Mike Van De Elzen: Chef discusses abundance of Asian Greens and how to use them in your food

Asian greens and Chinese greens are terms used for any number of leafy green vegetables that find their origins in Eastern Asia. 

These are typically a staple of Asian cooking and have been incorporated into other diets worldwide. 

Mike Van De Elzen from Good from Scratch joins Francesca Rudkin to discuss the use of Asian Greens in your cooking. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News talks 'b.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Mike Vanda Allison is with me. Now, good morning, good morning, right,
you're talking Asian greens. Are they just going off? Are
they in the tunnel house?

Speaker 3 (00:20):
They are at our place, and I think this is
the time of the year for them. I was I
was meaning to ask me what's the story about Asian green?
So they grow all year round or or are they
a winter a winter edge? And I totally forgot to
ask you, So I'm sorry I don't have that information.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
That's that's all right. Good to know they're thriving in
your house. So what was it about which agent green
was it that got you all inspired to do a
pad tie first today?

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Well, you've got a whole array of or a whole
ray of Asian green. So like agent greens and sours
that are quite magical green because the eight they've got
huge amounts of color, a semi amount of flavor. But
what makes them so good and so viomary they have
a very high water content. So things like botchoy, pacchoy,

(01:12):
guy Lahm Knap of cabbage, the trick with cooking these
at home is to do them really quickly. So imagine
you know, a massive, big wok with a huge burner
underneath them. That's the perfect way to cook these. And
so if you are to cook Asian greens at home,
just break them up into their little bits, wash them down,

(01:33):
and then heat up a cast iron pan, get it
stinking hot, and then just quickly add a little bit
of oil and then quickly in with your Asian greens
and just tossed ostos until they just lose a little
bit of their their strength and just start to collapse
a little bit, and then you might want to just
finish a little bit of swissles, serve them straight away.
They are magical, they really are. But I thought this

(01:56):
week we'll do like a pad type with these Asian greens.
So this particular dish will feed probably about six people.
I've got two chicken breasts that I've already poached and
I've shredded down, so the chicken breasts are ready to go.
So the first thing you want to do is actually
make up the sauce itself. So I've got a tablespoon
of brown sugar. Just chuck that into a little pot,
heat it up with two tablespoons of sweet chili sauce,

(02:18):
two tablespoons of soy sauce, and the all important two
tablespoons of peanut butter. If you want, you could put
a little chili in there, bring that to the boil.
Once it all basically dissolves and all becomes one, turn
that off and then we'll go back to our cast
iron pan. Heat that up, and then we cook. And
we pre cook an egg in this cast iron pan.
So just added a tablespoon of oil, throwing your egg

(02:41):
and then use a fork just to scramble it up
and just cook it. Once that's cooked, set that aside,
heat your pan back up a bit more oil. And
then we've got one onion that's been finally sliced, four
cloves of garlic that's crushed down. Sautee them until the tender,
and then into the same pan you start to add
your flavor. So we've got prawns. I've got a cup
of cooked prawns. And then we've got some flat noodles.

(03:04):
So the trick with the flat noodles is go to
the supermarket, buy these wide flat noodles and just soak
them for thirty minutes. In cold water. That's all you
need to do. Once they've been soaked, pull them out,
drain them, and then add them into your pam along
with your prawns. Pour over that delicious sauce that you've
just made, and then add in your shreded chicken, add

(03:24):
your eggs back in and then I've got a spring
onion that's been chopped up. I've got the all important
Asian green. So I've got one bot joy, one pack
joy that's been chopped up. Half a cup of roasted
peanuts and then maybe some mung beans or bean sprouts
at the end. Give that all a quick toss, maybe
a touch of salt. Serve that up and then you know,
if you want, you can sprinkle some more peanuts over

(03:44):
the top and then just.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
See it some fresh cran sounds amazing, Mike, Thank you
very much, Thank you. You can get that recipe at
good from Scratch dot co dot in z or you
can hit the news talk said bet dot co dot
in z Ford slash Sunday. Now this is where we
put all our interviews, all our chats throughout the day.
Everything you need to find from the show, you will
be able to find it there.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
More from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen live
to News Talks it B from nine am Sunday, or
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