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Chinese greenery
By JANET K. KEELER, Times Staff Writer
WIMAUMA -- A chilly wind ruffles through the packing warehouse at Sanwa Growers as workers gingerly push bok choy into boxes and twist ties around bunches of curly leaf parsley. A group of Apron's Cooking School students, drawing sweaters and jackets tighter around their necks, gathers near an oversize wok. The saucerlike vessel could hold stir-fry for at least 50. Oyster sauce and ginger, scallops and cilantro are lined up on a stainless-steel table. "I don't know what I am going to make today," says veteran instructor and chef Warren Mah of the Florida Culinary Institute in West Palm Beach. "It all depends on what's in the field."
Within an hour, Mah and his students are standing in Sanwa's fields, casting their eyes over rows of lushly green Chinese vegetables. It looks like lunch will include kohlrabi, Chinese broccoli, bok choy and its younger, more tender sibling, Shanghai bok choy. All fresh from the ground. "Our secret is simple," says Jeronimo Castillo, the farmer who oversees the company's 500-plus acres of Chinese vegetables. "We work 24/7, 365 days a year. We are out here all the time. We even farm through hurricane season." This is the cooking school's first off-campus class, and 40 people signed up to tour Sanwa, a grower of herbs and Asian vegetables, and see a demonstration by Mah. Apron's is a Publix venture with schools tucked into stores in Sarasota and north Tampa. If you've eaten Chinese food in the Southeast, you've tasted food from Sanwa's fields, general manager Sue Grier says. Sanwa, started by owner Tony Leung in 1981, is a primary supplier of herbs and Asian vegetables to Florida supermarkets and restaurants. Besides its Wimauma location, Sanwa has distribution centers in Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Atlanta. What Sanwa doesn't grow, or can't in the dead of summer, is imported from all over the globe. Sanwa is the second-largest buyer of Honduras ginger, for instance. Chinese and other Asian vegetables are becoming more common in mainstream grocery stores, with bok choy and napa cabbage, also called Chinese cabbage, available almost everywhere. Asian groceries and other produce markets carry more variety, including slender eggplants, daikon radishes and kohlrabi, a tuber that's related to kale and cabbage. Chinese vegetables are a good alternative for people trying to expand their vegetable repertorie beyond broccoli, green beans and zucchini, Mah says. "Asian veggies are a little more bitter than Western ones," he says. "But the flavor is fantastic." The nutrition is there, too. Most Chinese vegetables are high in vitamins A and C, especially Chinese broccoli. They also contain antioxidants shown to help reduce the risk of some cancers. Plus, they are low in calories and generally fat- and cholesterol-free. As Mah improvises at the wok, with prep help from several Apron's chefs, he lectures on the properties and applications of each vegetable.
First, he talks about bok choy. With its chunky white stalks and dark, leafy tops, bok choy looks like a cross between celery and Swiss chard. It is closer to chard in taste, with an unexpected spiciness from the raw leaves. The heat mellows in cooking. "Cook it very simply," Mah says. He serves it with just a drizzle of sesame oil so the audience can experience it relatively unadorned. Overcooked bok choy becomes mushy and unappetizing; cook it quickly. Bok choy is a common ingredient in Asian stir-fries but would be a tasty addition to western vegetable soups, as long as it is added in the last minutes of cooking. The thick stalks need to be cut uniformly so they cook at the same rate. Sanwa also grows Shanghai bok choy, which is more tender and smaller than the more common bok choy. Choy means "white vegetable" in Cantonese. The greenish bulbs of kohlrabi intrigue the students. It's one of the Chinese vegetables that isn't stocked in many grocery stores, which Mah says is a shame. Albertson's carries it sometimes, and many produce managers will stock it if asked. Otherwise, it's difficult to find in the Tampa Bay area. "It's a fantastic vegetable that should be used more in western cooking," he says. "I like to shred it in salads." Kohlrabi is a member of the crucifer family. Its orange-size, knobby bulb develops underground, and its leaves grow above. Both are edible, though the bulb is mostly used. The pale flesh tastes like an apple crossed with a potato: starchy, yet a little sweet. It can be grated into salads or chopped for stir-fries.
Because of its starchiness, peeled kohlrabi can be fixed like mashed potatoes. It also can be julienned and served as a crudite with dip. Chinese broccoli, sometimes called Chinese kale, has glossy, blue-green leaves with slender stalks, much thinner than western broccoli. It looks like rapini, which is becoming more available in grocery stores, but it is not as bitter. Mah sautees slender stalks and fanlike leaves quickly in a little vegetable oil and then dresses them with earthy oyster sauce. Though it's a typical ingredient in beef stir-fries, Chinese broccoli would be a fine vegetable side dish on its own. Steam or saute until soft and season with salt and pepper, maybe even a pat of butter if the diet allows. Sanwa also grows daikon radish, cilantro and Chinese eggplant but didn't have any ready to pick on the day of the class. The herb cilantro, sometimes called Chinese parsley, is used in Asian, Latin, Indian and Caribbean cooking. In Chinese cooking, the leaves and stems are frequently used to garnish salads, or the leaves are sprinkled on top of stir-fries.
Daikon radish, which looks more like a white parsnip than a red radish, is crisp and juicy with a slightly sweet flavor. It can add crunch to a stir-fry, but it is most delicious grated in a salad. Like a carrot, it should be peeled. Daikon can be found in most grocery stores. There are many varieties of eggplant, and Chinese eggplant might win the prize as the most lovely. It's usually pale violet or amethyst, sometimes white, and is even longer than the dark purple Japanese eggplant. It has none of the bitterness of its larger cousins and is even sweeter. In Chinese cooking, the skin is usually left on. Chinese eggplant is often used in a spicy Szechuan dish laced with hot chili paste, garlic, sugar and vinegar, among other ingredients. For students who wanted to experiment at home with Chinese vegetables, Mah suggests looking for them in Asian markets. Or ask your produce manager to stock them. After four hours of tromping through the fields, asking questions and tasting Mah's spontaneous creations, the students amble to their cars to drive from rural Hillsborough County to more congested Sarasota, St. Petersburg and Tampa. It is Chinese New Year, and several peopled talked about ordering Chinese takeout that night. Their lesson in cooking Chinese vegetables created an appetite, that's for sure.
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From the Times Taste section From the features wire | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
