While visiting Charlbury’s Farmers’ Market I found myself filling my shopping bag with Swiss chard, Cavolo Nero, which is the strong flavoured Italian cabbage, a savoy cabbage and a bunch of purple sprouting because they looked so fresh. I had no idea what I was going to do with all these glorious green vegetables, but knew I would sort that out when I got home. I ended up creating a stir-fry flavoured with fresh chilli, ginger and garlic, allowing the Cavolo to be the dominating vegetable, and served it alongside a grilled pork chop. It was delicious.
YOU WILL NEED 1lb (450g) assorted green leaves to include Cavolo Nero, Swiss chard, Savoy cabbage — also a few heads of purple sprouting.
1 red chilli — seeded and chopped fine 1 clove garlic — chopped fine Lump of fresh ginger the size of a walnut, peeled and chopped fine 1dspn sesame seeds Vegetable oil to fry leaves Salt and freshly-ground black peppercorns to season.
METHOD Slice the green leaves really fine, chop the purple sprouting.
Pour enough oil into a large frying pan to cover the bottom and toss in the chopped chilli pieces, allow to fry at a gentle heat for about a minute, then remove the chilli pieces with a slotted spoon and discard. Add the garlic, sesame seeds and ginger to the pan and fry gently for another minute, then stir in the sliced green leaves.
Do not leave this pan, but continue to stir until the green leaves soften which really doesn’t take long — certainly no more than five minutes if you have chopped them really fine.
Season with a little salt and ground black peppercorns and serve with hot or cold meat or fish, as an extra vegetable.
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