TRC Recipe: Steamed Kailaan in Oyster Sauce

I am an advocate of  'Grow Your Own Food' initiative. I am a farmer by heart, grew up in small urban farm, married to a farmer, currently live in a farm (ok, fine, leisure farm), own a farm (a real one this time!), and probably will be a farmer soon. :)

Some of the vegetables we grow in our garden include flat-leaf parsley (see my previous post here), upo, ampalaya, green tea, tomato, lettuce, sitao, and this:

Kailan or Kailaan

It's called Chinese Kailan or Kailaan. I loved this being served steamed with oyster sauce in restaurants in Singapore. Unfortunately, it's not easily available here in the Philippines but I was lucky enough the seeds are!

A closer look at Kailaan

I have been planting the kailaan seeds for two years now and I eat it steamed when I go on a diet as it is filling, fibrous, and yummy too! They grow very easily and you have to harvest the leaves very quickly too as they also mature easily. When this happens, leaves turn hard.

So if you have some spare space to grow kailaan, the seeds are available in supermarkets or agri-supply stores. The brand I use is Ramgo.

And if you have successfully planted and harvested them, try my recipe below:

Steamed Kailaan in Oyster Sauce

• A few leaves of kailaan
• chopped garlic
• Oyster sauce about 1 Tablespoon
• A little oil (best if olive oil)
• water

Procedure

• Heat the pan in low fire
• Put oil and heat a little
• Toss in garlic, let it brown a bit
• Put in oyster sauce and add a little water just to dilute the oyster sauce
• Let it boil
• Add kailaan and stir on one side after a few minutes
• Serve hot