gai lum potatoes- Frugal Friday

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Thanks to the lovely BM@ Living a Little Greener, a little book now sits by my table. Food Rules by Michael Pollan. A handy little book that is full of wise advise like,

41# Eat more like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks– People who eat according to the rules of a traditional food culture are generally healthier than those of us eating a modern Western diet of processed foods. 

With that in mind, I’m not quite sure which food culture this Frugal Friday dish is trying to harness. Olive oil in a wok with gai lum? Chinese or Italian? Would both cultures be quietly drawing in their breath and shaking their heads?

Possibly. Either way though, I still say it’s easy, it’s healthy and I was making good use of that fantastic mixed bag of potatoes and soul filling local olive oil I had got on the weekend. I didn’t want to cook the potatoes in any old fashion as I didn’t want to lose any of the flavours. So I cut them into long quarters, and dinner was quickly made up.

Gai lum Potatoes

In my trusty flat bottomed wok, (or pot)

a generous couple of slurps olive oil

added 2 stems of spring garlic

an assortment of rocking potatoes cut length ways

Cook until lightly golden on one side. Whack a lid on to steam a little.

Add chopped gai lum (chinese broccoli) or other seasonal greenery,

add lid again for a little steaming

season and drizzle with olive oil.

*****

This dish might seem too simple, but it worked because everything was super fresh, cooked fairly quickly, and the flavours of what was in there easily held their own. An easy, healthy Frugal Friday dish that had Mr Chocolate  fast becoming Mr GaiLumPotatoes.

Food Rules 14# Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in their raw state or growing in nature.

16 thoughts on “gai lum potatoes- Frugal Friday”

  1. Ahh, another semantics exercise – apparently, what you guys call Gai Lum is known hereabouts as Gai Lan. I love it as a garden member since it gives you several pickings as a ‘cut and come again’ veggie. But I’ve learned that if you don’t pick it fast, it will get very tough – so I keep mine well picked and never let the flowers bloom.

    I bet those veggies came from your recent farmer’s market adventure.

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    • I did appreciate that. Got me all nostalgic for our Aussie food, before I remembered that I can go out any get any of that food any day of the week 🙂 Did you get to try any of those goodies last time you were in Australia?

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  6. Those rules… All so sensible. I must say the potatoes look delish – they may be ‘fusion’, but let’s face it, that’s about as genuinely Aussie as you get.

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  7. I was wondering what you would be doing with your array of spuds that you bought – what a lovely easy and tasty dish. I love meals that have few ingredients that produce such great results.
    🙂 Mandy

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