Crispy "Seaweed"

Alexander’s post below got me thinking about pak choy and a couple of things came to mind.

First of all we do have another pak choy recipe on the blog so check it out here .

Secondly the most common way the Chinese cook this vegetable is one of the most simplest, literally heat a wok over high heat, add 1 tbsp groundnut oil until smoking, throw in 3 chopped cloves of garlic and ½tsp sea salt, stir for 15secs, throw in roughly chopped pak choy, fry very quickly for 2 mins, tip out onto plate and serve.

Another recipe is for that old Chinese restaurant classic ‘Crispy Seaweed’, which isn’t seaweed at all but fried shredded pak choy. Thought I’d share.

You will need:

1kg pak choy
1 litre groundnut oil
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp granulated sugar
50g lightly toasted pine nuts

And then you need to:

Heat an oven to 120C/250F

Wash and dry the pak choy thoroughly.

Remove the green leaves from the white stalks. Roll the green leaves up tightly and then finely shred them into thin ribbons. You can use the white stalks in a stir fry vegetable recipe.

Spread them out on a dry baking tray and place in the oven for about 10 mins. Remove and leave to cool.

Heat a wok over high heat, add the oil and when hot deep fry the greens in 3 or 4 batches. It will only take them about 30 seconds to turn crispy (don’t let them brown), remove immediately and place on kitchen towel to drain.

Once all cooked place into large bowl, sprinkle the salt and sugar and give it a good toss. Add the pine nuts and serve.