Thai pickled mustard greens (ผักกาดดอง / Pak Gad Dong / Phak Kat Dong) is a necessary 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 preferred 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 simple; the toughest half is to supply the recent mustard greens. I discovered them on the Asian grocery store underneath the Chinese language title Gai Choy. I used this recipe as the premise, with one enchancment. I actually preferred the end result; it was similar to what I keep in mind from Thailand. I present a parametric recipe, so you possibly can weigh the quantity of mustard greens after which modify the opposite substances accordingly. This recipe makes use of vinegar; I believe it also needs to be potential to permit the pure fermentation course of to make it bitter. That will take extra time.
Components
- 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 substances 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 powerful stems (white half) and the comfortable leaves (inexperienced half). Chop the stems extra finely than the leaves, because the leaves will shrink while you pickle them.
Wash the leaves nicely. Should you discover any sand after draining the water away, wash them once more, and repeat till there isn’t 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 entire 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 end result appeared right 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 coated. It’s best to make use of a slim kind of container just like the measuring jug that I used. Put the rice on a cheese fabric or outdated (however clear) tea towel, make a bundle, and tie it shut with some twine or elastic band. Place this bundle on prime, to verify the entire greens are submerged within the brine.
Permit the greens to pickle and ferment at room temperature for 2-3 days. The colour will change from brilliant 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 hold for weeks when you hold them submerged within the brine, or drained and vacuum sealed.
