Gai lan

Brassica oleracea · Brassica

40 pairings

Gai lan (Brassica oleracea), known in English as Chinese broccoli or kai-lan, is a cool-season brassica grown for its thick, crunchy, juicy stems, broad blue-green leaves and small clusters of unopened flower buds, all of which are eaten. It has a robust, distinctly green flavour with a clean, slightly bitter, broccoli-like edge that is more leafy and assertive than ordinary broccoli. A staple of Cantonese cooking, it is most often blanched or steamed and dressed with oyster sauce, or quickly stir-fried with garlic and ginger, the stems split or sliced so they cook through at the same rate as the leaves.

Picking a good onedrag

Tight in bud, stems squeakyFlowering, yellow, limp

Shop crispThe all-rounder: steam, blanch or stir-fry hard and fast.Everyday best

Buds and leafBuds swollen and green, a little white at the tips

The stalkSnaps, but the break face is dry

Cut endCut face drying, a thin brown rim

Smell at the cutClean and green, almost nothing

What to look for, from tight in bud, stems squeaky to flowering, yellow, limp.

What one gives you

88%

Usable yield

Keeping ittap a band

A domestic fridge holds it about 5× longer than the counter.

Humidity

95-100%

Wrap it damp and bag it; in dry fridge air the blades wilt within a day and the thick stems go hollow and rubbery.

Airflow

Vented bag, not sealed

A perforated bag, not sealed: shut airtight the oxygen falls and the stems throw sulphurous off odours, and the cut ends go slimy.

Yellows beside ripening fruit

It makes almost none itself but reacts badly to it: ethylene from apples, pears and bananas yellows the buds and blades long before the stems give out.

Preparing