Stir-fried gai lan

Serves 2-4

When you go to a Chinese restaurant and ask for greens, the waiter often asks whether you’d like them stir-fried with garlic or with oyster sauce, or simply ‘clear’ fried, meaning finished with stock. Most Chinese diners ask for the green to be cooked with oyster sauce like this stir-fried Chinese broccoli. Belonging to the same family as cauliflower and kale, Chinese broccoli is a joy to eat. It has thick stems and glossy dark-green leaves and is packed with vitamins and minerals. This Cantonese staple is a breeze to cook.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

400 g (14 oz) gai lan, trimmed and cut into 8 cm (3 inch) lengths

4 paper-thin slices ginger

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 tablespoon Shaoxing rice wine

½ teaspoon sugar

2½ tablespoons chicken stock

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 teaspoon light soy sauce

½ teaspoon cornflour (cornstarch), mixed with 2 tablespoons water

Pinch of ground white pepper

Bring 1.5 litres (52 fl oz/6 cups) water to the boil in a wok. Add a pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon of the oil, then the Chinese broccoli. Blanch for 1 minute, then tip into a colander and refresh under cold running water. Drain well.

Wipe out the wok with paper towel, return to medium heat and add the remaining oil, ginger and garlic. Stir-fry for 30 seconds until fragrant, return the gai lan to the wok, and stir-fry for a further minute, then add the Shaoxing rice wine, sugar, stock, oyster sauce and soy sauce. Bring to a simmer and, when the sauce has slightly reduced, stir in the cornflour mixture and simmer to thicken further. Adjust the seasoning with salt and white pepper and serve hot.

Note Chinese broccoli is sold young and fresh in Hong Kong. In the West it tends to be larger and more fibrous with thicker stems, which need to be peeled before cooking.