Edible Asian Garden. Rosalind Creasy
is a New World plant that has been enjoyed for centuries in Asia, where the leaf type is preferred to the grain types. In parts of China, a variety with green and red leaves is popular; in India, cooks select the light green.
Most leaf amaranths grow to 18 inches and are best when the leaves are young and tender.
How to grow: Amaranth, a tropical annual, glories in warm weather. Start seedlings after all danger of frost has passed. Plant seeds ⅛ inch deep and 4 inches apart in full sun and rich, well-drained soil. Either grow the plants as a cut-and-come-again crop, harvested when only a few inches tall (see “The Pleasures of a Stir-fry Garden” for information on page 11) or thin the plants to 1 foot apart and grow full-sized plants. Keep amaranth fairly moist. Generally, amaranth grows with great enthusiasm. Cucumber beetles are occasionally a problem.
Harvest by hand, selecting the young, tender leaves and shoots. If growing as a cut-and-come-again crop, harvest with scissors as needed.
Varieties
Green Leaf Amaranth: 50 days; pointed, oval, dark green leaves; popular in subtropical areas
‘Merah’: 80 days; crinkled green and red leaves
‘Puteh’: 80 days, mild, light green leaves
White Leaf Amaranth: light green leaves; dwarf plants popular in Taiwan and Japan
How to prepare: Amaranth should be cooked only briefly, as it gets mushy. Popular ways to cook it are by stir-frying or adding it to soup made with pork and garlic. According to chef Ken Hom, “Westerners usually cut the stems off, but most Chinese love the texture, even though the stems are kind of stringy.” He likes amaranth simply stir-fried and flavored with fermented bean curd (also known as tempeh).
BAMBOO
Bambusa spp. (clumping bamboo) and Phyllostachys spp. (running bamboo)
Chinese: mo sun (spring shoots), jook sun (summer shoots), doeng sun (winter shoots); Japanese: takenoko; Indonesian: rebung; Malaysian: rebung; Tagalog: labong; Thai: normal; Vietnamese: mang
Grove of giant bamboo (below left), and narrow bamboo shoots, ready for harvest (below right)
Bamboo is one of the most useful and beloved plants in Asia. The young shoots are cooked and included in many dishes. The familiar canned product is tinny tasting and flaccid when compared to fresh shoots.
For the gardener, there are two types of bamboo: clumping and running. Running bamboo does run-it can even come up through asphalt. See the following growing instructions for how to contain running bamboo. The clumping type stays confined, sending up only basal stems.
How to grow: Bamboos are perennial grasses. Most are semihardy, but a few are hardy in the 0°F range. All species prefer well-drained, rich loam with a high organic content. In hot-summer areas, bamboo needs some shade, in cool coastal areas, full sun. During the first few years, fertilize with a balanced organic fertilizer in spring and midsummer. Thereafter, the dropped leaves and a yearly application usually suffice. Most bamboos are drought tolerant but produce the tenderest shoots when watered well. Newly established plants must not be allowed to dry out. To protect new shoots in winter, mulch well or, if bamboo is in a container, bring it into a well-lit room. Check occasionally, as bamboo litter sometimes prevents water from penetrating the root area during rain. Thin out three-year-old canes and use them for trellises, staking, and fencing. Bamboo has no major pests or diseases. To prevent bamboo itself from becoming a pest, make sure the roots of the running types are contained within a concrete or metal barrier at least 2 feet deep, or plant it in containers.
New shoots of the clumping bamboos usually appear in summer or fall, the running types in spring. Harvest the large shoots just as they emerge by freeing them from soil and, with a sturdy, sharp knife, cut off the top 6 to 8 inches. (If you make 6-inch mounds of soil around the base of the plant before the shoots emerge, they will be easier to harvest and the shoots will be longer.) The more slender species, generally referred to as summer bamboos, produce shoots 1-2 inches wide. These can be allowed to grow to a height of 12 inches before being harvested at ground level. In all cases, do not harvest all the shoots; the plants need to renew themselves.
Giant bamboo shoots, peeled (above), and how to cut the small-diameter shoots (below)
Varieties
In this case, the term varieties refers to the species described in the following list. All bamboos produce shoots; a few specially recommended ones are listed below.
Upper Bank Nurseries and Bamboo Sourcery offer many types, including some of the species recommended below. Bamboos are often available locally as well.
Bambusa beecheyana (Beecheyana Bamboo): clumping type; 15 feet tall; stems 4 inches wide; hardy to USDA Zone 9; graceful form
Bambusa glaucescens (Hedge Bamboo): clumping type; 20 feet tall; 1½ inches wide; hardy to USDA Zone 8
Phyllostachys aurea (Golden Bamboo): running type; 15 feet tall; stems 2 inches wide; hardy to USDA Zone 7
P. dulce (Sweet Shoot): running type; 30 feet tall; stems 2½ inches wide; hardy to USDA Zone 8; considered the sweetest shoots
P. nuda: running type; 35 feet tall; stems 1½ inches wide; hardy to USDA Zone 5, among the hardiest types
P. heterocycla pubescens (P. edulis) (Moso): running type; 50 feet tall; stems 6 inches wide; hardy to USDA Zone 7
How to prepare: For the large, thick bamboo shoots, cut a ring around the outside of the bottom of the shoot with a knife and peel the first outer layer to expose the white flesh; repeat this procedure for a dozen or so layers until all the brown leaves are removed and the shoot is white. Then, as you would with asparagus, if the base is tough, remove that as well. Cut the shoot in very thin slices.
The small-diameter shoots must also be peeled; in this case, remove the outer layer between each joint, one joint at a time. Slice the shoots in rings and discard the woody joints.
If the shoots are sweet (which is the exception), they can be eaten raw in salads. However, most shoots are fairly tough and have a bitter taste that must be removed by parboiling for 20 minutes. Change the water after the first 10 minutes and drain the shoots when you are done parboiling. Taste the shoots and, if they are still bitter, repeat the process. After parboiling, the slices can be used in any recipe calling for bamboo shoots or frozen in plastic freezer bags.
To serve immediately, cook until tender. The most popular use of bam boo is in stir-fried dishes. Bamboo shoots are most popular in northern China, where they are used in soups, stews, dumplings, noodle and meat dishes, meat and vegetable stir-fries, and, often, with mushrooms or pickled mustard (see recipe, page 65). For example, bamboo is used in gai lon with barbecued pork (see recipe, page 72), spring rolls with Chinese chives and shredded pork, and Thai beef with bamboo shoots. In Japan, fresh bamboo shoots are occasionally grilled on skewers and glazed with soy sauce or miso, or used in braised vegetable dishes. Of course, they can be used in any recipe calling for canned shoots.
BASILS
THAI BASIL
Ocimum basilicum
Thai: bai horapa; Vietnamese: rau que
LEMON BASIL
O. citriodorum
Thai: bai manglak
HOLY BASIL
O. sanctum
Hindi: tulsi; Thai: bai gaprow