Yu Choy? What's that!

It took me a little while to figure out that "yu choy" (or "choy sum") and Chinese broccoli are two different things, though they always seem to be put together in the international markets. It's through experiments that I discovered that yu choy does not fry the same way as Chinese broccoli. Yu choy is more tender, with more water content. So it withers on heat in less than no time. Just a little cooking is enough to bring out its best. So I decided to blanch it this time. The stems of yu choy can be served as a dish by itself, while the leaves can go to a soup.


Recipe: Blanched Yu Choy stems (for 2-3)


Ingredients:
- 1 lb yu choy
- 2 quart soup stock, or hot water with 2 teaspoons salt and 1 tablespoon oil
- 2 tablespoon Chinese shacha sauce (also called Chinese BBQ sauce)


Procedure:
Break the leaves and the stems off a yu choy. Wash carefully to remove sand. Separate stems from leaves. In a 3 quart pot, boil soup-stock (or hot water with salt and oil) on med-high to high heat. While liquid is boiling hard, dip a few yu choy stems into pot and let cook for 20 seconds or until its green freshens up. Take out immediately. Set on a plate. Repeat for the other stems until all are cooked. Serve with Chinese sesame BBQ sauce.

Now the leaves of yu choy are even more tender than the stems. So you could add them to some soup at the very last minute before serving. In fact, what I do is to cook the soup first, use it to blanch the yu choy stems and serve them separately. Then add the remaining leaves to the soup and serve.