Recommend recipes for the first food in my garden! Chinese Cabbage

I have some Chinese cabbage and/or bok choi,  and possibly some tsoi sim that needs to be picked and used and I'm feeling remarkably uninspired to actually DO anything with it, and even less inspired by grocery store vegetables.


What would you recommend i cook with it?

I plant it every year because i appreciate how early it is, but am really not a huge fan of most limp stirfried greens and high fat foods aren't agreeing with my stomach lately (so the classic "fry it in bacon grease" idea isnt as appealing as it could be).


Other things i have to play with and need to use up:
Lots of onions
Garlic
Last of last year's carrots
Chives
Cubed frozen squash
Frozen whole tomatos
Various sauces and spices


Rice noodles
Various large hunks of frozen meat.
Eggs

What are your feelings towards ferments?

My first thought when I hear chinese cabbage is kimchi. I find it delicious but I'm afraid I have not made it before! Someone might be able to enlighten us with a recipe if we are lucky.

Delicious! I adore Chinese cabbage, and bokchoy/pakchoy. One thing I learned from a Chinese Grandma during a cooking program-- was that vegetables were best when they were lightly blanched (though I often skip this step with great results), and then stirfried in neutral oil with garlic, a bit of sugar and salt or soy sauce. If you don't have a wok, you can still get a good char/"wok-hei" just by keeping a pan at high heat and stirring often.

It doesn't take long at all, and this is my favorite way to eat vegetables in a simple, but consistently delicious way. You can also add some chilies while stirfrying, or topping with some chili oil afterwards. Absolutely divine.

Kimchi could also be an option for that Chinese cabbage-- or any other vegetable, as well, since Koreans have a million different recipes for "kimchis" which are used for all kinds of wild plants and herbs. Creating a kimchi fermenting sauce (blending rice flour paste, gochugaru (korean fine red pepper powder), onion, garlic, apple/korean pear, soy sauce/kombu stock (veg replacement for anchovy paste/fish sauce), and ginger) that can be mixed with julienned daikon, green onions, chinese chives, and then layered into your vegetable of choice.

Maangchi has a great recipe for making kimchi, which details how to properly salt and wilt your cabbage, before applying the paste and letting it ferment: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/chaesik-kimchi

Happy cooking, and congratulations on that first harvest of your garden!! It will be absolutely delicious, and with many more years of growing to come

Sounds like you have everything you need for great stir fry or Thai style curries.
We use also use those kinds of veg for lovely soups. A basic broth with just some rice or noodles and you can go any direction with the flavours. Miso, black bean, 5 spice powder, bulgogi, red or green curry pastes. It's all about what you are in the mood for. Add the protein of your choice ( we tend to keep cooked chicken or turkey and barbecued tofu in the freezer for meals like this) and just barely cook the veg. I'll cut them fairly thin so they can be in for a very short time.

I will probably make soup tomorrow - what a brilliant idea, and gets me out of the stirfry rut!

But also... kimchi... hmm... never tried it but looks very interesting. I've been wishing for a flavourful ferment for sandwiches...

Now I am wishing i'd planted MORE Chinese cabbage, not less!

I made Asian inspired soup.  Definitely not authentic to be called Asian, and certainly not authentic enough to claim any region!

Cabbage, carrots, garlic, dried chilis, hot sauce from my garden - tofu, shrimp, potatoes, rice noodles, ginger, and onions were not.

Even in 2 days, the Chinese cabbage and bok choy became even more tattered by bugs. If i left it another day, i swear there would be nothing left! Looks like i planted small and large bok choy + chinese cabbage.

Barely steaming them at the top of the finished soup was about right to get an acceptable texture/flavour, enough that i enjoyed it.

Frozen tofu was definitely the star of the meal - it soaked up the broth and was fantastic. I prefer  tofu after it's been frozen and thawed to open up pore space and become a sponge, but I'd never tried it in a soup before.

I am considering making kimchi with the remaining cabbage.

kami faye wrote:
Maangchi has a great recipe for making kimchi, which details how to properly salt and wilt your cabbage, before applying the paste and letting it ferment: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/chaesik-kimchi

Here's another non spicy recipe from Maangchi which I use when I have too many greens.  I've used it on beet greens, broccoli leaves, kale, radish leaves, turnip greens... https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/sigumchi-namul.  It compresses a large amount of greens into a much more manageable, tasty amount.

Edited for clarity

Just tried the previous recipe from G Freden on a pile of random greens to make a 20 min notice meal for a friend.  Random pieces of kale, swiss chard, daikon leaves, and big bottom leaves from cabbages, brocolli, cauliflower,  brussel sprouts or whatever else i'm growing (i lost the tags between planting and transplanting so it's all a mystery). My garden is slow this year so it was a scrounge!

That, plus rice and fast fried beef strips made an excellent meal. Literally picked the greens while on the phone, threw them in for 30s into boiling water when i saw her car drive in.

Really really tasty.

This beats my grandmother's "blanch it, and add butter and vinegar" any day.