In French, we often say “c’est du chinois” (it’s Chinese) when it comes to describing something hard to understand. It’s indeed for only an enlightened circle to correctly hear “ma” which means, with different tones, at least mother, numb, horse and scold. Naming Chinese leaf vegetables also merits the French idiom. Because there are so many greens in any Chinatown supermarket, and they don’t look like our salads. A notable confusion comes from Chinese cabbage and Chinese cabbage – the same name which refers to two different cultivars. Each of them has a distinct taste and texture. Distinguishing one from the other, however, is actually a piece of cake.
One is large, cylindrically compact with tightly wrapped pale green leaves. This one is commonly called napa cabbage (from its Japanese name), the principal ingredient of Korean kimchi.
Napa cabbage, photo by A. Milne sur Unsplash
The other has darker green leaves from jade-white stalks. It is given a western name pak choi, mimicking the Cantonese pronunciation. Its loosely packed and slightly curved leaves give it a willowy shape, resembling chard - a Mediterranean vegetable.
Pak choi, photo by Jasmine Waheed sur Unsplash
The first time I saw chard in a market in France near Bordeaux, I even thought it was a giant pak choi. If China has a longer version of green beans which humorously is called kilometre beans by the French, why not France have a kilogram version of pak choi? It turns out that I was comparing apples and pears. Pak choi belongs to the family of mustard while chard has a close relative that is beetroot.
Chard, photo by Jacqueline Macou sur Pixabay
Nevertheless, in the kitchen or on the table, chard and pak choi are like green beans and kilometre beans. They have very similar culinary properties, both healthy and especially easy to cook. A piece of cake.
Pak choi is such a popular green in southern China where I grew up eating it. My mum cooked it in a wok and slightly stirred it with garlic and oil. It was simple but the result was tender and sweet especially with baby pak choi.
She also made dumpling or wonton fillings with it. Finely chopped pak choi was strained to avoid a too watery interior and then mixed with minced shitake and pork. I always liked the lighter texture and fresher taste compared with pure pork fillings.
Photo by Eva Bronzini on Pexels
Another of my mum’s go to dishes was a soup of pak choi with tomatoes and eggs. No matter how much time we have, Chinese families always arrange to prepare the same number of dishes as the people at the table plus one soup. You got it, if there are three to eat, a decent meal would be three dishes and one soup. This pak choi soup is a piece of cake that makes it a natural candidate for the rotating soup arrangement. Once slices of tomato were sufficiently cooked (when their pulp started to give some thickness to the water), she added in pak choi leaves, from the bigger ones to smaller ones (the smaller the more tender and easier to cook), then stewed it for a very few minutes. After twisting it with some salt and soy sauce, the soup was almost done. She turned the fire off, slowly and gently dropped in beaten eggs in a circular motion until the eggs congealed and formed silky yellow ribbons. The last step was sprinkling over some chopped scallion and drops of sesame oil. A tasty and colourful soup was ready!
Chard is like pak choi. Versatile, it can be cooked almost the same way. Once the fibres are removed (as we would strip the fibres off the surface of a rhubarb, a distant cousin of the family), cooking the leaves requires only a few minutes in a small amount of water or steamed or pan-fried. The stems would need slightly longer time just like pak choi. Gratin is a traditional western comforting dish with chard. The softness of the vegetable goes well with the creaminess of the egg and milk mixture. The grilled grated cheese topping adds texture but also enhances the milky taste.
Rainbow chard, photo by Heather Barnes sur Unsplash
Sautéed chard, somehow à la Chinese, offers a warm alternative to a conventional green salad. You just need to first pan-fry the stems, then add in leaves, and finally braise it a little with a small amount of water before seasoning it.
Being a typical Mediterranean green, chard is also a principal ingredient to some southern France recipes. The “troucha” of Nice is one of them. It’s an omelette with strained chopped leaves of chard (otherwise it will be too watery as in my mum’s fillings), diced bacon and grated parmesan. Although not a sophisticated recipe, it proves simple things can be delicious, just like pak choi.
However, their easiness or even rustic style is by no means an obstacle to an elegant food presentation. Chard has multi-coloured stalks from white to yellow and to red. Rainbow chard can cheer up your plate. Pak choi, smaller but pictorial, can naturally be the plating foundation. I often use one or two leaves quickly poached in boiled water, then delicately compose the plate with grilled scallops and deglazed sauce. It always has a wow factor, but - trust me - it really is a piece of cake.
For your dinner conversation
Chard belongs to the beta vulgaris species, so does beetroot. They are part of the large family amaranthaceae. Spinach, quinoa and salicornia are members of the family. Due to their close link, chard is also called silver beet, perpetual spinach, beet spinach, seakale beet, or leaf beet.
Pak choi belongs to the brassica rapa species, so does napa cabbage and turnip. They are part of the large family brassicaceae, including other cruciferous vegetables such as kale, broccoli, canola, and wasabi.
And to add some salt to it
Chard is a Mediterranean vegetable as said before. Well known by the ancient Greeks, chard’s origin can be traced back to Sicily, as a wild version of beet. But it also has a “neutral” name - Swiss chard - which is probably its most common name. It has however not so much to do with Switzerland, being rather meridional. The Helvetian hat would have been given to chard to differentiate from French spinach varieties in the 19th century.
Chard was introduced in China around the 5th century. Having too many green peers, the plant still has a very little place in the Chinese diet. It is however well-known to feed domestic animals, hence the name 猪婆菜 (the vegetable of pig farmer) given in the countries in Southern China.
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