bok choy

[BigDuck]

Does anyone have any good recipes for baby bok choy? I generally steam or braise it, but am getting bored of my own ideas!

[Jinmyo]

Stir-fry, dress with sesame oil, fermented tofu.

[nervousnelli]

Oh sooo delicious simply stir fried in EVOO with lots of garlic, coarse salt and hot pepper flakes.

[BigDuck]

Am fixing it tonight as a side for laab gai, thanks for the suggestions.

[mamster]

I chop, blanch, and mix with ground pork and stuff potstickers.

[Jason Perlow]

We frequently get it at our favorite local place sauteed in oil with garlic, along with big shitakke mushrooms.

Would go well with oyster sauce too, I think.

[BigDuck]

I sort of took the replies I already had, and combined them this way:

Stir fried in some soy sauce, red chili flakes, sesame oil, added a little chicken broth. It was excellent! Thanks for all the ideas!

[tissue]

Saute in chicken fat. A restaurant near my house cooks it that way and it is delicious.

[Explorer]

I steam it first (don't over-steam as it will wilt quickly) then toss in a medley of garlic/ginger/shiitake sauteed with olive or sesame oil + soy sauce and bit of rice vinegar.

[bushey]

Stir fried with a bit of chopped garlic and red bell pepper. Sprinkle with a little salt and sugar, toss around and splash on a little soy sauce. The great fresh flavor really shines through.

[mudbug]

Blanch for a minute or two and plate.

In separate pan, heat up a couple of tablespoons of peanut oil until smoking remove pan heat, add splash of soy sauce and maybe some red pepper flakes. Pour immediately over vegetables and serve.

[nessa]

Any way I can get it on my plate!

I tend to throw it in stir fry, but a favorite way is with fresh chile paste.

I'll sautee it lightly in some sesame oil, add garlic, throw in a dash of mushroom soy, sweetend rice vinegar, and then the pepper stuff. Cook long enough to coat, and serve over sushi rice.

[laurel]

A Szechuan place I like has "black mushrooms with cabbage", which is big black mushrooms braised (i think) in a thick sauce, over baby bok choy.

[thunder]

i like it stirfried(shredded) w/ carmelized onions - very nice

[bbq4meanytime]

I slice in half lengthwise and place cut side down in olive oil in a fryingpan that has a cover. Add salt and pepper and after the cut side has browned nicely, I drizzle with good balsamic vinegar and cover and remove from heat (it will steam for a minute longer).

Serve carmelized side up with your favorite dish or as a base for a salad.

[Dejah]

For lunch yesterday, I had a package of quick soup noodles (Sappiro?).

I cut some baby bak choy in half, threw it in along with the noodles, lap cheung and seasoning package. Just before devouring, I splashed some sesame oil and chili paste on top. Great for a cold prairie day

[helenjp]

Seems there are more names for this vegetable than recipes. But it's so cheap...3 for $1.00...I buy it, and then when it gets onto my kitchen counter, I sigh.

Inspire me, please!

[nondual1]

Seems there are more names for this vegetable than recipes. But it's so cheap...3 for $1.00...I buy it, and then when it gets onto my kitchen counter, I sigh.

←

Ah, not to worry! You have gotten one of the most versatile vegetables there is!

But, first let me make sure you have the right vegetable: bok choy has dark green leaves and white stems; whereas qing-jiang-cai has green leaves and green stems. The leaves of the latter are rounder than the former, and the stems more bulbous as well. But even when we are not sure, the two vegetables are so similar that, in most cases, recipes are the same for either. But, let's assume you have qing-jiang-cai.

Perhaps the best use of the qjc is as accompaniment for braised abalone. The abalone coats the qjc leaves, making it the perfect receptacle to finish off every drop of the precious sauce; at the same time, it is a refreshing contrast to the rich and robust abalone.

Not cooking abalone... all right, but I just thought I should get that out of the way first, that's all.

The easiest way to use qjc is stir-fry it plainly. Smash a couple of cloves of garlic and ginger slices. Wash the qjc carefully and split it lengthwise once, or, if the plant is sizable, perhaps another time to quarter it. The point is to have them all split into uniform size so they cook through evenly. Heat your wok or sauce pan, adding a little bit of oil. With a low heat, sweat the ginger to release its flavour. When the ginger is almost brown, dump in the garlic and a little bit of salt, stirring all that around but taking care not to burn the garlic. Turn up the heat and put in all the qjc. Stir them around immediately so they don't burn. As soon as steam seems to be coming up from the liquid being released by the vegetables, stop stirring and cover for up to 5 minutes. Then test the vegetables for doneness and taste; cook it a little more or add more salt as needed. Serve.

To make it a little more complex, there are two variations to the stir-fry method. The first is to use Chinese pickled cabbage, which ususally comes in a can, in the place of garlic. For every pound of fresh qjc, use about one-and-a-half tablespoon of pickled cabbage. Lightly wash the pickled cabbage to remove excess salt and chop it into smallest bits, if desired. Then, after the ginger and before the gjc, throw in the pickled cabbage. After sauteing for a minute or two in medium heat, add a little sugar and, if desired, cooking wine. Then finish the dish as before with the qjc. The pickled cabbage provides a good contrast to the qjc in size, texture and flavour.

Another way is to use shitake and Chinese ham (or other ham if unavailable). Julienne the re-hydrated shitake and the ham. Sautee them first, adding cooking wine, soy sauce and white pepper to taste, in a medium heat, taking care not to burn them. Then, again, finish the dish as above with the split and washed qjc.

If you are familar with zosui (rice porridge), qjc, along with cilantro and shitake, are perfect to be put in. Just chop them all up into small pieces and put them into the broth (of bonito and so on). When they are cooked through (i.e., the shitake is soft and the qjc shrunk), put the cooked rice in and finish the porridge.

Shanghainese use qjc to make "vegetable-rice." I think I have seen it done in sort of a cold-pickle/salad too. If any other uses come to mind, I will add them.

Have fun and enjoy!

[torakris]

Helen is talking about this.

It is really cheap in Japan this time of year and I too start to get sick of it after a while...

Though it is far from Chinese, one of my favorite recipes for it is to toss it with some olive oil, salt, pepper and bacon (saute it a bit first) and bake until tender.

[Dejah]

Helen is talking about this.

It is really cheap in Japan this time of year and I too start to get sick of it after a while...

Though it is far from Chinese, one of my favorite recipes for it is to toss it with some olive oil, salt, pepper and bacon (saute it a bit first) and bake until tender.

←

It' called Shanghai bok choy here in Canada...about 89 cents a pound at the moment.

I like it quick stir-fried with ginger, garlic and chopped chilis, and drizzled with sesame oil.

I can eat it everyday and not be sick of it.

[SuzySushi]

A recipe I picked up a while back from an Australian magazine (maybe AU Women's Weekly?):

Steam or microwave 2 bunches baby bok choy until crisp-tender. Combine 1 T grated ginger, 1 T brown sugar, and 1 T honey. Sprinkle over bok choy. Sprinkle with 2 slices crumbled cooked bacon. Serves 4.

[helenjp]

Yes, the two are different cultivars, but they cook much the same, except that chingensai is milder (or at times more boring...) than bok choy. Our chingensai doesn't have green stems - though there is a faint tinge of green to the white.

I like rice with soupy veg and rice congee etc. - sounds like an excellent taste/texture match, thank you!

The abalone idea (which I will definitely try when next in NZ) indirectly led me to experiment with some leftover potsticker stuffing. I stirfried the stems with that, and then added the greens and tossed them. That was a slight change, anyway!

Thanks for the quick stirfry ideas too - the less time between shopping bag and dinner plate, the better, as far as my son1 is concerned. Now how about stirfrying it with fresh yuba and shredded pork/pickles/seafood...hmmm...

[jo-mel]

There's an old Imperial dish, from the Mongols or Manchus, that has a creamed sauce paired with napa cabbage or bok choy. I would think that Shanghai bok choy could also be used.

Slice some cabbage into bite sized pieces and briefly stir/fry in some oil to coat the pieces, then add a cup of chicken broth, cover the pan and let cook two minutes. / You then make a sauce using a couple Tbsp cornstarch, a cup milk, a couple tsp. light soy, 1/2 tsp. sugar and also 1/2 tsp sesame oil. Mix in white pepper to taste. Add to the cabbage and sprinkle with some minced ham.

Not the usual take-out dish. But I've had it at banquets both here and in China. AAMOF, it was one of the dishes that finally made me buy my first Chinese cookbook in the early 50s. The recipe wasn't in that book! But I see creamed vegetables in other books.

[helenjp]

I know this dish! It is good - but a little heavy for this time of year in Japan, just when the vegetable is at its cheapest!

[Jason Perlow]

I like shanghai bokchoy stir fried with oyster sauce, or with fresh garlic, some chicken stock, and fresh shitakkes. And maybe some sliced chinese pork or shrimp thrown in.