Greens Day: Bok Choy, Boyyy

On many a Sunday afternoon in 2006/07, when you were leisurely sipping on iced tea, I was getting dragged around Chinatown by my ex-boyfriend. It made me want to be airlifted anywhere else in the world; a Wal-Mart in Topeka, Kansas would have been more appealing, less fishy and much cleaner. However, the one redeeming quality about Chinatown (and main reason for our trips there) was the abundantly cheap Bok Choy.

The choy is actually less a green and more a Chinese cabbage; I love it because it cooks quickly and is super crunchy. Health benefits include: vitamin A, vitamin C, beta-carotene, calcium and dietary fiber. So tonight, I made some. I bought it like this from Whole Foods:

Total cost? $5.11. Rip off? yes.

I separated, washed and cut off the ends:


Then, I put about a tablespoon olive oil in a big pan on medium heat, and minced up 2 cloves of garlic to go in it. (This cooking method is not hugely different from the one I use for Kale.) When the garlic is sizzling, add the Choy and keep rotating it with tongs until it's soft. You may need a bit of water but it actually condensates (is that a word?) a lot. In short, it gets pretty watery.

Then I added a tablespoon or two of soy sauce (or Bragg's Amino Acids which I'll post about soon), 1 tsp powdered ginger and a roll around the pan of plum wine vinegar or sherry. Also, black pepper is a must. Kept rotating it with tongs (all in all, 8 to 10 minutes) and then try a bite to see if it's cooked through, yet crunchy. It should be. I made shrimps with it (wild, jumbo, frozen at Trader Joe's for $10.99):



And rice pilaf:


The end.