Thai pickled mustard greens (ผักกาดดอง / Pak Gad Dong / Phak Kat Dong) is a vital ingredient for Thai dishes like Khao Soi or Khao Ka Moo. It’s principally an oriental model of sauerkraut. I don’t care a lot for the store-bought vacuum packed model, and I appreciated it a lot better once I was in Thailand. The flavour there was extra ‘recent’. And so I made a decision to see if I might make it from scratch. It turned out that’s fairly straightforward; the toughest half is to supply the recent mustard greens. I discovered them on the Asian grocery store beneath the Chinese language identify Gai Choy. I used this recipe as the premise, with one enchancment. I actually appreciated the consequence; it was similar to what I bear in mind from Thailand. I present a parametric recipe, so you possibly can weigh the quantity of mustard greens after which alter the opposite elements accordingly. This recipe makes use of vinegar; I feel it also needs to be potential to permit the pure fermentation course of to make it bitter. That might take extra time.
Elements
- 900 grams (2 lbs) mustard greens, web weight with out the trunk [100%]
- 200 grams (1 cup) sticky rice [22%]
- 1500 grams (6 cups) water [167%]
- 150 grams salt [17%]
- 200 ml (1/2 cup + 1/3 cup) distilled vinegar [22%]
Directions
Mix the water with the sticky rice. Soak the rice within the water for not less than 15 to twenty minutes.
Within the meantime, separate the leaves of the mustard greens from the trunk, and discard the trunk. Weigh the leaves and calculate the opposite elements accordingly. I had 1458 grams of leaves, so I calculated 22% * 1458 = 324 grams of sticky rice and vinegar, 17% * 1458 = 247 grams of salt, and 167% * 1458 = 2434 grams (or mls) of water.
Separate the leaves into the robust stems (white half) and the gentle leaves (inexperienced half). Chop the stems extra finely than the leaves, because the leaves will shrink whenever you pickle them.
Wash the leaves nicely. In case you discover any sand after draining the water away, wash them once more, and repeat till there is no such thing as a extra sand. Drain the leaves.
Put the leaves in a container and sprinkle the salt on prime.
Therapeutic massage the salt into the leaves along with your fingers, till the leaves look wilted.
The recipe said to rub the leaves with salt and to dissolve the salt within the vinegar. It was not clear if the salt to rub the leaves with was to be taken from the full quantity of salt and dissolving the salt within the vinegar didn’t actually work. So this manner makes extra sense to me, and the quantity of salt within the consequence appeared appropriate to me.
Drain the rice, and reserve each the soaking water and the rice.
Put the mustard greens right into a container, and pour the vinegar on prime. Then add the water till the greens are barely lined. It’s best to make use of a slender sort of container just like the measuring jug that I used. Put the rice on a cheese material or previous (however clear) tea towel, make a bundle, and tie it shut with some twine or elastic band. Place this bundle on prime, to verify all the greens are submerged within the brine.
Enable the greens to pickle and ferment at room temperature for 2-3 days. The colour will change from vibrant inexperienced to yellowish. Style the leaves to find out if they’ve been pickled to your liking. Once they have, refrigerate them.
They are going to maintain for weeks in case you maintain them submerged within the brine, or drained and vacuum sealed.
