My neighbor's garden is coming up crazy with bok choy. She gave me a huge armful of bok choy the other day, and I said "Thanks!" while thinking "What the heck do I do with this stuff?" I'll be honest with you, my first thought was to just throw it all to the chickens and get on with my life. But I struggled through, and guess what? Bok choy can be pretty tasty!
Bok choy is a relative of the cabbage. Baby bok choy can be eaten raw in salads, although if you have trouble with raw cabbage (and I trust you all know what I mean by "trouble") then you probably will have the same problems with raw baby bok choy.
Despite being basically just a fancy cabbage, bok choy is surprisingly tender. It cooks up in a wok in just a few minutes at high heat. One simple and tasty way to prepare bok choy is to give it a quick saute in oil along with minced garlic and ginger. I tried this recipe and it was delicious! (Fast and easy, too. Definitely a bonus.)
Bok choy can also be quickly braised to create a tender vegetable side dish. Here is a recipe for braised baby bok choy with sherry and prosciutto. Sounds delicious, and this is a great option for people who are not too keen on stir fried vegetables.
And finally, for the truly adventurous, bok choy is a traditional ingredient in kimchi. Here's a good recipe if you want to try your hand at making your own kimchi. I chose this recipe for you not just because Lebovitz is a well-known food blogger with reliable recipes, but because it was the first kimchi recipe I found that didn't have any really scary ingredients in it. Like raw squid. (Eek!)
Image courtesy Flickr/dollan
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