What is this interesting looking vegetable you ask? Well, I asked that very same question when I had discovered a pile of these fine looking stems stacked up neatly at my favorite grocery store. The store had labeled this vegetable as "Stem Lettuce" Oh, it sure does have a wonderful distinct smell. Fragrant. If I had to describe the scent.... the closest I can match it to my ill-skilled encyclopedia of foods; is a cross between a celery and licorice. But please, don't be afraid, it taste nothing like it. Give it a chance, it's quite wonderful in flavour :) There was a reason why week after week, there were hoards of people snapping the stems up, right into their baskets.
Stem lettuce, also know as "Celtuce" or "Asparagus Lettuce" or "Celery Lettuce" originated from China, grown for its stems rather than the leaves. Its highly nutritional; high in Vitamin A and C, high in Manganese which promotes healthy bone structures, formation of connective tissues, absorption of calcium among many other benefits. The possibilities seems to be quite limited, either pickled or stir fry or stewed with other ingredients.
So I decided a simple stir fry will do. Get to learn the vegetable first, see how it taste, how it cooks before playing inventor of new recipes. To pair with the stem lettuce, sugar snap peas and carrot (purely for colour purposes!) were used. But please feel free to pair with other vegetables if simply cook on its own. This vegetable has a very distinctive fragrance so simplicity in sauces was essential so as to not to overwhelm the palette. So lets start!
Makes: 3-4 servings
Ingredients:
2 stems of stem lettuce
2 big handful sugar snap peas
1" stem carrot, 1" in length (optional)
1-2 clove of garlic - diced
1/2 tsp of ginger - diced
white pepper
Sauce:
2-3 tbsp water (chicken stock or tea is fine too)
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine & soya sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce & sugar
Directions:
1. Wash and de-vein your sugar snap peas. Use a pairing knife to cut off the ends and de-vein as shown in the following poorly illustrated pics ;D
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| the inner curved part of pea needs to be de-veined to truly enjoy the snow pea:) so a little prep work in the beginning is well worth it. unless you want to spend half your dinner picking off the tough string from half chewed peas. ;D |
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| start with one end and.... |
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| pull off that tough string |
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| all snap peas de-veined :D |
2. Set aside the de-veined snap peas. Wash and julienne carrot into match-stick size. Set aside.
3. Rinse the stem lettuce thoroughly under cold water.
4. Peel off the outer layer of the stem and disgard. Keep the leaves.
5. Slice as the same size as snap peas.
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| See how nice and semi-translucent it is inside? by the looks of this and based on experience with everyday cooking, I can tell this veggie cooks fast :) to best retain it's soft crispness |
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chopped! |
6. Heat pan to medium high with a drizzle of olive oil. Allow to heat up. You'll want the pan hot prior to tossing in ingredients.
7. Once pan is ready, throw in garlic and toss until fragrant, about 30 secs.
7. Once pan is ready, throw in garlic and toss until fragrant, about 30 secs.
8. Throw in carrots. Cook for 2 mins.
9. Throw in sugar snap peas. Toss and cook for 1-2min
10. Toss sauce and coat vegetables.
11. Toss in stem lettuce. Sprinkle white pepper. Coat and cook for 4 - 5 mins.
12. Sprinkle white sesame seeds & hot pepper if you wish. Turn off heat. Taadaa! Simple as that!
By cooking the stem lettuce only for a few minutes, it retains the crispiness. Since this vegetable is much stronger in flavour than many other vegetables, its best not to overwhelm it with other strong flavours or sauces. KISS rule applies here. Keep It Simple Stupid. The carrots were used only for colour purposes, to pop the green veg. :)
Looking forward to cooking more stem lettuce :) it was delious :P
Looking forward to cooking more stem lettuce :) it was delious :P
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