Friday, December 22, 2006

Brassicas part two


Peeking under the political bed

So I grew a few Asian brassicas this year, too. Mizuna, though it gets eaten by flea beetles, is a big salad favorite around here. Pak choy, especially the mini kind shown above, often ends up stir-fried. Tatsoi, which has to be one of the prettiest green things out there, is good both cold and hot, and, when cold, its little spoon-shaped leaves are excellent receptacles for salad dressing. Then there's the hot mustard. All can be found at Kitazawa, along with a bunch of other fancy stuff! I'm looking forward to trying their bolt-resistant Japanese spinach this year.

And the non-Asian brassica that got planted the most around here (my notes say I planted it eight times) is rapini. Broccoli raab, whatever; it can get very bitter in the heat, but I'm still picking it out of the bed above. We stirfry it with garlic. (But what don't I stirfry with garlic. Blueberries, maybe.)

4 comments:

Colleen Vanderlinden said...

Oh, I love rapini! I grew it last year, and even though the rest of my veggie garden was rather weak, the rapini (and chard) did really well. I like mine the same way, stir fried with a little garlic. Your Asian greens all sound great, too. I might have to work some of them into my plans for next year :-)

meresy_g said...

what is hot mustard like? I've seen it a few places and it looks interesting. I really need to expand from lettuce, spinach, and chard.

El said...

Well, hot mustard is spicy. It can get (and this is weird) hairy, too, kind of like radish leaves, when it gets hot. SO taste-wise, it's like radishes...spicy more than hot, I guess.

Stacie said...

mmmm.... broccoli raab! thanks for stopping by my blog, and I'll be back!!