Should you find yourself with an abundance of greens (mustard, turnip, radish, napa cabbage, bok choy, broccoli greens) and wish for an easy way to preserve them, here's a nifty option:
megancai.
Here's a basic rundown of the process. It is most definitely not regimented - the whole thing is flexible.
Harvest whole plants and thoroughly was the leaves. Make sure you wash out any dirt that gathered near the stem.
Hang the plants upside down, outside and in the sun. Perhaps indoors, in front of a sunny window would work too.
Depending on your ambient humidity, dry the plants for a day or two or three, until they lose a great part of their moisture. I hung mine on a coincidentally windy set of days and while the edges of some of the leaves got rather crisp, the limp stems still had some moisture.
Cut off the "gathered" end of the plant so that the leaves are loose. Grab a handful, place them in a mixing bowl and sprinkle some kosher or pickling salt on them (about 1-2 teaspoons or so).
Roll and crush the leaves with and into the salt - basically you're massaging the salt into them and as you work the leaves, the cells will breakdown, the salt will enter and liquid will seep out. You'll be amazed to see that a formerly shriveled and dry leaf of greens now looks juicy and dark with moisture. You should be able to squeeze some juice from each handful of leaves/stems and you may not use up all the salt.
Knead each handful well, adding more salt when there isn't any more to rub into the greens as you add handfuls into the bowl. After each handful has been rubbed and rolled and kneaded well, set it aside.
When all the greens have been thus prepared, sprinkle a bit more salt on them for good measure, then pack them tightly into a pickling crock if you've got one. You could probably also use a canning jar. The batch I put into a canning jar molded, but that was probably due to not using enough salt more than the jar as a factor. The fermentation-crock batch did just fine. (You can also use a rubber stopper and a fermentation lock on a canning jar to keep air and organisms out. This isn't a particularly wet ferment so it's not possible to squeeze until the veggies are covered with brine).
Allow to ferment (without opening) for three weeks.
Remove the greens, set them on a drying rack and put them out in the sun for a day.
Bring them in and steam in a steamer (ideally a multi-level steamer so you can do them all at once) for fifteen minutes. Turn off the heat and let sit for about three hours (or overnight if that's how it works out). Then, remove them from the steamer, put them back on the drying rack and let them sit in the sun another day then steam them again the same way.
Complete this process a total of three times.
They will turn reddish and develop a deep and complex aroma.
By the last steaming/sitting step, they'll be dark and pungent. They're storable at room temperature and can be stored a year or more (or so I've heard, I suppose you'll be smart enough to NOT eat any if you find mold is growing on them at that point).
Add them to stir fries - they're salty, so start slowly.
Meigancai is great with tofu and with meat. It's traditionally an ingredient in braised pork dishes, but we've even put it in fried rice - it does need to be allowed to expand, so whatever you cook it with should have some liquid at some point in the cooking process, so I cook it with the veggies that'll go into the fried rice.
Nutritionally, this isn't going to be a main vegetable - it's too salty for that... and the steaming will have halted the fermentation process, so you won't be getting all the good bacteria. Still, it's a good way to preserve a harvest and expand the flavor options for dishes that you might be growing tired of. It might be good with beans or lentils (I've not tried it, but ?).
Oh, and if you decide the drying and steaming are too much effort, you can stop after the fermenting and end up with
xuecai, which has its own salty/sour flavor and that can be added to a variety of savory dishes as well.
The main takeaway here is that these are versatile vegetables and they're really forgiving of experimentation even if you don't end up with these traditional Chinese preserves.
Here are some links to recipes and writing on
meigancai:
Salted Fish/Mei Cai Steamed Meat (咸鱼/梅菜蒸肉饼） - Guai Shu Shu (guaishushu1.com)
What to Eat in China: A Traveler's Guide | Serious Eats
Mei Cai Kou Rou (Steamed Pork Belly w/ Preserved Mustard Greens) | The Woks of Life![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
