I love this snack. When I vacation to china, I go and buy a jar of pickled swatow. It's crunchy, juice and sour the way I like it. It's awesome. I would eat it plain like that or it is usually a side dish for rice porridge.
Ingredients:
1 swatow mustard green, ~500g
1 tsp sea salt
Solution for pickling:
100g rock sugar
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tsp sea salt
2 cups water
Method:
Soak the vegetable in a basin of water for about half an hour. Cut the vegetable vertically into two equal portions (trim away any brown spots) and wash it under running water until clean. Make sure the areas in-between stems are also washed.
Massage the mustard green (especially on its cut surfaces) with 1/2 tea spoon of salt and let it stand for about an hour. This helps draw out bitterness from the veggie.
Mix salt, sugar and water for pickling in a pot, swirl over heat to melt them down completely. Remove from heat, let cool and mix in vinegar.
Bring about 3 to 4 cups of water in a pot to the boil; put the salted mustard green (but discard any juice) in the pot to blanch. The water shall stop bubbling as soon as it is loaded with the vegetable. Wait till the water boils up again, about 1 to 2 minutes, then dish up the mustard green. Drain excess water, let cool and cut each half vertically into two equal portions.
Get a sterilized bottle or jar (with cover) which is large enough to contain both the solution and vegetable (mine is about 1 liter in volume). Plunge in the cooled mustard green into the bottle, and pour in the solution. Make sure the vegetable is fully submerged in liquid. Cover.
The mustard green shall turn yellowish the next day. Wait another 2 to 3 days at room temperature for the flavors to develop further before serving (see below). For storage, transfer to fridge.
Tip:
Make sure every thing used to handle the boiled vegetable is cleaned, or you may found molds growing with the pickle.
You may check the taste of the pickling solution before filling it into the bottle to see if it suits your taste.
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