Which Cabbage is best for Stir-Fry? 2 must try cabbage stir fry recipe

Hello, hello, I made this viral cabbage stir-fry and many of you in this comment said, this is iceberg lettuce. It's not cabbage. This is not lettuce. This is what I use in the video. Which cabbage is best for stir-fry? I will show you two of my favorite stir-fry cabbage recipes you can easily make at home. So look at the iceberg lettuce leaves, very thin and watery. So when you're cooking stir-fry, this is going to lose the structure quickly, become very mushy, not crispy, crunchy anymore. So flat cabbage is going to hold the shape much better, still has the crunchy, sweeter taste. So that's why the iceberg lettuce using a lot of salad, sandwich, burger, or as a garnish. So that's why we use the Chinese flat cabbage for stir-fry, better taste, better texture. Many of you probably don't realize this is a type of cabbage, bok choy. So the bigger one is called Shanghai bok choy, and the smaller one is baby bok choy. This one actually takes 50 to 70 days to mature, takes longer. And the stem is thick, much thicker than this one. So it's good for stir-fry, also soup, and some braised dishes, like this with meatballs. And the baby bok choy, I tend to buy more in the Asian market because it's going to cook much faster. Also, this is a baby version. It's a younger version of the Shanghai bok choy. So if you like the sweeter taste, a faster cooking time, baby bok choy is your choice. So this one right here is a green cabbage, and the one in the middle is one of my favorite. It's a Chinese flat cabbage, also called Taiwanese flat cabbage. You can see the difference here, the size and shape. So the flat cabbage actually looks like you put a brick on the top of green cabbage, you just smash it down. This is much flatter. This is the one I stir-fry, not the lettuce. And why do I use the flat cabbage a lot more? Because compared to all this, this is the best cabbage for stir-fry. And these leaves have more crunchy texture and cook faster than the green cabbage. And the flat cabbage has a sweet, crunchy taste. Then this one is a peppery taste. So I really like the taste and texture of the flat cabbage. Another reason I love the flat cabbage is I use in my pickle jar. This cabbage is perfect to make pickles. I pickle them overnight and it's ready next day. And the last cabbage I'm going to talk about is napa cabbage. A lot of time I use napa cabbage for soup. But today I'm making a quick stir-fry. So first dish we're gonna make, it's a hand-pulled cabbage stir-fry with pork belly. Pork belly is the traditional way we make it. My other short video, I use bacon because bacon is easier actually for you to find. First, I pull up the cabbage into pieces. And my grandma believe hand-pulled cabbage tastes better than chopped cabbage. Making them into like three-inch pieces. Let's make the sauce. This is easy. You can use this sauce for a lot of other dishes, meatballs, vegetables. They're just soy sauce and Chinese vinegar. A little bit of sugar. This is more sour, sweet taste. And cornstarch. Also add water. You know, I measure with my Chinese eyeballs. If you practice with me, you'll be like me. Recipe on my website, link down below. Just smash them, put on the side. The next is the pork belly. You can see it's not a lot of pork belly. Usually the Chinese stir-fry with vegetable. The main dish is the vegetable. The meat just to flavor the vegetable. So we cut the pork belly into bite sizes. And if you use bacon, that actually adds a little smoky flavor. But also this, we got lard. On high heat, fast cooking, that's the key of stir-frying. From the pork belly, here's a little trick. I add water to render the fat. The water prevents the pork belly stick to the bottom. And also this process results in the richer aromatic and white lard. Turn the heat to medium. It's about five minutes at least. Once the water dry out, you can see the fat coming out until golden brown. We take the pork out. We leave the pork fat on the bottom in the wok and all the flavor. We add garlic and the dry spices, chili pepper and shrimp peppercorn. Then we quickly add cabbage. Quickly stir-fry until it's cooked down. I have a lot of cabbage so I have to cook a little longer. If you cook Chinese food like Chinese mom, you don't need to go to the gym. Let's flip this. My exercise for today, weight lifting. So we cook until cabbage is wilted but still crunchy. Add the pork belly back. Don't waste any fat. Drip in. We stir-fry with the pork for another minute. Before you take it out, add the sauce. Since we have cornstarch here, that will thicken the sauce. Salt to taste. Please taste your food. That's the secret of cooking. Chicken powder, MSG. But if you're Chinese, MSG is good for you. Sweet and sour pan-pulled cabbage stir-fry. Serve this. Let's taste this. Taste some pork. Taste the pork. Crispy skin. Add some cabbage together. Perfect texture of the pork belly and the crunchy cabbage. Eat them together. It's the best. Now second dish, napa cabbage with mung bean noodles. Slice the garlic. Chop the green onions. Small. Soak the mung bean noodles in warm water. You actually could use potato noodles, any other noodles as well. Sit on the side. We prepare the cabbage. I have a lot of kids so I use the whole head of napa cabbage. Stack them. I usually cut them small but actually, you know, cut any shape. We're going to eat it in the stomach. It doesn't matter what shape. This just looks very nice. We put the stem part on the side. Chop the leaves. So I separate the leaves and stem a little. In here, this side is the leaf. This side is stem. About 10 minutes. This noodle is already soft. We can just blanch it like a quick cook for two minutes. Now noodle's ready. We take it out. Then quickly rinse under cold water. My noodle's a little long. Let's cut a little. Put some sesame oil and a light soy sauce. We're mixing this. Look at the color. Okay, now sit on the side. Whoa, the flavor from last dish. I didn't even wash the wok. Keeping here. Add garlic and half green onions. Save half for later. 10 seconds. We may add the stem of the napa cabbage. So those need to cook longer. Cook for a couple minutes. We add the leaf. We stir fry on high heat until this kind of welted. A little bit dark soy sauce. Then light soy sauce. Your noodle's in. Quickly cook the noodle and napa together for another couple of minutes. Just very quick. Before we take out the wok, Chinese vinegar to taste. Chicken powder or MSG. Add the rest of the green onions. Your noodle's ready. Let's serve to my circuits. Just take another bite before I give to the kids. Have to eat the crunchy napa with the noodle. Oh, so good. The texture. Oh, smooth. Mung bean noodle. You can slurp but chew on the crunchy napa. Oh, perfect. Perfection. What else I can do? My vocabulary is low. Amazing. Delicious. Uh, I don't know. This is a pork with the cabbage. Today I do two different cabbage. So this is the mung bean noodles. Try it. Hello, hello. This one is for you. Hope you learned something. What's the best cabbage you can stir fry? My best choice is this Chinese flat cabbage. Also a napa cabbage is good too. But this one also you can make soup. So thanks for watching. I will be... I will be come back next week. Every week. Stir fry 101.