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Something Simple | Yu Choy

look… i like reading cookbooks.  i just don’t really use them.

I could eat yu choy every single day.

My favorite leafy green crunchy veg is yu choy.  I first picked it up, about a year and a half ago maybe, at the Pershing Sq Farmers’ Market.  After that, I just started buying it everywhere I saw it.  It cooks quickly and lends it self to simple flavors.  I tend to use the same ingredients when I cook it, but a co-worker told me her mom uses it in her caldo de pollo. (Mexican Chicken Soup)

I haven’t had much luck with keeping yu choy very long before the leaves start losing their pretty, so I like to cook it within a day or two of bringing it home.  I bought a bunch before I got my dental surgery last year.  I cooked it and kept it frozen for months.  Tasted great when I could finally chew again.

Where does one get yu choy?  Yeah, I didn’t see it until I moved to LA and started going to the market.  I can pick it up in the Korean grocery down the street.  Check the produce aisle at your local Asian spots.  I’m a dork for a grocery store, so while some are going through racks at Barneys, I’m all giddy wandering the aisles at international/ethnic stores around town.  Even if folks are staring, shrug those shoulders and take your time.  It’s an adventure not far from home.

 How does one cook this yu choy?  I cook it quite simply and quite quickly.  And I, honestly, don’t measure much or at all, really.  I drizzle, splash and squirt. (♥:Can we talk about how that sounds? Like, really?)

How else can one cook this here yu choy?  I’ve used yu choy in my ‘Not Pad Thai’ and would no doubt have it in ramen, if I was still on that Sopporo Ichiban Original Flavor crack.

Something Simple | Yu Choy

two bunches of yu choy | garlic | ginger | grapeseed/veg oil | sesame oil | soy sauce | sriracha

Chop the yu choy into bite size pieces.  Mince one garlic clove.  Grate maybe a teaspoon of fresh ginger.  Heat a bit of grapeseed oil in the pan.  Cook the garlic and ginger for about a minute over med/high heat.  Toss in yu choy.  Drizzle a little soy sauce and sesame oil over the yu choy.  Add a squirt of sriracha.  Stir until the yu choy leaves start to wilt and give off a little water.  Cover and let it steam for a minute or two.

Honestly, takes less than five minutes.  I like the leaves glossy and the stems crunchy.  I use two bunches of yu choy, because it loses loads of volume.  l usually add a little more sriracha to taste.  Okay, a lot more.  I like it HOT!

I can have just yu choy for dinner.  Like the bowl above last night.  Just me and my chopsticks.

nikki♥

*um, yes you can eat yu choy with a fork.  i just don’t.

*oh, yeah.  yu choy, depending on when it’s picked, has few yellow flowers or lots of yellow flowers.  i’ve read that you’re not supposed to eat the flowers.  i cut around them.  a few gotten in and, um, i’m still here.

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These Mean Streets | What This Vegan Eats

I’m not deprived, but man, without planning, it can feel limiting…

I found this fruit cart on the way to um, Subway.  See, I was walking there with a co-worker, enjoying a little uncensored convo, lending a kind ear.  I didn’t get anything from the sandwich assembly line, but I couldn’t wait to stop off to get a bag of slices on the way back to the office.  All I could see was melons, mangoes, coconut, cucumber and jicama dancing all the way to my belly.  There were only two serving sizes, ziploc $4 and $5 bags.  I had five on it, stuffed with everything.

Lessons learned: L♥VE the watermelon, honeydew and cucumber.  Oh, NO… on the jicama, cantaloupe and coconut.  The jicama just took up flavorless space; the coconut was sadly bland; and the cantaloupe was a little too fragrant in that old lady with too much perfume on kind of way.  Next time, I think I might have to ask for a taste of the mango, so I can go all in or pass it up.  I think it really depends on the day.  That day was nooooot great.

All in all, it was crazy refreshing on a hot LA day.

Nikki♥

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Home From The Market | Hollywood 18Dec11

just a few things that made it home from the market…

Fennel | Cabbage | Tomatoes | Onions | Kale | Red Leaf Lettuce | Valencia Oranges | Arkansas Black Apples

Oops… Guess I forgot about that last trip to the Hollywood Farmers Market.  You can see images from all of the 2011 HFTM posts here.  Happy New Year!

n♥

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Home From The Market | Hollywood 4Dec11

just a few things that made it home from the market…

Cabbage | Kabocha | Mint | Thyme | Ginger | Onions | Tomatoes | Fennel | Kale | Yu Choy | Apples |

It was the middle of the week and I was listening to an old episode of KCRW’s “Good Food” with Evan Kleiman on my trusty mobile phone.  Each ep starts with what’s new and in-season at the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market.  I usually get through the “Market Report” with a *shrug* at the ready, but rarely fired.  You’d think I could always “get it up” for a little ‘what’s hot at the market’ talk, but, yeah, no.  Something different happened this time, though.  I was transfixed by the coolest of winter squashes, Kabocha.  A couple of chefs described delectable warm, sweet wintery flavors and shared recipes; a bartender’s experiments in squash mixology had my brain scanning the aisles of TJ’s for the requisite spirits.  It all piqued my curiosity something awful.  I think I rewound or came back to that portion of the podcast at least 8 times, just to hear all that squashtalk.  It was so Harvest Festival-Day of Thanks.

As the weekend slowly approached, I kept checking to see how soon I could get my hands on some kabocha.  Sunday, seemed to stay away on purpose.  The morning finally came when I could wander the two blocks from Sunset to Hollywood; going from stall to stall looking for my obsession.  I found them.  One, a deep shade of sunset and the other, an ode to the perfect mottled forest.  They were beautiful.

They still are, actually.  They’re in the platter on the shelf.  I haven’t decided what to do.  Sounds familiar, huh?  I should to listen to that Good Food, again.  Don’t cha think?

n♥