Thorny Issue

I guess I am making slow culinary headway into life. After all, no one forced me to buy boxthorn and subject myself to all that prickly picking. I did it all by myself. Willingly!

Boxthorn is the plant that bears the famed Chinese ingredient known as kay chi (phonetically). It’s called wolfberry in English, although why it should be, I don’t know,  since I don’t think it is particularly palatable to lupines anywhere. 

While the majority only know and use wolfberries in their dried form to put into soups or stews (they are said to help strengthen the eyes), many also think of the leaves of the tree to be highly nutritious. Called kowkay chow (again phonetically), the leaves are soft and deep green and are used to make a soup with whipped egg. 

The fleshy green leaves of fresh boxthorn.

Denuded but not de-thorned!

The harvest is small!

To get the leaves, however, one has to purchase a bundle of boxthorn boughs. You can tell which they are when at the vegetable seller’s stall because they are always wrapped in newspaper. That’s because they are mighty thorny. 

The only part of the branches which are used is the leaves. The rest is completely inedible. It is a tedious and prickly process to pluck off each leaf from the stem and it’s a seasoned preparation cook who has not been pricked by the long thorns. 

While the leaves are not amazingly delicious, they do have a nice flavour about them and they also are pretty high in vitamins and minerals. They don’t cost much – about RM3 a bundle – but it’s quite a bit of work to detach every single leaf. Still, it makes a good learning experience, though not one I’d be happy to do too often!