Thursday, June 25, 2009

Oh Joy, It's bok choy!

I love the spring and fall crops of baby bok choy at the farm. So delicate and tasty compared to the gargantuan white stemmed variety at the regular supermarket (though the asian market always carries the light green variety).

Bok Choy Joy

3-4 heads young bok choy,
or 1 large bunch
1/2 yellow or white onion,
roughly chopped/sliced
1 T. peanut oil (or substitute
canola or sunflower oil)
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp. hot chili paste (I use my own, but any hot store-bought sauce or paste will do, or use dried chili flakes)
1 T. soy sauce
1 T. cooking sherry
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1 heaping tsp. cornstarch + 2 T. water

Wash and cut bok choy, separating the thicker stems from the leaves. Chop onion & garlic.
Heat oil in large pan or wok. Add bok choy stems, onion, garlic & chili paste. Stir fry 2-3 minutes over medium-high heat.
Add chopped bok choy leaves, soy sauce, sherry, salt, sugar. Stir fry another 1-2 minutes.
Add vegetable broth, bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium, cook 2-3 minutes, until bok choy stems are tender.
Turn off heat. Add
cornstarch & water
mixture. Stir gently.

Great with rice or noodles.
Also, if you are a protein
fiend, you can add your
favourite thin pieces of protein
fodder at the beginning with
the bok choy. I like tofu, tempeh, chik'n strips, "beef" strips, or cashews.

----

Another thing I end up with a lot of are chard stems. Often I just add them to a soup base...sort of a mirepoix + chard...very colorful!
You can use them in many
places you'd normally use
celery. Or just chop them
thinly and use them along
with your swiss chard
leaves. I usually prefer to
keep them separate though.

Lots of delicious produce from
the farm this week despite all the rain: kale, swiss chard, collards greens, lots of flat leaf parsley, garlic scapes, zucchini, radishes, beets & greens, spinach, scallions, strawberries, snap peas, carrots, tea herbs.













AJ had his first kindergarten
playdate at the playground
next door. Luckily the incessant
rain actually stopped for a few
hours! Maia came along in the
backpack of course.






And Nate brought a lollipop...
a reward for using the potty
without fuss before we left and
his first day in underwear!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bok choy is one of those veg that I like while I'm eating it, but can't actually get myself to prepare because I'm sure I *don't* like it! Silly, but there it is. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

Anonymous said...

Wow, great picture of such a simple thing as chopped bok choy! That's a very creative arrangement ;)

There will probably be some bok choy (called paksoi in Dutch) in my veggiebag sometime soon and I might just be making your recipe with it! :)

veganf said...

gnoegnoe - I actually didn't make any effort to arrange the bok choy for the picture. I honestly just had in plopped on the board that way. Now, to be truthful, I did swap out the crappy knife I was using with a clean pretty looking one--but it needed sharpening so I wasn't using it! LOL

veganf said...

living... When I first read your username, I saw it as "Living In A Calzone" LOL! Which sounded pretty delicious too!