Matrimony is Good for Your Eyes

That title probably caught your attention!

But no, I’m not talking about marriage, but rather the “vegetable” Matrimony Vine. This is actually the branch and leaves of the same plant from which the Chinese wolfberry (gou qi) comes. In Chinese, the vine is (naturally) referred to as “gou qi cai” (in Mandarin) or “kou kay choi” (in Cantonese). [In other parts of South East Asia, it takes on the names “daun koki” (Indonesia) and “phon kao ki” (Thailand).]

Just as the dried fruit (gou qi) is very often used in Chinese cooking – most commonly in soups, both sweet and savory – so too are the leaves of the Lycium Chinensis plant cooked and eaten.

While the Chinese wolfberry is commonly accepted to have wonderful beneficial qualities for eyes, given its high beta carotene content, its leaves are less often associated with the same health benefits. However, a lot of Chinese families hold the belief, as passed down from generation to generation, that this vegetable also has amazing restorative powers for the eyes.

My uncle (mum’s older brother) for one is a firm believer. He used to often tell the story of how as a young lad, he suddenly suffered a loss of vision – not totally, but enough that he had the barest and the fuzziest of sight only. In those days (1950s), in this part of the world, top-notch specialist eye care was rare. Doctors simply told him he was going to lose his sight, and there was nothing they could do for him. In a panic, my grandmother cooked and fed him this gou qi cai, boiled into soup with the wolfberries, every day. And after a period of time, his sight was fully restored. He is now a professor of biology and he still stands by the curative powers of this vegetable!

Less dramatically, I remember as kids, all my cousins and I found, especially around the time of our exams (when we were - supposedly – mugging away at our books), that this vegetable appeared with alarming alacrity at our dinner tables. I guess our mothers fed us on the basis of the motto “bright eyes, clear eyesight… all the better to study with”!

To this day, we still cook this vegetable very regularly – either in soup or sautéed. I tend to eat it now more for the taste – which I really enjoy; the health benefits are just bonuses on the side. I like the ‘unique’ texture of this vegetable; it is not crunchy or crisp like most other vegetables. Instead, once cooked, it has a very soft, smooth tenderness to it, with a tiny touch of bite.

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Soup is probably the most common way of cooking the gou qi cai. It’s a mighty simple thing to cook. The only “troublesome” bit is the prepping of the matrimony vine leaves – not difficult, just highly time-consuming.

The stems and branches are not eaten; only the leaves are used. So, each leaf has to be painstakingly snipped from the vine. For us, we like to remove the stem completely (as seen in the picture above), so that there is no trace of any “tough”, chewy bits in the vegetable. This makes for incredibly tender leaves that almost melt in the mouth after cooking.

This is a painless (and almost enjoyable) activity to do when you’re just sitting around the kitchen table in the afternoon having a chat and a cup of tea; half an hour passes a lot quicker when you have company and interesting conversation!

Once trimmed, the leaves are thoroughly washed and drained, ready to be cooked. The branches are not discarded just yet though… they still have one final use before they go into the trash can.

Gou Qi Cai Soup

• Bring a pot of water (with enough liquid to make up the amount of soup you want) to a rolling boil. Pop in the bald branches (folded, so that they fit into the pot), and leave to simmer for about 20 minutes or so. [This is just to flavor the soup and extract the nutrition and vitamins from the branches before they are discarded.]

• Remove and discard the gou qi cai sticks.

• Put one chicken breast (skin removed) into the soup and simmer for about 20 minutes. [Feel free to use chicken bones or pork bones if those are preferred.]

• Add the gou qi cai leaves and about 1-2 generously heaped tablespoons of Chinese wolfberries (gou qi). On low heat, simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes or until the leaves are nicely tender.

• In the meantime, lightly beat several eggs (we usually use around three; more if serving a larger group of people), and season with a dash of light soy sauce, a pinch of sugar and a sprinkling of ground white pepper.

• Bring the soup back to a rolling boil, and pour in the lightly beaten eggs. Stir gently to break up the eggs. Remove the pot from the flame and allow the eggs to finish cooking in the residual heat ; do not overcook the eggs. [For this particular soup, I tend to prefer the eggs chunky. You may choose to swirl the eggs to form thin, elongated strands instead.]

* If a more full-bodied flavor is desired, the soup can also be seasoned with salt to taste or half a square of MSG-free, low sodium bouillon cube.

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Another way that we very often cook this gou qi cai is to stir-fry it with eggs – almost like an omelette or even an egg pancake. I’m not sure if other families cook it this way; I haven’t seen it outside of my extended family. But this is rather tasty, I find – and great for those who don’t like soups, or don’t like their soups chunky and filled with lots of vegetables.

This omelette is hardly classy, elegant food – not by a long shot. However, what it doesn’t have going for it in the looks department, it does compensate for in the satiation department. This is essentially another one of those homey, down-to-earth, comforting soul foods that never fail to tug at the heartstrings.

Gou Qi Cai Omelette

• Cut some carrots into very fine juliennes.

• Add a little bit of oil to a hot wok, and sauté some minced garlic until fragrant but not colored. Drop in the carrots and fry until almost tender.

• Put in the washed and well-drained gou qi cai leaves and toss briefly. Cover the wok and allow to steam-cook for about 5 minutes or until leaves are tender. Do not add any water. [The leaves will leech some liquids, but that’s okay. These will be “absorbed” once the eggs go in.]

• Uncover, season with some salt to taste. Mix well.

• Lightly beat three eggs (or however many you would like to put in), and season them with a dash of light soy sauce, a pinch of sugar and a sprinkling of ground pepper.

• Slowly dribble the eggs into the wok. Let the eggs to set a little; resist the urge to ‘stir-fry’ the eggs at this point – this will produce mushy clumps of eggs.

• Once the eggs have set a little, flip the vegetable/egg mixture over (like flipping a pancake) and cook the other side.

• When the eggs are fully set, remove from the heat.

The eggs and vegetables take on a pancake-like form. The eggs will have a slightly subdued coloring due to the juices from the gou qi cai; the taste is not affected. [I’ve never tried this, as it’s way too fiddly for me, but if the duller coloring bothers you too much, simply drain the juices that are released by the gou qi cai before adding the eggs. This will ensure the colors of the eggs stay bright and cheery.]

What is it that they say about eyes being windows to the soul? So, maybe the matrimony vine can also have some knock-on effects in the marriage sphere after all.

Here’s to bright, sparkling and captivating eyes!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All Rights Reserved.
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