Pac Choi

 

Availability: July-October

Storage tips: Refrigerate in a plastic bag. Pac Choi should last at least a week.

How to eat: Pac choi is a crunchy Asian green that’s great in stir-fries. It can also be added to a miso or other Asian flavored soup. I also like its crunch raw in salad. Preparation is similar to that of lettuce heads: peel off each individual leaf stalk, wash behind its "ears", and then chop as desired in your dish. You can also use them whole if they're smaller, either roasted or braised.  Just make sure to rinse it very well as little bits of dirt can get stuck in behind.

Here's a picture of each stalk removed and ready to be chopped for stir-fry.

How to preserve:  

1. Frozen:  Chop clean leaves, arrange on cookie sheet, and freeze for a few hours.  Then put into ziplock bags with all the air squeezed out.  The texture will not be quite as good when thawed, but would work for soups and other cooked applications.  You can also blanche and freeze, but it will come out more mushy.

2.  Fermented:  Make a quick kimchi with your pac choi.  Here's a download that tells you how to make Kimchi:

Slice it, Salt it, Stomp it Handout