In every Chinese household there is always the frequent use of
salted vegetables and almost all of them are from China. Though
people nowadays are quite wary of using products from China but
the popular ones, I has been consuming since childhood. Whether
used in soups, meats or porridge, they are very versatile
vegetables.
The many uses of salted vegetables
This is called 'char choy' and again I gave the Chinese name of this
vege because these are Chinese vege and your grocer may not even
know the English names of these vege.
The packet version of this char choy is tasty too and its not salty.
You don't need to soak it and it can be consumed immediately.Its a
favourite when we go hiking or trekking and very convenient. Fried with
minced pork, you can have a dish in a minute. You don't need to add in
anything except some sugar and pepper. It goes well with porridge too.
The bulb-like char choy on the right is a vege which has been around
for ages. Being very salty, it needs to be soak and rinsed for
many times before it can be used. But one great tip is to use it
if you are making ABC soup. Then you don't have to soak it too long.
ABC soup makes use of many vegetables like tomato, celery, potato,
onions, carrots and either pork or chicken bones. Just cut up the
char choy into big pieces, rinse thoroughly and add in with the rest
of the vegetables. There's no need to add any salt and the taste is
just great.
Add a few pieces to fish before steaming is also another use of it.
In steamed minced pork, just place several pieces on top of the
minced meat and there's no need for any salt or soya sauce. But for
this dish the char choy needs to be soaked for sometime. Also it
has to be cut up first before soaking so the saltiness will rinse
away faster.
This is 'toong choy', another very salty vegetable. Like the
char choy, this is also a very ancient vegetable. It has to
be rinsed and soak many times before using.
For use in minced pork and steamed, the pork needs to be
chopped up manually and not to use a blender or even buy the
minced version from the butcher. Chopping up the meat and
toong choy manually makes the dish tastier. Add in some sugar
and 1bsp of cornflour, mix together and steamed either in a
wok or more conveniently in your rice cooker just before the
rice is cooked.
For making vermicelli soup, just add in two tbsp and see the
difference in taste. Likewise, for porridge it gives a great
taste to it too.
This is 'tai tau choy' which is great for making peanut soup.
The peanuts have to be the one for making soup and not the
one for frying like what you have in nasi lemak. The meat has
to be pork meat and the tail bones. Rinsed thoroughly and
add into soup together with some red dates. Remember not to
add in salt.
Also like the toong choy, this vege can also be used in steamed
minced meat. Just remember to chop up into small pieces and soak
before using.
