#332_Chinese Broccoli ( Gai-lan)

Chinese Broccoli......

that's the tag that was on this particular vegetable at the Asian store. If you're like me who is not familiar with it, you would wonder if it was just mistagged because it doesn't resemble broccoli at all except for the stems; then the leaves look more like collard greens than broccoli.

A Chinese lady who was scrutinizing every single leaf of a bundle said that they call it "Gai-lan" in Chinese and raved about how good it is when cooked. She actually told me how she prepares and cooks it, but I just couldn't follow it. I only understood that it is so delicious and she steams the stems then combine it with the cut up leaves to cook....she got me so excited and bought a bundle to make some stir-fry.

I broke off the stems from the leaves then steamed them,
then I decided to make stirfry just like the
Beef-Broccoli with Cashews recipe #231, click here,
except I didn't think that I needed to steam the leaves part, so I didn't.

I thought the stir fry came out really good, with the leaves still vibrant green and all, but I was a little bit disappointed though because the leaves have a bitter taste. And so I thought that mixing in some left over "Broccoli Stirfry" that I still had from last week will improve the taste, but it didn't. Something went wrong....I probably didn't cook it properly in the first place.
Now, I'm not sure if I really like it that much after all....