese broccoli because they use huge amounts of boiling water.

This is the one cooking pan Daddy Lau uses most: a round-bottom carbon steel wok. Learn more about essential cookware at club.madewithlau.com 🤩

Choy sum is best suited for both raw and cooked applications such as stir-frying, blanching, and boiling. When fresh, Choy sum is utilized for its young leaves and stems and can be sliced and added to green salads or lightly tossed in dressing and sauces for a crisp side dish.

Even adults don't enjoy eating their vegetables sometimes. The high water content in some veggies renders them a bit bland on their own, so many people would prefer to make them palatable by adding various ingredients.

Blanch vegetables before stir-fry

To prepare vegetables for stir-frying, blanching is the perfect way to jump-start the cooking process, especially for dense vegetables like broccoli or cauliflower (which usually take a while to stir-fry and often get soggy).

Stir-frying is the heart of healthy wok cooking. The wok's excellent heat distribution ensures that your ingredients cook quickly and evenly. With minimal oil and a focus on fresh, nutrient-rich vegetables, you can create delicious, low-calorie dishes that are as good for your body as they are for your taste buds.

Choy sum, also spelled choi sum, is a member of the genus Brassica of the mustard family, Brassicaceae (Brassica rapa var. parachinensis or Brassica chinensis var. parachinensis). This leafy crop is also known as Chinese flowering cabbage.

Yau choy (translated from Chinese to mean “oil vegetable”) has dark-green leaves and pale, thin stems, and sometimes is attached with edible yellow flowers. Use yau choy the same way as bok choy — steamed or stir-fried.

Chinese mustard greens, or jiè cài (芥菜) in Mandarin and gai choy in Cantonese, have been cultivated for centuries. Things can get confusing, however, as there are many different types, each with different uses in the kitchen.

Choy sum, also known as Chinese flowering cabbage, is a popular Asian green. It is a good source of folate and vitamin B6, as well as beta-carotene, an antioxidant that can be converted to vitamin A in our bodies. Choy sum also provides fibre, calcium and iron.

Can you eat the flowers on choy sum? ›

Are choi sum flowers edible? Yes, the flowers of choi sum are edible. The stalks produce small, yellow flowers which have a more subtle, peppery flavour than the stalks or leaves. Look out if your choi sum has sprouted flowers – the stems and leaves may have become more bitter to the taste than a younger plant.

Baby bok choy: The most common Chinese green, it is light green and usually sold in bunches of three. Choy sum: Produces small yellow flowers, which gives it its other name of Chinese flowering cabbage.

An expert Chinese chef's tip for making the best broccoli

First, blanch the florets! This not only softens the stems, but also stops the enzyme that leads to browning. My dad also adds some salt and oil to his blanching water, which helps the broccoli retain its crunchy texture and bright green color.

What are those crunchy things in your stir-fry? They're water chestnuts, and they're surprisingly good for you! You probably already know a few things about water chestnuts. They're white and crunchy, and you'll find them in a ton of Asian-style stir fry dishes.