Speaker 2
The other interesting, I mean, there's a whole list of interesting Asian vegetables that you cover in your book, but one that I've never tried growing before is seletus. I think that's how you would say it. It's the lettuce. Oh, seltus? Seltus, that's what it is. Yes. Can you tell us a little bit about that and what it is, how you use it? Because it's a very interesting vegetable.
Speaker 1
Yes, because I feel like seltus is unofficial publicist because I love it so much. I rave about it so much and I tell everybody to grow it. But basically, Celtus, it's also called stem lettuce. It is a variety of lettuce. So if you can grow lettuce, just standard lettuce in your garden, you can absolutely grow celtus. And celtus, for me, is a really valuable space kind of plant. So these, you know, like in these current times, a lot of people's gardens are getting smaller and smaller. And I feel like celtus really makes the most of the space. The reason being is that firstly, it grows these little leaves that remind me of Cozz lettuce and they taste like Cozz lettuce. Okay. So you can harvest those and eat them in your salads. But the best part of seltas is that it grows a really long and tall stem and that stem looks like a broccoli stem and it tastes absolutely divine. So the seltzer stem is the, you know, the hero, the, you know, main character of this plant. And it has a, I would say it has a almost slightly nutty kind of fragrance to it. When I was like driving seltzers home to a friend's house, my car smelled like perfume.
Speaker 1
Yeah. the texture of it is more like I would say more like a cucumber broccoli stem texture and you can eat a raw sliced up or you can do like a two-minute stir fry and it's absolutely delicious it's one of those veggies that I feel like um there's not much of like a replacement for it. It's just got this really distinct flavor. And it's so easy to grow. It's so easy to cook up. There's two uses for it. You know, like, why not?
Speaker 2
I didn't realize that you could even eat the leaves as well. For some reason, I just imagined they would taste bitter because it looks kind of like a bolting lettuce. So in my mind i'm like it's probably bitter but i've never actually tried it and and one of the things you said is that it takes up very little space as well so
Speaker 1
it's like imagine a kale plant but the leaves are upright kind of like okay so it doesn't really take up much space i would say that much space and you mentioned the leaves Yeah, you mentioned the leaves being bitter, right? So the leaves actually, when they're younger, they taste better for salads. But towards the end, when you are harvesting your stem, which is the last part of the harvest, those leaves do become a little bit more bitter. And I would recommend stir frying those.
Speaker 2
Oh, OK. that's actually something uh that i also recently have only tried is a stir-fried lettuce which when i when you first read it like in the western diet mindset you're like it sounds like that's going to be like a little bit odd but it was so delicious and it works so well and it's it's just another one of those things where just trying things out and trying these different vegetables and preparing them in different ways, like really opens your mind to like other things that might be possible. Because I just never would have thought to braise lettuce that way. It was so tasty. So, yeah,
Speaker 2
covered a few of these sort of more annual vegetables now. But I'd love to hear about some of the perennials that you mentioned in the book. Is there like a couple of like a particular favorite that you really like it's your the one that you're gonna push the most for people i'm
Speaker 1
just looking at the contents page of my book perennials okay well oh tough one i want to say i got some good ones oh
Speaker 2
okay yeah tell us about that before
Speaker 2
i haven't i read through that section because i've never heard of that one before and it was really interesting
Speaker 1
yeah so it's called shark fin melon fig leaf gourd um there might be another name for it in the states um i don't know how to pronounce it never mind it's in the book um think it's chilla chilla you know what i'm not gonna try yeah i was gonna say maybe i'll try it but i'll probably do it worse but um so shark fin shark fin melon is a squash it's kind of like winter melon uh it's like hairy melon it's got a yeah it's got a really you know mild kind of flavor to it and it's got a texture that is almost like a spaghetti squash it's got you know little strings inside yeah so you know with things like winter melon um pumpkins uh hairy melons all of those melons they're usually annuals but shark fin melon is actually a perennial and so if you yeah so if you plant it once and you let it um like stay in in spot depending on what climate you are in um you cut you know you cut the old vines down and you know, next season it will start sprouting again.
Speaker 2
And because, yeah,
Speaker 1
because it's a perennial, you know, once you start planting it, the root system is really established over the years. So I find that makes them grow really fast and they get a head start in the season compared to the other, you know, Asian melons that you might grow. right now it's very early in the summer for me and it is i think the second or third year for one of my shark bean melon plants and it's already got a fruit that big on it oh wow that's cool it's yeah it's really awesome in that you don't have to do much work when it's a perennial it's just there um it's a longer season because it's more established but i wanted to tell you something really awesome about shark bean melon um and that is that you could store that fruit or melon for up to two years in your winter pantry two
Speaker 2
years yeah whoa yeah that's i think that's longer than like any winter squash even than I know of. I don't think they last more than like six months. That's
Speaker 1
wild. So you would imagine it does have a very tough and hard skin. Right. Yeah. So when you cut it open. That's
Speaker 1
Yeah. You do need a bit of, you know, force to get that knife in there. But because of that, you can store it for a really long time. And, you know, during those, you know, lean in periods of the year in winter when you're not growing, that I know of. I don't think they last more than like six months. That's wild. much and you want the flavor of a summer squash, or I think you would call that a winter squash, then, yeah, you've got that in your pantry, which is really awesome. Yeah,
Speaker 2
that's super interesting because, like, having something that can store that long is i mean the only thing i could think of is like i guess dry beans like that's a whole different game uh yeah that's super fascinating i love the idea of these um perennial veggies i'm guessing it's probably for warm climates um similar to how like i could overwinter a eggplant or a pepper in my garden um that'll come back next year and start producing fruit months before anything else that I start from seed. So that's a really cool one to add to the list. I'll definitely have to check that one out. And again, so that's another one where I'm guessing, luckily with your book, you'll also have the preparation advice. But how is that one usually used? Or how would you like to use that one most? Because like that's what I'm sure most people haven't run into.
Speaker 1
Yeah. Actually, that's one of the reasons why I did put those recipes in my book. Because I feel like if you're new to a vegetable that you haven't heard of, you wouldn't have those ideas and inspiration on how to grow them right. And even if you're not sure if you want to grow them, you could go and buy that at an Asian grow cellar and then cook that recipe. A little test. You know, try before you grow. Yeah, so I think that's really good. But anyway, back on topic. With the shark fin melon, what I like to do is put it in soup, bone broth, stuff like that. I would, yeah, so i would take the skin off firstly you cut it in half so you can access the melon right and then peel the skin off like you would as a pumpkin okay and then cut them in yeah cut them into cubes and pop them in a soup they probably like need 10 minutes in a soup and they go really soft and squishy and you know the texture of the like the stringy bits comes out and it's absolutely delicious it soaks up the flavor yeah it soaks up the flavors of bone broths really well and i like to put it with like shiitake mushrooms maybe some dried jujubes uh goji berries and just whatever other veggies you have in the garden wow
