Mum suddenly decided that she wanted to make some salted vegetables using local mustard (芥菜). She prefers the home-made some and always claimed that the commercially-prepared ones are slightly too sour for her liking. It has been a while since we last made some at home. So I got some local mustard from a shop that specifically stated that the vegetables are from their own farms that do not use pesticide.
For this batch, we did not want to make too much - just two big stalk of the mustard.
First wash each blade of the mustard and shake off the excess water; then lay the mustard out onto a bamboo tray to dry off the surface water in the sun. Make sure not to dry the actual mustard!
Slice the mustard into thin strips ...
Place the sliced mustard into a large mixing bowl.
Add half a tablespoon of fine salt and mix well, crushing the mustard with the hand. Taste the mustard, if under-salted, add a bit more salt.
The salted mustard is ready for bottling.
It can be eaten wihtin 24 hours.
How does one eat this salted mustard?
Well, like this ... take some of the salted mustard, add crushed dried shrimps, sliced chilli and rice vinegar.
For something more substantial - fry the salted mustard with sliced belly pork (or chicken), crushed garlic, ginger strips and sliced chillis. Add dark soya sauce for flavour. You can add a bit of sugar if you want but but I do not use sugar in most of my cooking. Please note that it is advisable to wash the salted mustard with water first before cooking. This is to reduce the salt content.
It is a great dish to go with rice!
This salted mustard is easy to make and great to eat. Try making some yourselves!
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