Animal Writings

Baby Bok Choy
Growing up, I don't remember seeing baby bok choy, or even adolescent bok choy. But in recent years, there seems to be a baby bok choy boomlet.

"Succulent" is the word I would use to describe baby bok choy's flavor. It has a

Baby bok choy
satisfying chewiness; it has substance. Yet its flavor is very mild.

Bok choy (of any age) is a cruciferous vegetable—meaning it's a cancer fighter. But remember, with vegetables, there's not one miracle vegetable that cures you of everything, it's the combination that gives you maximum disease protection. Bok choy is also rich in vitamins A and C, and is a good source of folic acid, calcium, and other nutrients. It's stellar in stir fries but makes a fine side dish on its own. It's also cute -- look at it.

You can buy the full-grown, adult version of bok choy and use it almost interchangeably with baby bok choy in recipes. The more diminutive baby bok choy requires less chopping, so that's what I'm going with.


Intensively Boiled Baby Bok Choy
Here's the recipe. It's "ultrasimple" like it says, and I made it even simpler. Since we're cooking at high heat, I'd advise against using non-stick equipment.

I cut the recipe in half, using 1 pound of baby bok choy.

I used a wide 2-inch high skillet. A large pot might have worked well, also. I heated 1/4 cup of water as instructed, and added 1/8 teaspoon of salt.

Make sure you rinse off the bok choy well, to remove any dirt.

I chopped off the ends of the bok choy, as usual. Instead of putting the whole plants in the pan, I separated them into individual stalks. No chopping required. It made more sense to me to do that before cooking rather than cutting up the vegetables afterward, when they would be hot, as the recipe suggested.

Aside from that, I followed the recipe to a tee.

While the bok choy was cooking, I mixed a little soy sauce and minced ginger (from a jar) in a small bowl. I put that as well as the bottle of soy sauce out on the table.

The bok choy was ready after boiling for about 6 to 7 minutes. Tender but not soggy. The water in the pan was almost gone.

I tried it three different ways:


• By itself; no extra seasonings or sauces. Delicious!


• With some soy sauce. Excellent!


• With the soy sauce-ginger concoction. Delightful!

And the winner was: Plain. The flavor of the the bok choy came out wonderfully using this method; it needed no help. However, in the future, I'm going to try this recipe with even less salt and then see how the bok choy tastes with soy sauce or ginger soy sauce. I think the salt from the recipe plus the salt in the soy sauce (even though I had the low-salt variety) made the dish too salty. So my test wasn't totally fair. Anyway, it was delicious, and the recipe is "ultrasimple." Baby bok choy has a great flavor; I hope you get to try it soon.


Super-Simple Stir-Fried Baby Bok Choy
Here's the recipe. There's really not much to it. I didn't vary it. You could use regular or baby bok choy; I used the latter.

The recipe calls for a pound of bok choy; that's about two average-sized or three small baby bok choy. (Or is it "baby bok choys?") Cutting the stems and leaves takes no time. You can slice across a few stems or leaves simultaneously; in about two minutes you're done, even if you're not a master chopper.

The recipe gives a choice of salt or soy sauce; I went with low-sodium soy sauce.

Getting to the bottom line...The result is savory; very pleasing on the tongue. The rich peanut oil, the salty sweet soy sauce, and the sharp garlic combine to make a sauce that wonderfully compliments the bok choy. Bok choy—of any age—truly is a stir-fry standout. You cannot go wrong with this recipe! Try it with rice and a veggie meat product of your choice. Add a salad and you're good to go.

(By the way, I would consider this recipe to be one serving, not two.)


Soy-glazed baby bok choy
I made this recipe for a friend earlier tonight. She had never had bok choy before. She loved it. It went great with rice.
Tip for Some People
Print out some simple recipes and keep them in your purse, coat pocket, and/or car. On your way home from work, or any time you're out and about, quickly peruse them, choose one, and stop by the grocery store to pick up the supplies you need. This may make it easier to prepare homemade dinners and to avoid coming home and sinking into "I don't know what I want to eat" and filling up on junk.
It takes a little more time than the other bok choy recipes, and most of the recipes in this series for that matter; still, it required a minimum of chopping and no tricky maneuvers, and was done in 20 minutes max at a relaxed pace.

Notes:


• I cut the recipe in half.


• They didn't have any baby bok choy at the grocery store nearest me, and I was in a rush, so I used regular bok choy.


• I chopped the bok choy as follows: I lopped off the bottom part. I separated the stems from each other and laid a bunch of them across a large cutting board. With a large knife, I sliced everything sideways a few times, cutting across all the stems laid next to each other. Then I sliced a few times in a perpendicular direction. It took less than a minute.


• I used about 1/2 tablespoon of sesame seeds. I toasted them by putting them on a dry non-stick pan, as per the recipe. I kept the heat at medium-low, because I'm extra-cautious about things burning. I let the seeds toast for about 5 minutes and shook the pan a few times while they were cooking.


• I like that the author said that she used garlic and ginger from a jar. I can relate.


• I started the stem pieces about 3 minutes before adding the leaf pieces to the pan. Since the stems are thicker and require more time to cook. If using baby bok choy, you can use the interveaving method in the recipe, but I prefer to cut the baby bok choy in half so that one half is stem and the other half is leaves, and start the stems first.


• The glaze was a marvelous belnd of sweet and sour and other complimentary tastes. We relished it. There was not a drop left. Highly recommended.

Next: Carrots!

To be continued...

Labels: baby bok choy, cooking, diet, vegetables