OK, onto another little known vegetable, hon tsai tai (pronounced HON-sie-tie). It has been described as a type of flowering bok choy and a mild Asian green from the mustard family.There are numerous types of Asian greens; they are typically at their best in spring and fall.
Hon tsai tai is a specific variety of yu choy (aka choy sum) which has a deep purple stalk, dark green leaves and yellow flowers. The entire plant can be eaten - stems, leaves, and flowers. So, eat up!
Read the excellent article, Choy to the World from the Conscious Choice website to learn more about the choy family of vegetables, including bok choy (Chinese white cabbage), baby bok choy, mei qing choy (Shanghai bok choy), komatsuna, yu choy (choy sum), tatsoi, and mizuna.
It feels confusing, all of these dual names for vegetables.
HVF CSA newbies, you will be receiving many of these items in your future CSA boxes this season, so do yourself a favor and read up on these ahead of time so you can be armed and dangerous with choy-ous knowledge.
It's difficult to find recipes specifically for hon tsai tai online, but I did find a couple:
Sauteed Hon Tsai Tai
Hon Tsai Tai with Soy Sauce and Oyster Sauce
Spicy Stir Fried Chicken and Greens with Peanuts
Chicken and Spring Green Stir Fry with Coconut-Peanut Sauce
Basically, you can substitute this vegetable in any bok choy recipe and you should be fine. Or, do a search for choy sum / yu choy recipes, as this seems to be a more commonly referenced ingredient.
For Asian greens in general, I think you can throw on some combination of: soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, fresh ginger, garlic, chiles, fish sauce, oyster sauce, etc. and it will likely taste good.
I bought some yu choy from Shuang Hur in St Paul to try it out myself this weekend; it was the closest I could find to hon tsai tai. It also has yellow flowers, but the stalks are green rather than purple.
This supermarket stocked bok choy, baby bok choy, yu choy, mei qing choy, gailand, gai choy, and Hmong gai choy. That is a whole lot of choy going on.I've been meaning to try a Mighty Appetite recipe, Asian Greens with Garlic Sauce, ever since it was featured a couple of months ago. Now's the chance, apparently, since I found out that yu choy is the same as choy sum. It looks super simple to make.
Let me know what you do with your hon tsai tai, okay? I will be waiting in breathless anticipation until it shows up in one of my future CSA boxes.
We're growing hon-tsai-tai in our garden. Thought we'd try it. It's very good lightly sauteed with garlic, onion and fresh (unpickled) beets!
ReplyDeleteI've been on a fevered search for hon-tsai-tai ever since a friend handed a bunch to nibble pulled straight out of the ground in her organic garden, little bits of earth still clinging to the roots. As I stood there in the sun crunching the gorgeous and tasty purple stems and the yummy green leaves, she told me I could eat the adorable yellow flowers too! I was completely smitten. These are so beautiful and so delicious that it got me thinking about how to use them as garnishes and edible decorations for salads and things. I'm sure they're great sauteed too in more traditional Chinese recipes, but please try them raw first! The stems are thick, succulent, and crunchy in a delicate way--not at all chewy or tough--and they have a wonderful mild flavor. The leaves and flowers are tasty too. Happy crunching!
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