Recipes using pak choi

15th March 201930th November 2018 by Kar-Ling

Here is a quick and simple recipes using Pak Choi. Pak Choi is a mild tasting Chinese green. I have posted a blog on how to grow and harvest it here Growing and harvesting Pak choi There are easily found in supermarkets and Asian grocers here in London. If you go to asian/ chinese grocers the pakc hoi are available in different varieties. Some come in white and some in green stems.

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I find that the the pak choi variety in white stem are a more juicier as the stem are much more thicker than the green variety ones. There is also tatsoi which is another variety of pak choi. Alternatively you can use ordinary leafy greens, it will be a bit more tough in stems and leaves. So do use young stem if possible. There are other types of chinese greens that you can use instead for the below recipe chinese ‘choy sum’.

Nowadays pak choi are easily available to buy from any supermarkets here in the UK. So it is not necessary to go all the way to the chinese grocers just to buy pak choi. I get my weekly shopping done on Waitrose as they provide great customer service and the food is always fresh. It just saves me lugging a load of shopping from the supermarket going up the slope.

Recipes using pak choi

I am using my homegrown Pak Choi the leaves are quite young and tender compare to the ones you get from the shop. Therefore it will need less cooking time. They are good clear chicken broth or soup noodles. Recipe here Chicken noodle soup
Also in salads as leaves are young and tender. Recipe here pak choi and gem lettuce salad

Another quick recipe (‘yau choy’)

Pak Choi with oyster sauce

100 grms Pak Choi (2-3 persons) wash and slice into 3cm thickness

1 teaspoon oyster sauce

One teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon fried onions (home made or ready made)

Cooking

Just blanch the Pak Choi in a pot of hot water just for a 3 minutes. Depends on how tender you want them. Take them out plunge them in cold water to stop further cook and keep its crunch. Once it’s been plunge it does make it cold to eat. Another idea is not to put them in cold water. However it would not be crunchy though.

It is possible to cook them on a steamer which is put in a rice cooker. Then drizzle with a bit of sesame oil, oyster sauce.

If there is any fried onions around sprinkle with a bit of them on top. This is a very common home cook and restaurant vegetable side dish recipe. A chinese cantonese dish my mum used to cook them a lot.

I will posting more ways to cook pak choi so keep an look out for more recipes to come. All the best to your cooking and thank you for stopping by.

Download here for free pdf chicken noodle recipe

pak choi and gem lettuce salad

10th December 201829th November 2018 by Kar-Ling

This is a recipe on pak choi and little gem lettuce salad. I have recently have got a bit of pak choi and little gem lettuce harvest from my garden. For further information on how grow them the links are here. Growing and harvesting Pak choi Little gem lettuce growing and harvesting The recipe is a great … Read more

Invisible hem with sewing machine

6th July 201927th November 2018 by Kar-Ling

how it look after sewing invisible stitch

The is post is about how to do invisible hemming using a sewing machine without an invisible hemming foot and with an invisible hemming foot on the sewing machine.

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Invisible hem using a sewing machine are great invention as it’s much stronger than conventional invisible hand hemming. It will good to have invisible hemming foot as it gives more control using exact measurements. I have done it without using one. Here is how….

First of all prepare the hem by pressing the fabric using an iron so as to mark how much hemming you need. Invisible hemming does require at least 0.5 cm (about 1/8 inch).

A finished ironed hem should be about 2-3 cm in this instance but can be more if there is enough fabric.

Then pin the hem down allowing at least 0.5cm from the edge between the top hem (with the pin head towards the edge of the hem) and the fold. Put the pins the same length as this will the gauge when you sew the hem down on the sewing machine.

When you flip over the inner fold of the fabric it will look like this.

Sew on the sewing machine. All you really need is the number 8 stitch setting shown below.

With the absence of an invisible foot I use the middle edge of sewing foot as a gauge of that one stitch which will catch the other side of the hem.

I have recently got the invisible foot for the sewing machine and it looks like this. By having an extra white adjustable bit in front which helps to stablize the hem when sewing.

it looks like this when it is sewn.

It may look at times a bit bunch up pressing with an iron with help. Failing that adjust the tension on the sewing machine.

The hem is invisible except when close up one can only see small little stitches the rest is hidden/ invisible.

Changing domain name

16th January 201925th November 2018 by Kar-Ling

When I started blogging I had two different websites. Along the way I found out it is not easy to run two separate websites. Therefore here am I writing on how I changing domain name. I wanted to change as my blog grew I had dressmaking blogs on http://cityediblegarden.com it just doesn’t sound corect. My blog name is makergardener on the title of the website and on all of my social platforms. It just makes sense to change domain name.

When I began blogging about 4 months back I started using the free wordpress subdomain then I upgrade so that I have my own domain name. I bought my own domain name separately from names.co.uk for £6/ year and I got free custom email (it’s info@makergardener.com) as well. I could stay on my current wordpress.com tariff but it means paying more for another name and lots of add on’s like email address, etc. I am now on self hosted using wordpress.org software and it’s fabulous. I am not on any of big web hosting names as my other half bought a virtual server and install wordpress software on it. Here is more information about it Hosted and self-hosted domains

Here are some of things that one needs to do when changing domain name. I only can speak on wordpress as it is the only blogging software I have use.

Redirection plugin

Now I am trying to use redirection plugin to redirect posts from cityediblegarden to makergardener. As one could have change the domain name on most stuff but some it is beyond my control. Like pinterest pins that have been repin elsewhere I can’t change it to my new domain name.

There is also error 404 message on some themes where one can configure messages. So that one can to let everyone that the domain has change.

Social media

On facebook, twitter, instagram social media platforms it is very easy to change domain name. However on pinterest it only allows one domain on your account it’s not that difficult to verify your domain again. As I said it’s the pins that have been repin is the trouble.

Followers

I am only about 2-3 months into blogging I haven’t generated much genuine followers. I have out that on wordpress.com one can easily migrate your followers to your new domain. Just go on the ‘Settings’ then ‘Discussion’ at the bottom of the page you should see ‘Migrate followers from another site’. This is using Jetpack plugin on wordpress.com However, one can’t do it not on wordpress.org wp-admin panel. There are plenty of plugins around to try if not speak some who has a bit of technical knowledge to redirect your website.

Do a backup before the change

Back up all of your work on the old domain before the change. There is export and import buttons on wordpress.org I have export all of old domain content to the new one. The contents will have a new domain on them. So be mindful of links to the old domain in the blog posts. As they will need changing to the new domain address.

In a nutshell changing domain name is like moving home. You need to inform everyone that the domain name is changing.

Green tomato kimchi making it at home

26th November 202023rd November 2018 by Kar-Ling

Here is a recipe for making green tomato kimchi at home. The truth is out, it is finally the end of tomato growing season. I have loads of green tomatoes harvested from the garden as a result. Growing tomatoes in temperate (cold) climates have a tendency to produce loads of green tomatoes at the end … Read more

Using amaranth as a fabric dye

10th September 202122nd November 2018 by Kar-Ling

It’s now mid-October, I have a bit of amaranth grown in my garden. A good harvest as they say. I grew the amaranth in the allotment in Italy. And they grew like weeds. Nothing like I have seen before. I have decided to make some fabric dye out of them. I have found out that … Read more

Green tomato chutney

16th December 201819th November 2018 by Kar-Ling

Winter has finally arrive here in London. The tomatoes on the plant outside are onto their last leg of the season. Many of them have or are beginning to go brown. As it’s quite temperate here unlike the mediterranean one does end up with a fair bit of unripen green tomatoes. What does one do … Read more