Malabar Spinach
My wonderfully awful attempt at trying a new ingredient
What is an ingredient?
A part of a much larger myriad of pieces that come together to create one cohesive dish? or is it something more? Of course the typical comparison of one jagged discolored piece of a larger mosaic painting would be obvious to make but I’m not that pretentious… right?
Anyways up until this point in my life I’d never found an ingredient that I could not easily look up or did not have some basis to use that I could relate the relatively new ingredient to.
In my experience when the word slimy is used in reference to food it usually refers to Okra, Nattō, or spoiled food. But a chinese leafy green with the name ending in Choi. Not so much
I know that there are ways to cook Okra so that it doesn’t come out slimy but when going in blind with an ingredient that I presumed would cook down just like spinach and instead becoming slimy, tough, and overall unappetizing still remains a mystery.
I would assume that a name like Malabar spinach would only assume that it is from some exotic land and costs an arm and a leg to procure the organic heirloom variety. Madagascar Vanilla after all is highly prized. But at second thought the rebranding/marketing efforts of argri. business has produced such great hits as the famed Slime head / Orange Rough transformation and the Patagonian Toothfish fiasco. A rebranding that worked so well that the newly named “Chilean Sea Bass” is now endangered on the verge of extinction due to its rapidly increased popularity.
Unfortunately I had to use my willing brother and mother as guinea pigs to see if it was just me who was revolted by the flavor, texture, and smell. However after having essentially pepper sprayed the entire house by making toasted chili oil, smoking up the house countless times by sauteeing pork belly, and not to mention the countless other failed attempts at making dishes for the first time I think it’s safe to say they expect a certain level of risk and adventure anytime I enter the kitchen with new ingredients.
And for that I can not thank them enough and will undoubtedly be the first… and last people I thank after all of these countless hours of work pay off. Counting down til I hit the 10,000 hr. mark. Until then, I’ll see you in the kitchen.
