What’s up everyone? Today, Chef Daddy Lau is going to teach us How to cook Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce. Also known as “gaai láan” in Cantonese, This is a super easy recipe that I ate almost Every single week growing up. Even for a “simple” dinner, my dad would have At least 3 or 4 courses, and gailan was always In the rotation as his go-to vegetable dish. Not only is my dad a master flautist playing this song right now He’s cooked gailan literally over 100,000 times Over his 50 years as a chef So stay tuned for his recipe and all of his secrets Also, during Meal Time, my parents answered a bunch Of your questions on how to buy fresh gailan, How to store it, and how to achieve the perfect soft, crunchy bite. If you're looking for a written version of this recipe Check out our blog post at madewithlau.com Where you'll find an adjustable list of ingredients And step-by-step videos to guide you as you make the recipe at home Hope you guys enjoy! I hope all of our friends are well! Today, I’ll be teaching you how to make Beautiful Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce It’s really easy! First, let’s set our wok down and add water and oil If you wanted to save time and have a water kettle, You can start boiling water For 1 lb of gai lan, we’ll need to bring about 6-7 cups of water to a boil Set the stove to high heat and start heating the wok as well Here we go Woo! For the water, it’s okay if we have more water than we need The more water, the faster the gai lan will cook We don’t want the vegetables to be Sitting in the boiling water for too long See how much gai lan you have If you have more, then add more water Here, we have 1 pound of Chinese broccoli We’ll use about 6-7 cups of water Next, well add 1 tbsp olive oil We'll add 1 tsp of salt Now we've added the salt and oil For the Chinese broccoli, we definitely have to wash it first, right? Then we can start cooking it If the gai lan has a thicker stock We can cut it down the middle of the stem Then it will cook faster There are some pieces that are thicker, some thinner This helps make sure that they cook evenly all at the same time It's really easy Now, we'll place the gai lan in the wok Once we place it in the wok, we'll cover it We can add more water to the wok To make sure the vegetables are submerged This will help the vegetables cook faster as well Submerge them in water We're at the highest heat on our stove Cover the wok Once it's boiling, if you like it crunchier You can stop cooking after 2-3 minutes If you prefer it softer, continue cooking for another 1-2 minutes It's up to you - this is very simple For the 2-3 minutes, do you start timing when it starts boiling? Only start timing once the water starts boiling This way, when the gai lan are done cooking The vegetables will be very fresh, very green, very crunchy The way restaurants get their gai lan so green and pure Is that they add oil and salt first They also use bigger woks with more water So it cooks much faster It doesn’t have to sit in the boiling water as long And it retains more nutrition, understand? If you cook it for longer, more chlorophyll will leak out into the water So that's why we use more water, so it cooks faster If you start cooking with cold water is it not as ideal? If you submerge the Chinese broccoli in cold water It won't taste as good When the vegetables are done, they'll turn yellow The water has to be boiling before you add the vegetables At a restaurant, the vegetables would already be ready The woks are much bigger, with more water See, it's starting to boil We'll flip it over See, the vegetables are green We'll just cook them for a bit and they should be ready These small ones are already fully cooked We'll need to cook the bigger ones for longer It shouldn't take long The gai lan should be cooked enough now You can see if it's ready by breaking a piece off and trying it That's good, just perfect It's very crunchy and sweet If you want it to be softer, then you can cook it 1-2 minutes longer Great, let's transfer this to a plate Great, our Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce is cooked Using scissors, we'll cut the stems twice, maybe 3 times That way, it's easier to eat, right? Watch. Let's cut it There, beautiful right? Usually, restaurants will cook it in oil again before serving For us at home, we don’t have to do this We’ll just add 1 tbsp olive oil We don’t have to add a lot, since we already boiled it with some oil We’ll also use 1 tbsp of oyster sauce Let’s add a little bit more If you like it more savory, then you can add more Great, now we're done with our gailan with oyster sauce If you have dietary restrictions, vegetarian mushroom oyster sauce Is a great alternative to the standard oyster sauce, Which is made with oyster extract. There’s also a brand called Wok Mei That makes a gluten-free oyster sauce, But it still contains oyster extract. We’ve included links to buy both sauces In our description and on our blog. I have another tip You can cook broccoli in the same exact way You can cook most vegetables with the same method With this method, the vegetables will come out very green The resulting dish will be very tasty Right? Just like Chinese Broccoli, we’ll be boiling our broccoli In salt and olive oil for 2-3 minutes It’s pretty impressive that my dad wasn’t using a timer here Since this batch of broccoli took exactly 2 minutes and 58 seconds to cook We cooked this broccoli in the same way We already had oil and salt in the water Didn't the broccoli turn out very fresh and green Great, we're done now Let's add a bit of oyster sauce Our gai lan with oyster sauce is done! Let's eat! Hong Doy! Hong Doy and Yeh Yeh time! Here, grab the chopsticks and eat! Oooh! Wow! Cheers! Oh yeah! Yum! So we eat this dish at least 3 times a week on average We never get tired of eating this! So we're going to try something different today We have a bunch of questions from the internet Because we told people that we're making gai lan First question is: "How do you pick good gailan from the grocery stores?" At the market, it’s hard to pick since they come in bags Let me tell you - look at the stem. This is fresh. If the stem is a darker, deeper color, then it's not fresh What about the leaves? The leaves should look green If they're not fresh, the leaves will be yellow Usually, we can keep them for 3-4 days and it will still be good I also wanted to know, how do you keep it fresh? Your whole fridge always has really fresh veggies Sometimes ours go bad So how do you keep yours so fresh? When you buy it, make sure you dry it When you place it in a bag, wrap the gailan in a paper towel The paper absorbs the moisture And keeps the vegetables dry - that’s the trick. If the vegetables are wet, then the leaves will break down faster The people who work at the market They want to make the gai lan look good So they spray water Spread them out, and once they're dry, you can place them in a bag Let me explain in English After we get the gailan from the market Almost every time - This works for almost every vegetable Let me talk first - don't interrupt me (Laughs) After we get the gailan from the market We use a tray, put paper under it, separate each gai lan See this is very wet, right? This is when you first get home? Yes The other vegetables - we do the same thing It maybe takes about 3-4 hours Can you leave it out too long? Like what if you leave it out for 6 hours, is that bad? No, not too long So people that work, they could do it in the morning And they can come back after work and put it away? Uhhh, that might be too long Okay, okay (laughs) We usually only dry for 4-5 hours Like some of the stores, they put the Chinese broccoli Not able to sell it for many days That is already old, but we don't know If you can easily break the gai lan (Snap) Very easy to bend You want to hear that, *snap*? That is good? That is good, mmhmm Oh, very easy to break, that's good That's good. If it's not easy to break, then it's too old Ohhh, okay It's more rubbery-like? And sometimes, the flower See? There’s a flower here If this flower is all green, that’s good Oh really? If it's yellow, or open - not that good Okay, okay - good to know! Wow! So when we get this from the market - When we come home, this gailan is very wet We wrap it like this, then we put it in a plastic bag Do you use a rubber band? Just like this - loose Not too tight, just loose So this is a plastic bag right? We put it inside (Laughs) Like this So for the bag, do you have to close it? Or leave it open? We close it Open it a little bit, like this A few holes All of the vegetables are just like us - they breathe The paper towels absorb the moisture We don't want the moisture and wetness to stay inside So we open it a little bit You can see, sometimes you buy oranges right? Apples? You can see a lot of holes in the plastic bag Do you know why? Because it lets the moisture come out You said though for fruits, you don’t need to do the paper towel, right? For blueberries, strawberries If you use a paper towel it’s better Is it? Okay - that’s why at the bottom of the strawberries They have that little thing that gets the moisture, right? We do almost everything with a paper towel If we want to keep it for a week Do you ever change out the paper towel and do new ones? Yes When do you do that? You eat, son If we feel that the inside of the bag is too moist and too wet Two days? Everyday? Maybe every 3-4 days A few people asked, "How do you keep the stems soft,” “The leaves not soggy, still crunchy, but not hard?” We're talking about Chinese broccoli, right? Is this dish tasty? Yeah It's good right? (Laughs) Okay, you just saw me make it (Laughs) Okay, just watch the video You should use more water in the wok Add the oil and salt Make sure the water is boiling before adding the vegetables Once the water is boiling, (add the vegetables) cook for 1-2 minutes Why do you use oil and salt? The oil and salt helps keep the vegetables stay green If you don't use salt and oil, the vegetables will be more faded and dull The oil is like putting makeup on your face (Laughs) The oil is just like makeup It looks very shiny, very beautiful Regular broccoli is the cooked same way It’s crunchy right? The same way Bok choy too - we add oil and salt And the bok choy will turn out very beautiful Without oil and salt, the vegetables will be more dull It’s like you skipped putting on makeup Every time you guys make gai lan Do you make soup afterwards with the water? It’s best not to If you wanted to there’s no harm, But the soup doesn’t taste as good or the same as bok choy soup The soup has a more rough flavor Usually people don’t drink gai lan There’s really no harm in drinking it - it’s just vegetable soup It will still have health benefits The issue is that it doesn’t taste as good A few people had asked about - You know how in the restaurants, It’s more of like a ginger essence, or a garlic essence? How do you get that restaurant taste? You're talking about stir-frying Chinese broccoli, right? Let me tell you - if you're stir-frying gai lan Usually you’ll add ginger and garlic When you stir fry gai lan, the most important ingredients are Ginger, garlic, cooking wine, sugar These four items. If you're stir-frying, these 4 items are key We cooked this gai lan differently For stir-frying gai lan, we'd cook the garlic and ginger in oil until fragrant Then we’d start cooking the gai lan Which one do you like better? I like both But if you're stir-frying gai lan You still have to boil it this way first How long do you boil it? Right when it boils you can take it out So you don’t have to leave it boiling for 1-2 minutes? No, you take it out right away 1-2 minutes is too long For these ones you’re boiling it Do you ever steam it like broccoli? I never do it Can you? You definitely can, if you like to cook it that way you can Let me tell you - if you’re steaming it You can add garlic and ginger on top before you steam it Then afterwards you can add oyster sauce, soy sauce In Daddy’s opinion does the taste come out better when boiling vs steaming it? It depends on the person’s taste Some people like this way Some people like stir-frying, since it’s more flavorful. After stir-frying, there’s some wok hei Some people prefer that taste There’s ginger, garlic, cooking wine in the stir fry - it’s more flavorful This way has more a light taste, a more authentic taste All of the flavor comes from the gai lan Stir frying and boiling yield different tastes A lot of people like this way, a lot of people prefer stir-fried Steaming - I haven't seen anyone do that For regular broccoli, people steam that I think the difference is, after you boil the gai lan, Some of the gai lan flavor is squeezed into the water So we lose some of the taste from the gai lan But if you stir-fry it, the gai lan stays In the boiling water step for a short amount of time So the flavor inside the gai lan remains intact And the stir-fried gai lan taste is stronger than that of the boiled gai lan You understand what I mean? Mmmhmm This one was boiled I like the boiled (Laughs) I think like the boiled too I think the taste is there, but it’s not as intense I think when you stir-fry it’s too much for me That’s what my dad was saying - Yeah This way is more light, pure This way is healthier I don’t have to stir-fry it, I just use olive oil You know what I think too? When it’s boiled, I’ll eat more because it’s tastier When it's stir-fried, I'll eat one piece and then be done Because it's so vegetable-like Yeah, yeah. Like Daddy said, this is more of a light taste. But if you pan fry, even steam Almost 100% of the flavor is still inside of the vegetable It’s a little different taste It all depends on what you want - I like boiled Yeah, me too Can you grow gai lan in your backyard? No, I’ve never grown it It’s so easy to buy it in the market Yeah, but you could say the same thing about oranges For this, once I harvest it, it’s gone When we grow other crops, it will grow back Ohhh, I see In China, did you eat Chinese broccoli? Did I grow it? Did you eat it? Of course! It's called Chinese broccoli! It's very popular It's a major, common vegetable High potassium, high fiber Iron? Good taste, I think iron too Did you have it in your village? Or did you have to buy it? No, we grew bok choy It's easier - when you cut it, it grows back Thank you for your questions! Thank you for teaching us Cam! It was a great class! Cam will learn how to make gai lan For yourself when you go to school! Hi friends! It’s nice to talk to our friends again! Hopefully all of our friends like our video, Share our video, subscribe to our channel Thank you so much for your support! And thank you so much for your valuable time!
