Bamboo Shoots

When I planted bamboo at the top end of the property to form a visual barrier from the road and the neighbors' house a couple of years ago a certain environmental restorationist in the family warned me about the horrors of planting such an invasive species noting that it would spread uncontrollably and take over southeastern Pennsylvania.  I have been egging it on year by year, trying to get my visual screen established.  Up until today, when I found one long invasive root sending a line of shoots up from the perennial flower garden in front of the fence. Well, I wanted it to spread, but not to there...

I dug up the offending rhizome and found it covered with bamboo shoots, which I harvested:

My total culinary knowledge of bamboo shoots consists of "they come in a Chung King can" and "I think the catalog said the shoots from this variety were edible" so I proceeded to stumble forward in the dark.  I found that the tough outer leaves peel off in layers leaving a soft, edible core.  It reminded my of artichokes:  tough stringy leaves which break off of a soft core where the edible part starts.  Here's what I wound up with after cleaning:

So, I gathered some last-of-the-season asparagus from the garden, cut up a little broccoli, minced a shallot, some garlic, and some fresh ginger and started stir frying using sesame oil and soy sauce, extra water to steam the vegetables, etc.   I added in some left over white rice:

At the end, I cooked off the excess moisture and added two scrambled eggs to make a sort of egg fu yung, I guess.  It was good.  It was a hoot getting fresh bamboo sprouts from the bamboo stand.  A few of the pieces still had some tough woody parts which had to be spit out so I need to work on how best to clean them.