Chinese cabbage stir-fry with garlic
Written by Estelle & Alice for The Wok House
Chinese cabbage is more than 90% water. To keep it crunchy, the wok has to be very hot and the cooking short: two minutes for the stalks, one for the leaves. The garlic goes in twice. Half flavours the oil at the start, the other half goes in at the end, barely cooked, and that's the half you taste.
This stir-fry (suan rong bai cai, "garlic cabbage") is an everyday side in Chinese homes, served with a meat dish and a bowl of rice. The long cabbage with wide white stalks, sold here as Chinese leaf or napa cabbage, is in most supermarkets. A dash of black vinegar at the end brings it close to the sour cabbage of northern China (cu liu bai cai).
Stir-fried Chinese cabbage with garlic (suan rong bai cai)
Chinese cabbage seared for two minutes in the wok, stalks before leaves, with plenty of garlic, a touch of soy sauce and a dash of black vinegar.
For 3 or 4 people, use a 32cm wok: 800g cabbage fits, and it shrinks by half within a minute.
Ingredients
For the cabbage
For the sauce
Equipment
- 32cm wok
- Wooden or metal spatula
- Salad spinner
- 2 small bowls (sauce and cornflour)
Method
Prepare the cabbage
Remove any damaged leaves, cut the cabbage in half lengthways and cut out the core. Separate the white stalks from the green leaves: slice the stalks on the diagonal into 2cm strips and cut the leaves into 5cm pieces. Wash everything and spin it dry. Wet cabbage boils instead of frying.
Prepare the garlic and sauce
Chop the garlic and divide it into two piles. In a bowl, mix 1 tbsp soy sauce, the sugar and 1 tsp vinegar. In another, stir 1 tsp cornflour into 2 tbsp water.
Flavour the oil
Heat the wok over a high heat until it's lightly smoking. Add 2 tbsp oil, then the chillies and half the garlic, and stir for 15 seconds without letting the garlic brown.
Stir-fry the stalks
Add the cabbage stalks and stir-fry them for 2 minutes, until their edges turn translucent. They should stay crunchy in the middle.
Add the leaves
Add the leaves and pour the soy and vinegar mixture down the side of the wok. Stir-fry for 1 minute, until the leaves wilt.
Thicken and serve
Stir the cornflour mixture, as it sinks to the bottom of the bowl, and pour it into the juices at the bottom of the wok. Within 20 seconds, they thicken and coat the cabbage. Add the rest of the garlic and mix. Taste, add a pinch of salt if needed and serve straight away.
Wok tips
- Add salt at the end, never at the start: salt draws the water out of the cabbage, which then boils in the wok instead of searing.
- The stalks and leaves don't cook at the same speed. Throw them in together and you get mushy leaves and stalks that are still raw.
- On induction, a well-preheated flat-bottomed wok does the job. If the cooking zone is small, make the recipe in two goes rather than overloading the wok.
- This stir-fry takes less than five minutes and doesn't wait well. Start it last, when the rest of the meal is ready. In a carbon steel wok, the garlic doesn't stick if the patina is good: see how to season a wok.
Variations
- Pak choi: 800g, cut in half or into quarters lengthways, stalks and leaves together, stir-fried for 2 minutes in all.
- Hot and sour, cu liu bai cai style: 4 dried chillies, 1 tablespoon of black vinegar and 1 teaspoon of sugar.
- With mushrooms: 6 fresh shiitake, sliced, stir-fried for 1 minute in the oil before the stalks.
- Richer: 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce instead of the soy sauce. The dish is then no longer vegetarian.
Storage
Eat it straight away: reheated, it goes soft and releases its water. Leftovers keep for a day in the fridge, in a sealed container, and reheat in 1 minute in the wok over a high heat.
Frequently asked questions
Chinese cabbage, Chinese leaf or pak choi: what's the difference?
Chinese cabbage and Chinese leaf are the same vegetable: long, with pale green leaves and wide white stalks. Pak choi is smaller and grows in a bunch, with thick stalks and dark green leaves. Both are stir-fried the same way.
Why does my cabbage release water in the wok?
The wok wasn't hot enough, the cabbage was still wet, or it was salted too early. Spin it dry after washing, wait until the wok is smoking and only add salt at the end.
What goes with stir-fried Chinese cabbage?
A bowl of white rice and a more strongly flavoured meat, fish or tofu dish. In China, it's served alongside two or three other shared dishes.
Can you make it ahead?
Not the cooking: it goes soft as it cools. The prep, yes. Cut and dried, the cabbage keeps for a few hours in the fridge, wrapped in a clean tea towel.
