Chinese Greens and Shrimp with Oyster and Hoisin Sauce

Most people who grew up in South-East and East Asian know this kind of Chinese greens. In Indonesia we add this into our bakso (meatballs soup), bakmi (fried or soup noodle), nasi goreng (fried rice) or just make them for stir fry.

We, Indonesians, call this Chinese green as sawi or caisim which I believe caisim is derived from Chinese “cai xin”. According to Evergreenseeds.com, it has several names in Chinese as well as other languages.

Botanical names: Brassica rapa var. parachinensis, Brassica chinensis var. oleifera
Chinese: Choy Sum, Cai Xin, Cai Tsai, You Cai
English: Chinese Flowering Cabbage, Chinese Soup Green, Yellow Flowering Cabbage, Edible Rape, Mock Pak Choy, Yellow Flower Choy Sum, Green Choy Sum.
Indonesian: Sawi, Caisim
Japanese: Saishin, Aburana
Malay: Sawi Bunga, Sawi Manis
Korean: Yuchaeip
Thai: Pakauyai (White), Pakaukeo (Green)
Vietnamese: Cái Ngo

I wasn’t tempted to take few pictures of Yu Choy at times, until after I finished rinsing off under cold water, drain and a white bake dish. I told to myself, these leaves look pretty, don’t they? As soon as I felt to do, I prepared my stuff to take few pictures of them.

Yu Choy copy

Chinese greens with oyster and hoisin sauce is one of my favorite and helpful dish while I don’t have lots time to cook. You can use any Chinese greens that you have, such as yu choy, bok choy, or gai-lan. This dish recipe is my entry for WHB #126, hosted by Ramona of The Houndstooth Gourmet. Weekend Herb Blogging event created by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen about almost 2 1/2 years ago.

In this recipe, I used yu choy and also clam juice instead of vegetable or meat broth, since I still had clam juice left over from making Rock Lobster Tails Thermidor. It’s made in garlicky version by adding fried garlic ready to use to sprinkle.


Chinese Greens and Shrimp with Oyster and Hoisin Sauce
Recipe by me

Yu Choy and Shrimp with Oyster and Hoisin Sauce



Ingredients:
1 plastic bag of Chinese greens ( I don’t remember how many pounds nor grams) ==> can be used for yu choy, bok choy, gai-lan
250 g shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 cloves garlic, mashed and roughly chopped
2-3 cm ginger, peeled and bruised
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1/2 cup clam juice
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch, dissolve in a small amount of clam juice or water
fried garlic for sprinkling

Yu Choy and Shrimp with Oyster and Hoisin Sauce (a different angle)


Directions:
1. Rinse off yu choy under cold running water. Drain.
2. Blanch in boling water, drain and cooling them in cold water plus ice cubes.
3. Making the sauce: Combine oyster sauce, hoisin sauce and clam juice. Saute garlic and ginger until fragrant, add shrimp and cook until pink. Add oyster sauce mixture; cook until a boil. Add cornstarch mixture and stir. Remove from heat.
4. Drain you choy and wipe off with paper towel if you need. Place on a serving dish and pour the sauce mixture. Sprinkle with fried garlic.

About the Author

An Indonesian born who lives on the Prairie land of Canada. Indonesia Eats is a memoir of her homeland.