Dim Sum Steamed Gai Lan 蒸芥蘭 — Yung Kitchen

What is Gai Lan?

Gai Lan (芥蘭, jiè lán) is Chinese broccoli — a brassica that is little known in Germany but central to Cantonese cooking. Wide dark green leaves, thicker stems, and a flavour that is distinctly bitter — not unpleasant, but characteristic. In Hong Kong and Guangzhou, Gai Lan with oyster sauce is a standard dish. Ours is fully vegan — with mushroom sauce instead of oyster sauce.

Full menu name: Dim Sum Portion Gai Lan 蒸芥蘭 ⓥ vegan.

Cooking wine in the steam — an almost forgotten technique

The cooking wine does not come after steaming. It goes in when the vegetable enters the steamer. That is the decisive difference. The steam carries the wine through the Gai Lan as it cooks. What happens: the natural bitterness of the leaves is softened, and simultaneously the sweetness of the vegetable comes forward — a sweetness that would otherwise stay hidden.

This is not a marinade. It is not a sauce. The wine is part of the steam. In three minutes it works into the vegetable — subtle, not intrusive, and fully cooked off when the dish is ready.

Very few Chinese restaurants in Germany prepare vegetables this way. This is the craft behind this dish — invisible when you eat it, but present in the taste.

The spring onion oil — a fragrance that cannot be expressed in numbers

The oil that finishes this dish is not something you buy. It is made in-house: oil at medium heat, a large amount of spring onions, slowly fried for a long time. The oil absorbs the aromatics of the spring onions — for an hour, sometimes longer. What remains cannot be found in any nutritional table.

It is no longer just fat. It is time. It is the result of patience in the kitchen, and that patience has a taste. The industrial equivalent does not exist — this oil cannot be shortcut.

It is the last element on the Gai Lan, and it rounds the dish. The bitterness of the leaves, the wine note from the steam, and then this broad, soft spring onion fragrance. Three layers.

Why no ginger

This is Li Xiejie’s decision — our head chef. Ginger is standard in many Chinese vegetable dishes. Not here. Gai Lan has a flavour that ginger would overwhelm: that slight, characteristic bitterness. That is the most valuable thing about this vegetable. Ginger and Gai Lan do not belong together — not because there is a rule, but because ginger erases the substance of the dish.

No ginger is not a gap. It is a position.

Each ingredient and its TCM connection

Gai Lan — Fire element, heart and detoxification

Bitter flavour belongs to the Fire element and the heart meridian in TCM. Gai Lan is cooling, detoxifying, and supports digestion. The bitterness is not incidental — it has a function, in the kitchen and in the TCM framework.

Spring onion oil — Wood element, liver and appetite

Spring onions belong to the Wood element: warming, pungent, liver meridian. They stimulate appetite and promote qi flow. Slowly extracted in oil, the spring onion retains these properties — in a gentler, broader form than freshly cut spring onions.

LKK Vegan Mushroom Sauce — Earth element, spleen and stomach

Lee Kum Kee’s vegan mushroom sauce contains no oysters — it is made from mushrooms. In TCM, the sweet-umami flavour belongs to the Earth element, relating to spleen and stomach. The sauce completes the dish and adds depth without masking the bitterness of the Gai Lan.

Note: bitter (Gai Lan) + pungent (spring onion) + sweet-umami (mushroom sauce) — three flavour layers, three TCM elements in one dish.

How it is prepared

A note on health

Gai Lan is rich in vitamins C and K as well as calcium. Steaming preserves these better than boiling. Three minutes is enough to make the stems tender without stressing the nutrients.

The vegan mushroom sauce delivers umami without animal products — a conscious choice for a fully plant-based dish with flavour depth.