Water Chestnuts

Zebra tomatoes, Zoo flower pix, J & J 041

Water chestnuts are synonymous to Chinese cuisine. They are the ones that makes water chestnuts popular all over the world except we only see them mostly in cans. Once in a while you will see them in Chinatown but you probably will not recognize it because they look like the corms of certain flowering plants like gladiolus, freesia and crocus. The only difference is the plant look like grass or sedge and they grow in water or marshes just like in the picture.

I am fortunate to see this water chestnuts as corms when I was growing up in the Philippines. We buy them in the market already boiled and ready to eat like peanuts. It is one of my favorite snacks although they are not as big as the Chinese water chestnuts. And I feel fortunate now too that I was able to grow them myself and see how the plants look like which I never did when I was a kid.

My Chinese girlfriend gave me some plants to start with and I put them in a bucket like a small fish pond. And I was so excited to see them grow.

The crunchy and nutty flavor of the water chestnuts makes it an indispensable part of Chinese cuisine. It actually stays crisp even after cooking just like the lotus root because of its property called ferulic acid.

Water chestnut is rich in carbohydrates, source of fiber, riboflavin, Vit B6, and other good for you stuffs like potassium, copper and manganese.

Chinese cooks used water chestnuts in almost all their stir fries. I like to use them too when I stir fry mix vegetables like broccoli, beansprouts, Chinese snow peas, mushrooms with tofu as protein. It is also my secret in making “Shanghai lumpia”.

Similar Posts

  • Jalapeno

    My video about transplanting Jalapeno paid off. Now it’s starting to flower and fruit. That’s the consolation I get from planting from seed. I just can’t help but smile to see some fruit of my labor. I like to use Jalapeno in making salsa. It’s easy to make. I put about four quartered tomatoes in…

  • Kalabasa/Pumpkin

    Kalabasa or pumpkin is a favorite vegetable of mine. I like to cook them in coconut milk with shrimp and a little bit of curry powder. It’s so delicious especially with ginger and lemon grass as added flavoring. It is easy to grow. When it starts to flower, you can gather the flowers too for…

  • Shallots – Philippine

    Shallots in the Philippines is called Sibuyas Tagalog or Sibuyas Iloko. Sibuyas is a word derived from Spanish word “cebolla” which means onion. I like this type of onions fresh mix with tomatoes and used as a side dish for grilled fish, especially milkfish. But anything grilled like pork or chicken or even beef will…

  • Artichoke

    Artichoke is perennial vegetable that belongs to the thistle family of plants. The edible part of the plant is the bud before it opens into a flower. The immature florets in the center of the bud is called the “choke” but its not edible. You have to remove it from the base called the heart,…

  • Lettuce Plus

    Its been raining today and I figured its the right time to transplant my lettuce seedlings. So I gathered the remaining lettuce from the garden to make room for the new transplants. I gathered some eggplants and Kinchay or leaf celery. The rain almost always makes it foolproof to plant such delicate plants like the…