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.

19 COMMENTS

  10. Wah, Pep. Ini sih sayuran kesukaanku. Sayangnya kalo keseringan makan bisa bikin kanker (alias kantong kering…hehehe). Mahal banget harganya!!

    Sumpit ijo-nya keren euy!

  16. It sounds really delicious. The little yellow flowers on the greens look very similar to the flowers from broccoli raab, I'm thinking it must be in the same plant family.

  17. It sounds really delicious. The little yellow flowers on the greens look very similar to the flowers from broccoli raab, I’m thinking it must be in the same plant family.

  18. Kevin: go try it :)Kalyn: I found from wikipedia that broccoli raab probably descends from a wild herb, a relative of the turnip, that grew either in China or the Mediterranean region. It is similar in shape to the Chinese Brassica oleracea cultivar called kai-lan, but not closely related to it. Kai-lan is also a kind of Chinese greens

  19. Kevin: go try it 🙂

    Kalyn: I found from wikipedia that broccoli raab probably descends from a wild herb, a relative of the turnip, that grew either in China or the Mediterranean region. It is similar in shape to the Chinese Brassica oleracea cultivar called kai-lan, but not closely related to it. Kai-lan is also a kind of Chinese greens

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