Name: Hou Jau Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce)
Total time: 35 min
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 1 pound gai lan; 1 tablespoon table salt; 2 tablespoons oyster sauce; 2 tablespoons vegetable oil; 2 garlic cloves , sliced thin

Why This Recipe Works

One of the most beloved Chinese leafy greens, gai lan (also known as Chinese broccoli or Chinese flowering kale) is a cool-weather brassica that features juicy, sweet, crisp-crunchy stalks and broad, sturdy leaves. When it’s prepared for Cantonese dim sum in a dish called hou yau gai lan, cooks briefly boil the stalks whole and season them with oyster sauce and perhaps garlic. The hot-water plunge perfects the vegetable: It softens the raw edge of the stems (thicker ones are halved lengthwise so they cook faster) as well as the leaves, turning them silky like well-cooked collard greens. After thoroughly draining and drying the greens, we cut them into 2-inch lengths that were easy to eat, drizzled them with oyster sauce (thinned with a little cooking water until it was pourable), and finished the platter with superaromatic sizzling garlic oil.

Before You Begin

Gai lan is available in Asian markets and some large supermarket chains. It should have deep green, intact leaves. Our favorite oyster sauce is Lee Kum Kee Premium Oyster Sauce but Lee Kum Kee Vegan Oyster Flavored Sauce is also a good choice.

Instructions

Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot. Trim stalks of 1 pound gai lan. Cut any stalks measuring more than ¾ inch in diameter in half lengthwise, starting below where leaves begin and keeping leaves intact and attached.

Add gai lan and 1 tablespoon table salt to boiling water and cook until stalks are crisp-tender, 2 to 3 minutes. While gai lan is cooking, stir 1 tablespoon cooking water into 2 tablespoons oyster sauce to loosen and line cutting board with paper towels.

Using tongs, grasp gai lan by stalks and hold over pot to drain briefly; transfer to paper towels.

Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in 8-inch skillet until just smoking. While oil is heating, arrange gai lan so stems run in same direction on warm serving platter. Cut crosswise into 2-inch lengths. Drizzle with oyster sauce mixture. Off heat stir 2 thinly sliced garlic cloves into smoking oil. Drizzle oil mixture over gai lan (oil will crackle). Serve.