This bitter peppery green leaf vegetable belongs to the same family (Brassica Juncea) as mizuna and zha cai (swollen stem mustard) commonly sold as a preserved form: sze chuan preserved vegetable.
The literal translation of ‘Sawi Pahit’ is bitter mustard greens and’芥菜’ means mustard vegetable. It is slightly pungent, peppery and bitter.
Preserved Salted Vegetable
It is used to make preserved salted vegetable. There are 2 types: Stem only or both stem and leaves.
Homemade Fermented/ Salted Mustard Greens
As home, you can make your homemade preserved vegetable by making two versions: 1. Salted ones 2. Sour ones (lacto-fermentation) by adjusting the salt content. The sour ones (lacto-fermented) can be eaten raw.
It can be stir fried, stewed or boiled in soups.
Stir Fried
The stem of kai choy takes longer to cook compared to the leaves. There are 2 methods to stir fry it: 1. Boil the kai choy stem first. It can be stir fried together later. or 2. Stir fry the kai choy stem then add water until it is soft then only mix in the leaf. I used the latter method.
Stewed
Boiled
Quick Kai Choy Soup
Cook Salted Vegetable
As for the salted kai choy, it can be stir fried or boiled.
Salted Vegetable and Duck Soup
Sze Chuan Salted Mustard Green Fish Soup (Suan Cai Yu)
