Growing Asian Vegetables...and a cooking video

I've had a lot of response to my post about growing and cooking with Asian greens and vegetables and thought I might start a series of posts about these nutritious and easy to grow vegetables ... and the food that I love to cook with them.

I started growing Asian vegetables last year after reading Eliot Coleman's book, The Winter Harvest.  Many Asian vegetable are very cold tolerant and grow well all through the winter months in a cold frame or hoop house.  Mike and I love Asian cuisines and I was spoiled while we were living in Federal Way...we had many Asian markets in town and it was only a short drive to Seattle and the best of all Asian markets ... IMHO ... Uwajimaya (if you are visiting the Seattle area put this place on your list of things to see; and go hungry ...the food court is incredible!!)  Now that we are living in rural Mason County finding fresh Asian vegetables is not as easy.  I'm really glad that I can now grow my own.

I thought I would start my Asian Vegetable series with an introduction to one of my favorites, a variety of Pac Choi (Bok Choy) called Joi Choi.  It's available from Territorial Seed Company (under the heading of Oriental Vegetables).  It's a mild, sweet Pac Choi that grows very quickly;  this one will almost double in size in another three weeks...

I was first introduced to Asian cuisines when I moved to Washington in 1991.  I was working at a reference laboratory in the SODO area of Seattle (SOuth of DOwntown).  On the weekends (read no management staff on site :) the microbiology lab staff would get take out from Uwajimaya.  I had no idea of what to order the first weekend I worked and all my coworkers agreed that for an initial exposure to Japanese take out there could be nothing better than Yakisoba ...and they were right!  It was delicious!!

I had tried making Yakisoba at home many times since then and was never happy with the results.  A few months ago I went on the Internet, looking for a better recipe ... and that's when I met Francis and Chef ...




This is the best Yakisoba recipe ever!!  I usually use chicken instead of pork...and I vary the vegetables depending on what is ready for harvest ( Joi Choi is one of my favorites to add to this one).  Most groceries in our area carry the noodles for Yakisoba, I'm not sure about the rest of the country ...but you can always ask your grocer to get some for you...

Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday .... Night Dive at Redondo

Above...

And Below ...

Enjoy!

Harvest Monday ... and Crab Fried Rice

I have a harvest!

This is one of the two beds in which I am growing "Asian greens".  All of the plants here are from seed started since January ... except for the purchased Candy onion plants that I tucked in here and there...

This is what I harvested to go into our dinner tonight ...Joi Choi, Violetta Pac Choi, green and purple Mizuna, Tatsoi, Chinese cabbage Orange Mini, and some Merlot lettuce for our salads ... plus some bean sprouts that I started a few days ago.  I'm joining other bloggers over at Daphne's Dandelions as we share our weekly harvests...it's fun to see what others are harvesting and what they are cooking up with it...check it out!

My husband and I are very fond of Asian cuisines (that would be why I have two garden beds devoted to Asian vegetables).  Thai food is my favorite while Mike prefers Japanese.  A couple of years ago we ate at Khu Larb Thai in Pt. Townsend and tried the Crab Fried Rice.  It was wonderful!  I've played with various recipes since then to come up with something similar and this is my version (Mike says he likes it better than the one at the restaurant : )

Deb's Thai Style Crab Fried Rice (printer friendly version)

1 Tbsp soy sauce (I like Yamasa Less Salt)
1 Tbsp Thai fish sauce
1 Tbsp Oyster Sauce
2 quarter size slices fresh ginger
2 Tbsp canola oil
1  large egg
2  cups cooked and cooled jasmine rice
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 cups chopped mixed Asian vegetables (bok choi, mizuna, tatsoi, Chinese cabbage, etc)
1 cup bean sprouts
6 green onions cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1/2 pound of cooked crab meat (Dungeness here in Washington)... rinse and drain well if previously frozen
2 more green onions, finely sliced for garnishing
1 lime, quartered

Cook the rice using a rice cooker or if you're cooking it on the stove, place 1 1/2 cups rice in a saucepan with  3 cups of water. Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat to low and cover. Cook for about 15 minutes or until rice is fluffy and all the water has evaporated. Place rice in a bowl and allow to cool to room temperature.

Mix soy sauce, fish sauce and oyster sauce in a small bowl, add the sliced ginger and set aside while rice is cooking/cooling

Heat the oil in a wok over a medium high heat. Add the egg to the wok and scramble until set (about 30 seconds). Add the cooked rice and stir fry for 2 - 3 minutes. Add the garlic and stir fry for about 30 seconds more. Push the rice mixture to one side of the wok and add the toasted sesame oil,  the Asian vegetables, green onion and red bell pepper and stir fry for 2 - 3 minutes.  Stir the vegetables into the rice mixture.

Remove the ginger slices from the sauce mixture (discard the ginger) and add the sauce to the wok and stir fry briefly to mix evenly.

Add the crab and gently (so as not to break up the crab too much) stir into the rice/vegetable mixture

Spoon rice onto a serving plate and garnish with green onions.  Serve lime quarters on the side for squeezing over the rice dish.

Serves 2 to 4

I serve this with a salad on the side and spring rolls if I have time to make them.  A first course of coconut-chicken or coconut-shrimp soup goes perfectly with this menu  (I'll share that recipe in another post).

Enjoy!

In The Garden...This and That....

We have had almost nonstop rain for most of the week, but there have been a few breaks here and there when I've been able to put on my heavy rubber boots and get out into the garden.  And a few times when I just put on my foul weather gear and worked with the rain poring down (at one point today I was actually thinking about putting on my scuba gear...I would have been warmer and dryer).  I figure I'd better just go ahead, rain or no rain...this is Washington...it might rain until the middle of July!

First I wanted to share a new feature on my blog...the Paradise Cove Calendar...

Just go to the calendar page (the link is in the side bar to the right), click on the entry for any date and a window will open to show you what I've been doing at home, in the garden, the kitchen or the studio...


And now to update the garden activities for the week ... (since I haven't had time to do anything in the kitchen or studio...and the home is full of dust bunnies.  But the major part of this year's garden intensive is done and I'll be getting back to the rest of my life soon...I promise!)

Last Saturday  I prepared my Yukon Gold and Caribe potatoes for planting, deciding that the Rose Golds needed a few more days of sprouting (chitting) before they were planted.

The Yukon Golds and Caribes were definitely ready.  I dug trenches in The Farm #5, added some compost and chicken manure to the bottom of the trenches and then planted the potatoes in a diamond pattern, three in one row and two in the next...

On the subject of potatoes...

The Desiree's in the first potato box I planted are starting to leaf out ...

 

And the All Blues in the second box are up!  In this box I put the heat mat on top of the soil instead of under the box (the same as I did for the carrots in The Farm #6...which have also sprouted after only 10 days with the heating mats!) ... and the potatoes were up in 6 days!

Today I was out changing the set up and adding more low hoops in The Garden...

I now have three beds that can be covered ...

... and have two of them planted (and a heating cable added in the bed with the tomatoes...which are doing quite well despite being planted a month before our last frost date) ...

Both beds are covered now and can handle rain, hail or wind ... and I'm in my bathrobe in front of the fireplace drying out, since it was just misting a bit when I started this today and the skies opened and poured buckets of rain on me before I finished..gotta love the Pacific Northwest...

Enjoy!