A uniquely Chinese green

The Cantonese are also fond of drying the whole vegetable by laying it out in the sun. The finished product will be cooked in soups with large pork bones for a flavorful broth that they believe is also an excellent detox recipe.

My grandmother had a recipe for caixin rice, and she would deliberately choose older vegetables with a more pronounced mustard flavor. She added nuggets of salty cured meats and Chinese sausages, and the rice would come out of the pot speckled with green and red.

It was delicious.

Mustard greens are part of the extensive brassica family. In Western markets, the most popular would be white and purple cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and the spicy rocket or arugula

In Asian markets, the family includes napa cabbages, mustard greens, kailan, rape, the small round Beijing cabbages and innumerable regional variations.

Recipe

Grandmother's Vegetables and Rice

2 cups cooked rice

1 large bunch mustard greens

1 Chinese sausage

1/2 cup diced ham, or cured belly pork

1 stalk spring onions, chopped

1/4 cup water

This is a recipe that is excellent when you have some leftover rice. The cured meats flavor the rice but we always added soy sauces to our individual bowls.

Prepare the vegetables. Wash and separate leaves and stalks. Trim off any tough portions on the stem. Chop the leaves into short, thin strips and set aside. Cut the stems separately, dicing them.

Dice the sausage and stir-fry to render some fat. Add the ham or belly pork, followed by the mustard green stems.

Add the stir-fried mixture to the rice and place in a rice cooker. Sprinkle with the quarter cup water and cook. After five minutes, add the caixin leaves.

When the button pops, mix well with a spatula and garnish with spring onions. Serve with light and black soy sauces to taste.

Caixin with Beef

A large bunch of young caixin, about 300g

3-4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

250g skirt steak or flank, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon cornflour

1 tablespoon oyster sauce, plus one tablespoon more

Dash of sesame oil

Salt and pepper

Marinate the beef slices with oyster sauce, cornflour, sesame oil, salt and plenty of pepper. Leave aside.

Wash and trim the mustard greens, leaving them whole.

Heat up a pot of water to boiling, add a spoonful of oil and blanch the mustard greens. Drain well and arrange on serving platter. Drizzle with remaining oyster sauce.

Heat up a ladle of oil in the wok and slowly fry the garlic till golden brown. Scoop out the garlic and set aside.

Raise the heat to medium and add the beef slices, quickly stirring to separate completely. As soon as they turn color, remove them from the oil, drain and pile onto the blanched vegetables. Garnish with the golden garlic.