What’s up, everyone?
Today, we’re making
Choy Sum with Garlic!
which is THE recipe that proves
just how easy it is to turn any veggie
into a decadent side dish for any meal.
Thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring this video.
Today, we're going to learn how to make
Choy Sum with Garlic.
It's very simple!
About 1 lb of choy sum.
A bit of ginger.
Garlic.
That's all.
We’ll start by cutting the washed choy sum.
Many people like to cut across to halve it
and stir-fry it like that.
I like to do it this way.
Like this.
Divide it up.
The stems
can cook through,
since they take longer to cook.
While you can cut straight across to separate the stems and leaves,
my dad prefers to cut them at an angle for a better appearance.
Timothy from Patreon asked,
"How do you pick young choy sum so that it’s sweet and not bitter?"
You can't guarantee whether it'll be bitter or not.
Buy ones that are fresh and vibrant green,
ones that don't look as old.
How do you know if it's younger or older?
Vegetables that have flowers are older.
Also, look at the center of the stalks,
don't get ones that are white.
Here?
Yes, the stalk.
If the core is white, it's old.
Also, if your choy sum is younger,
it's very elastic.
It can bend easily.
But if the choy sum is older,
it's hard to bend, just like a stick.
Me and Daddy,
we usually buy the shorter choy sum.
Shorter?
Yes, most of the time, shorter choy sum is young.
Actually, restaurants tend to serve it with fewer leaves.
They throw lots of the leaves away.
But we don't have to be so wasteful at home.
Right?
Vegetables are expensive nowadays!
$2 for a lb of choy sum.
Teresa from Patreon asked,
"How much of the bottom stem should you remove?
At the bottom of the choy sum,
you can see the white part.
Cut the white part, until you don't see the white part.
Most of the time, if the bottom of the choy sum gets old,
you cannot even bend it like that.
You have to use a knife to cut it.
We’ll continue cutting to separate the leaves and stems.
Okay, that's all there is to it.
Now, for the ingredients that infuse this dish with flavor.
Minced garlic.
Everyone uses only minced garlic,
but I also use sliced garlic
along with the minced garlic.
Both!
For minced garlic, smash it first.
For sliced garlic, cut into slices.
This way, the dish will be beautiful!
For minced garlic, just smash it like this.
After peeling, we’ll smash and mince roughly half of the garlic.
We’ll cut the other half of the garlic into thin slices for aesthetics.
This is for sliced garlic.
So we’ll need to make sure to not smash these cloves of garlic.
Move the sliced garlic.
When you stir-fry minced garlic, you just get the aroma.
Sliced garlic is more visually appealing.
It makes the dish look nice,
and it tastes just as good.
We have all of these ingredients listed on our blog at madewithlau.com
along with step-by-step instructions and video clips
to guide you as you make the recipe at home.
Slice the ginger as well.
We’ll slice the ginger into roughly 1/8 inch slices.
Then cut into quarters.
Shaped slices of ginger, see?
Here are 3 fun facts you probably didn’t know about choy sum:
One:
Choy Sum literally translates to
“heart of the vegetable”,
referring to the younger form of the plant.
It’s also sold as yu choy
or jau coi in Cantonese.
Two:
Based on its looks,
you might think Choy Sum is the younger sibling of Gai Lan,
or Chinese broccoli.
But… it’s actually more closely related to napa cabbage,
which is why it’s also known as Chinese flowering cabbage in English.
It’s a more versatile, delicate, and sweeter version of Gai Lan.
Three:
Western recipes usually treat this like broccoli,
often topping it with butter, pepper, or hollandaise sauce.
My dad’s gonna show us the classic Cantonese style I grew up with,
which we can apply to many other veggies.
I'm going to stir-fry this directly today.
We're not going to blanch it beforehand.
I'm going to turn the heat up to the highest heat.
First, we’ll heat our wok on high.
Why don't you have to blanch it first?
Direct stir-fry from raw! It's called saang caau.
What's the difference?
When you stir-fry from raw, it's crispier.
If you blanch first,
the stir-fry is softer.
This is hot enough.
Oil.
When the wok is hot, we’ll add a tablespoon of oil.
Lower the heat.
Add the garlic first.
Ginger.
Then we’ll lower the heat and add in the garlic and ginger.
We’ll stir-fry until fragrant or for about 15-20 seconds.
Don't set your heat too high.
If it's too hot, the garlic will burn.
Black garlic is not pretty.
Add the stems first.
Stir-fry the stems first.
We’ll stir-fry the stems first for about 30 seconds.
Because the stems are harder and denser.
Now, add the leaves as well.
Now we’ll mix in the leaves.
Not too hot, it'll burn if it's too hot.
"Why does it taste bitter sometimes?"
Normally, if we buy good choy sum,
we don't get that kind of bitter taste.
Can you do anything to doctor it?
You can only tell if it's bitter after it's cooked,
but you can't add sugar to it after you've finished cooking.
But most of the time,
we just don't eat it.
After 30 seconds of stir-frying the leaves,
we’ll turn up the heat and add some seasoning.
Now bring the heat up a bit.
Sprinkle some cooking wine on it.
We’ll add 1 tsp of cooking wine and 1 tsp of sugar.
A little bit of sugar helps make the vegetables silky smooth.
Then we’ll stir in the seasonings for another 30 seconds.
Now, cover it with the lid.
Cover it for a few minutes, then we'll keep stir-frying it.
Cover it and let it steam.
No water?
No need to add water, we are stir-frying from raw.
Don't keep this on high heat.
Medium or low heat is good here.
Give it a few minutes.
Once it's soft, bring it back up to high heat to stir-fry it.
When you steam it on low heat,
it'll help the vegetables soften.
Once they're soft, we'll stir-fry on high heat again.
Salt goes in at the very end.
If you added the salt now,
the vegetables would release a ton of water.
That's not very appealing.
Now, we’ll let the choy sum soften on low heat while covered.
I also wanted to make a special shoutout to thank all of our
wonderful Patreon supporters for helping bring this video to life.
If you enjoy our videos and are interested in supporting us directly,
head on over to patreon.com/madewithlau to learn more!
After a minute and a half, we’re ready to uncover the wok.
The vegetables are soft now, see?
Now, bring it up to the highest heat.
Now on high heat, we’ll continue to stir-fry the choy sum.
"Are other vegetables compatible with this recipe,
like gai lan or broccoli?"
Yes, you can do the same with those.
But the vegetables' textures are different.
Okay!
If you want it less soggy, do you skip the covering step?
Cover it for a bit at the beginning,
let it steam on low heat, then stir-fry quickly on high heat.
If you like it softer, cover and stir-fry for longer.
After stir-frying on high for another minute,
we can add our final seasonings.
Add a bit of salt.
Scant 1/2 tsp is enough.
Drizzle some finishing oil on top.
"How do you keep it green?"
Add some finishing oil at the end.
What does that do?
It makes the dish glossy and green.
I’m really excited that Squarespace is sponsoring this video,
because before Made With Lau,
I spent 10 years building and consulting online businesses.
Of all the website platforms, Squarespace is by far the easiest to use.
Right out of the gate, it comes with the most beautiful designs
that actually convert customers.
I know this, because in 2019,
I was consulting my wedding venue on how to increase their revenue.
Part of this strategy involved
completely redesigning their website with Squarespace,
which then led to a 10x increase in inquiries and bookings
compared to their old website.
Squarespace started out as website builder,
but it’s evolved into a full suite of tools
to help you run a variety of businesses,
like an e-Commerce solution to manage your own store,
Squarespace Scheduling where clients can book appointments with you,
Member areas to sell your own course,
and built-in SEO to help your blog get more organic reach.
You can visit squarespace.com
to play around on a free trial,
and whenever you’re ready to launch,
go to squarespace.com/madewithlau
to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
Okay!
Look at this!
After another 20 seconds of stir-frying, we can turn off the heat.
It's cooked, look!
Now, we’ll plate and share these succulent greens with our family.
Cheers!
Good job, Cam!
Good job, Cammy Cam!
I'm so proud of you!
YouTube thinks you’ll like this recipe next.
Let's see if they're right.