A small Japanese Veggie dish, 菜の花 (Nanohana)

I love the simplicity of Japanese cuisine. Here I want to introduce a very simple Japanese home style vegetable dish. Yu-choy, which is called Nanohana (菜の花) in Japan and Yu-chae (유채) in Korea, looks and tastes very similar to Chinese broccoli... but has more flat leaves and thinner stem, and a milder flavor.

Its bitter and spicy flavor goes well with mustard soy sauce seasoning. Please serve this veggie dish as a side dish with fish or meat. Or, you can serve this as one of side dishes with a bowl of rice... in Asian style. :)

A small Japanese Veggie dish, 菜の花 (Nanohana)
(Yield: 4 servings / Cooking time: 15 minutes)

Ingredients:
+ a small bunch (170g) of Yu-Choy (菜の花, Nanohana)
+ 1 tsp mustard*
+ 1/2 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
+ salt

* I used Japanese mustard, which is slightly spicier than Dijon mustard.

Procedures:
1. Boil a pot of water and season with enough salt. While waiting for the water to boil, prepare a pot of ice water.

2. Trim and clean Yu-choy in cold running water. Dip the stem part of Yu-choy first in the hot boiling water for about five seconds, and then blanch Yu-choy for about 10-15 seconds until the stem part softens.


3. Shock the blanched Yu-choy in ice water to stop the cooking process. When blanched Yu-choy has completely cooled down, lightly squeeze it with your palms.


4. Mix mustard and low-sodium soy sauce in a bowl where you can add blanched yu-choy.


5. Slice Yu-choy to 2"(~5cm) length, and dump in the bowl in step #4. Lightly mix the yu-choy and mustard-soy seasoning with your hands just until the greens are coated well with the seasoning. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt if needed. Garnish with yu-choy flower for decoration!

Enjoy~