Red amaranth leaf ✦

Amarante rouge

What it is

It is the same genus as the grain amaranths but an entirely different job: this one is grown for leaf, and the magenta that runs out of it is amaranthin, a water-soluble pigment named for the family. In Shanghai the pink liquid at the bottom of the dish is the point — rice is spooned into it, and a plate of amaranth that has not stained counts as a failure.

In the kitchen

Cook it in a dry, very hot pan with garlic and only the water clinging to the leaves: any added liquid dilutes the colour and you lose the sauce. Two minutes at most, with the thick stems given a minute's head start, since the leaves collapse in thirty seconds.

Goes with

Garlic Chili pepper Fermented bean curd Toasted sesame oil Fermented shrimp paste (belacan) Coconut milk

Same species

Amaranth

In season alongside

Broccoli Broad bean Molokhia Spinach Swiss chard Warabi (bracken shoot)

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