New CSA ingredient: Red Rain
Not only have I never cooked with red rain before, I’ve never even heard of it. Even more, I’ve discovered it’s actually fairly difficult to Google. Here’s what I “know” (take all these things with a grain of salt – as you should anything you find on the internet): it’s basically a mustard green with a very mild flavor, but still bitter enough that it should be cooked. So cook it I did – with toast almonds, currants, red onion, vinegar, olive oil, and a fairly generous portion of salt.
Know what? It was pretty good. And yes, very much like a much more delicate and milder version of your normal grocery store mustard greens. I’m not posting a recipe here because, honestly, it wasn’t really a recipe style dish – more like a bunch of things I threw together and tasted until it was good. I’m trying to take this as my introduction to a new ingredient – I’m hoping it shows up again now that I have a grasp on what the thing is. Next time, I ought to be able to put together a real recipe for you. For now, you’ll just have to take me at my word: the stuff is pretty good!
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That looks really familiar! Is it an Asian green? I think there are a lot of Chinese recipes with it, I just can’t remember the name in Chinese!
A unfortunate side effect of growing older :-/
If I think of it, I will let you know!
I don’t know! But I’m really curious about it. When I tried to find out more, all I could find was seed information from various growers – and all that really gave me was that it’s definitely a type of mustard green, but no real information about where it comes from or where it’s commonly used. It didn’t seem like the more common Asian greens, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not. It would make a lot of sense if it has a different name commonly used – that would explain why I can’t find much on it!
You inspired me to do some research too. From what I can find, it is also called red Mizuna.
I’m tempted to ask my mom! Times like this make you wish that there was an app . . .