Chinese celery.

Chinese celery, khuen chai in Thai, looks like a thinner, leafier cousin of the thick celery found in Western shops. The stalks are slim and hollow, and the smell is much stronger, sharp and green, with the leaves carrying almost as much flavour as the stems. A little goes a long way. In Thai cooking it works more like a herb than a vegetable, cut into short pieces and added near the end.

Ways to use it

• Toss short lengths into yam wun sen, the glass noodle salad, with tomato, onion and minced pork.
• Lay it over a steamed fish with ginger and soy sauce.
• Stir fry it with squid or shrimp and a little oyster sauce.
• Add a handful to rice porridge or a clear soup in the last minute.
• Use it in suki and hot pots, where it goes in with the other greens.

Storing it

Keep the bunch unwashed in a container lined with paper towels in the fridge drawer and use it within a few days. The leaves wilt before the stalks do, so use them first. Rinse under running water just before chopping, separating the stalks so you reach the soil at the base.

Where it comes from

Grown to certified organic standards. The certificate for each lot is shown when you trace your pack.

Every pack will carry a lot code. Enter it on the Trace your pack page and you will see the farms in that lot, the harvest date and the certificate.