Kai-lan (Gai Lan) – Chinese Broccoli Series

This post is my adventurous of using Chinese broccoli or Kai-lan (also called Gai Lan) in my cooking.  Chinese broccoli is good for us in many, check this nutrition facts out!  For this adventure, I ended up using Chinese broccoli for four dishes: Kai-lan Stems Spicy Salad (Yum Kan Kana), Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce, Pad See Ew, and Drunken Noodle.

Kai-lan Stems Spicy Salad (Yum Kan Kana)
In Thai, Chinese broccoli is called Kana.  Kan means stem, so combine them together Kan Kana means Chinese broccoli stem.  I have been cooking this one a few times already, so I can be braved and post about it.  My recipe was adapted from Young Healthy Guide website, which is in Thai language.

Ingredients:
- A cup of diced Chinese broccoli stems
-  ½ cup of diced carrots
-  ¼ cup of sliced onions (eight white or red onion is fine, but I ran out of them, so I had to use shallots)
-  A cup of sliced chicken
-  3-5 bird eye chilies
-  4-5 cloves of garlic
-  3 TBS fish sauce
-  3 TBS lime juice
-  1 TBS palm sugar

In a pot of boiling water, cook broccoli stems and carrots quickly.  I mean really quick, just count one to five and take them out and place them into iced cold water to preserve their crunchiness.  In the same pot, cook chicken until they are done and leave the cooked chicken in the big bowl.

For the sauce, smash garlic and chilies by using mortar and pestle then add palm sugar, fish sauce and lime juice.  Mix the sauce well together, taste it and see if you need to and any more fish sauce, lime juice or sugar.  It should lead with the sour taste.  Lastly, add cooked veggies, sliced onion and the sauce with the chicken and mix them all together.  Now it’s done and ready for you to enjoy.  I must warn you, this dish is really garlicky.  If you have a problem with garlic, you definitely not going to like it.

Pad See Ew

In Thai, “Pad” means stir fried and “See Ew” means sweet (dark) soy sauce.  Basically, Pad See Ew is a stir fried noodle with sweet soy sauce.  I really like these two Pad See Ew posts from I Just Love My Apron and Chez Pim.  You can read the posts HERE and HERE.  After reading these two posts, I came up with my Pad See Ew Chicken.

I had trouble working with noodles, but it came out good much better than I expected.  So far, my husband gives me 5 out of 10 in taste scale.  That magic number “5” is giving me hope because my previous attempt was so disaster and it scared him when he heard that I was going to make a Pad See Ew.  That said I still need more practice to get the taste right, but I am on the right track.

Drunken Noodle 

Drunken Noodle or Pad Khee Mao is so similar to Pad See Ew in many ways.  I don't think it got famous until I was at least in my middle school (well, that's still at least 15 years ago).  This dish is more almost to me the combination between Pad See Ew (stir fried noodle with sweet soy sauce) and Pad Krapow (stir fried with Thai basil).  I adapted my recipe from U Can Cook Thai website which is in Thai language.  If you check out the link, you will see that the ingredients are very similar to those in Pad See Ew.  The main differences are that in Drunken Noodle, you will need chilies and you will use less of sweet soy sauce.  It’s a spicy dish and I enjoy it a lot.  This one my husband gives me 6 out of 10 scales.  So, I’m coming close.  The noodle is still being hard on me.  I guess more practices are what I need.  

 

Chinese Broccoli (Gai Lan) with Oyster Sauce

My last Gi Lan dish is prepared with oyster sauce.  I made stir fried with oyster sauce all the time, but actually never made this dish by myself.  This dish is super easy and goes so well as a side dish for steak.  My recipe is adapted from Malisa’s Food Blog.  You can read her post HERE.

 

Ingredients:
-  1 bunch of fresh Gai Lan

-  2 TBS of vegetable oil
-  2 TBS of sea salt
-  3 TBS of oyster sauce
-  1 tsp of brown sugar
-  2 TBS of chopped garlic
-  2 TBS of chopped ginger
-  1 TBS of water

Add salt and oil into the pot of boiling water.  Soon the water comes to a boil, place clean Gai Lan into the pot for couple of minutes and immediately take the Gai Lan out and place them in a bowl of ice cold water to keep them tender.  Then prepare oyster sauce in a small sauce pan.  Heat oyster sauce, brown sugar, garlic and ginger in a low heat for a few minutes.  Add water if the sauce look a little too thick.  Arrange Gai Lan on the serving plate and top them with the sauce.  Now we're done and the Gai Lan is ready to be served!