Patchoi Salad

This recipe was given to us by my friend Maxine. In her salad, she chops the leaves of the patchoi millimetre fine. I don't mind patchoi leaves cut up in a chunkier style. Patchoi (also called pakchoi or bok choy) is a Chinese cabbage with long green leaves off a white stem. It grows very quickly - six to eight weeks to reap - and delivers all the goodness of chlorophyll in deep green leaves. In Chinese cooking, it may be stir fried with ginger and garlic; but this salad mixes raw patchoi with a rich tangy dressing, and the flavour is better than lettuce!

I prefer pachoi chopped like this. You can chop it much finer if you like.

Patchoi bundle, leaves cleaned and chopped finer or coarser to your taste

Chive, chopped
Ramen noodles, broken in pieces
Sesame seeds, half cup
Slivered almonds, half cup
Butter, 2 tablespoons

Dressing:
Brown sugar, half to two-thirds cup
Olive oil, half cup
Garlic, 2 cloves crushed
Red wine vinegar, half cup
Soy sauce, 2 tablespoons

Mix dressing in a small bottle. Shake well and set aside until you are ready to serve. Chop patchoi with chive and refrigerate until just before serving. Heat butter until melted. At medium to low heat, saute almonds, sesame seeds and ramen noodles in butter, stirring until seeds and almond slivers are golden brown. Remove from heat, drain on paper towel and allow to cool.

Here's the salad tossed with seed-ramen and dressing.

Just before serving, toss seed and ramen mixture into patchoi. Shake well, then add dressing and toss. Serve as soon as the salad is mixed, so there's no time for it to get soggy!