Bok Choy in Ginger Sauce

My favorite option to cook dinner bok choy is with a stunning shiny, ginger sauce. Nice option to load up on leafy Asian greens shortly and simply! On the desk in 5 minutes, serve over fluffy rice or over noodles in soup.

My favorite bok choy recipe

I’ve shared many stir fries utilizing bok choy however I’ve by no means executed one the place it takes centre stage. Which is a little bit of an omission on my half as a result of right this moment’s recipe is one which I exploit reasonably ceaselessly in my day-to-day life. It’s only a actually tasty, fast option to cook dinner up a giant load of leafy Asian greens. It’s a staple vegetable dish on the menu of on a regular basis Chinese language eating places.

Saucy is the important thing! That ginger sauce will make any vegetable scoff-able. The Chinese language are very intelligent cooks!

What you might want to make Bok Choy in Ginger Sauce

Right here’s what you might want to make this bok choy recipe.

Bok Choy (or different Asian greens!)

I’m utilizing child bok choy for right this moment’s recipe however you should utilize nearly all leafy Asian greens similar to pak choy and choy sum.

Dimension – I like to make use of small(ish) bok choy if I can discover it, normally labelled “child bok choy”, as a result of it’s extra tender and candy. I classify them “child” as much as round 17cm/7″ lengthy. The opposite facet profit is that you could cook dinner the leaves entire with out separating the stem from the leafy half which seems to be good.

For much longer than this and you find yourself in a spaghetti-type scenario (I see scorching ginger sauce being slapped round your mouth!) until you narrow the leafy half from the stem.

Different Asian greens

The cooking technique on this recipe works nice for just about any Asian greens. You simply must tweak the steaming time to go well with the one you’re utilizing. Listed here are another frequent Asian greens which are best to make use of for this recipe – pak choy (full dimension and child!) and choy sum.

And right here’s how one can lower every of a majority of these Asian greens for this recipe. For the longer ones, simply lower into items as lengthy or quick as you need. For smaller ones, preserve the leaves entire!

Gai lan, also referred to as Chinese language broccoli, may even work however as a result of the stem is a little bit firmer (like atypical broccoli texture), it is going to take a little bit longer to steam-cook. Although, if Gai Lan is what you’ve, my favorite option to cook dinner it’s with Oyster Sauce, yum cha fashion – stacked and doused with sauce! Recipe right here.

Sauce

The sauce is a basic Chinese language stir fry sauce that’s good and glossy. It’s pretty gentle in color in comparison with different stir fry sauces which is frequent at Chinese language eating places. It fits vegetable dishes – we don’t wish to overwhelm leafy greens with overly salty, intensely flavoured sauces.

However, let me be clear, this sauce is certainly not bland!! It’s a superb, tasty rice-soaking sauce!

Oyster sauce – A quite common Asian sauce discovered within the Asian aisle of grocery shops that’s used liberally in Chinese language, Thai and different Asian cooking. Candy and savoury packed into one magical bottle, it’s key to this in any other case easy sauce not being bland and boring. Substitute with vegetarian oyster sauce (pretty generally discovered as of late) or hoisin sauce (you’ll get a touch of Chinese language 5 spice flavour which is gorgeous too!)
Chinese language cooking wine (“Shaoxing wine”) is an important ingredient for making really “restaurant commonplace” Asian sauces, provides depth of flavour. Extra data on it right here. Substitute with Mirin, cooking sake or dry sherry. Non alcoholic substitutes – swap each the cooking wine AND water with low sodium hen broth/inventory.
Sesame oil (toasted) – Use toasted sesame oil which is brown and has extra flavour than untoasted (which is yellow). Default sesame oil bought in Australia is toasted, untoasted is tougher to seek out.
Soy sauce – Use both gentle or all goal soy sauce. However not darkish soy sauce – flavour is simply too sturdy and the color is simply too intense! Extra on which soy sauce to make use of when right here.
Cornflour / cornstarch – Thickens the stir fry sauce and likewise makes it shiny! Flour, alternatively, doesn’t make sauces shiny. Meals trivia for the day!
White pepper is the pepper of alternative in most Chinese language stir fry sauces because it retains the sauce freed from (ugly!😂) black pepper speckles. However I promise switching a pinch of white pepper for black pepper will not damage your dish!!

Find out how to cook dinner Bok Choy

Bok choy cooks so shortly it may be pan roasted, steamed or boiled. However my favorite approach is to mix each pan-roasting and steaming. You get the beautiful sautéed gingery oil coating the bok choy earlier than steaming it in simply 45 seconds within the pan. The sauce is poured in on the finish and actually takes 30 seconds to thicken!

Sauce – Combine the cornflour/cornstarch with the whole lot besides the water till lump free, then combine within the water. Why? As a result of it’s simpler to dissolve cornflour in much less liquid. If there’s an excessive amount of liquid, you find yourself with pesky cornflour lumps.
Sauté ginger within the oil for a minute to melt and likewise to flavour the oil. The ginger gained’t cook dinner a lot additional as soon as the whole lot else is added.

TIP: Begin the ginger in a chilly pan to increase the oil-infusion time!

Toss bok choy within the pan for about 15 seconds to coat it within the gingery oil. I like to recommend utilizing 2 spatulas, one a rubber spatula so you possibly can scoop up the little bits of ginger.
Water – Then pour over 1/4 cup of water. This may create the steam to cook dinner the bok choy.

45 second steam – Place the lid on then steam for simply 45 seconds till the stem is partially cooked. Bok choy cooks actually, actually shortly! And we nonetheless have the sauce to go so we don’t need it to be absolutely smooth at this stage.

Doneness – The stem ought to nonetheless have a smooth crunch to it, however not be crisp like when uncooked. If it’s smooth all over, it turns into mush. Not nice!
Sauce – Give the sauce a fast stir to combine in any cornflour settled on the underside. Then pour it over the bok choy and toss for simply 30 seconds or till it adjustments from murky to a transparent shiny sauce that thickens barely and coats the bok choy.

Thickness adjustment – If the sauce evaporates too shortly and will get too thick, simply add a splash of water to loosen it up! This will occur if there’s an excessive amount of warmth within the pan or in case your greens are a bit previous their prime so don’t launch a lot water when steaming.

And that’s it! How fast was that? 🙂 Simply switch the bok choy and each drop of that scrumptious sauce onto a serving plate then serve!

Serving

The apparent position for this plate of tasty vegetable goodness is as a facet dish. However I exaggerate not once I say that I’ll fortunately have this as a meal, simply by itself. Proof above. Take a look at that ginger-sauce-rice-soaking scenario!!! Strive telling me that’s not meal worthy! – Nagi x

Watch how one can make it

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Bok Choy in Ginger Sauce

My favorite bok choy recipe