{"id":235,"date":"2010-03-10T09:38:58","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T14:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/?p=235"},"modified":"2010-03-10T12:31:23","modified_gmt":"2010-03-10T17:31:23","slug":"candidate-for-cutest-veg-baby-bok-choy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/2010\/03\/candidate-for-cutest-veg-baby-bok-choy\/","title":{"rendered":"Candidate for Cutest Veg: Baby Bok Choy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This week I\u2019m in major recipe-development and photo-shoot mode, as I\u2019ve got some last-minute assignments from magazines that need spring vegetable recipes. So I have been tiptoeing off to the grocery store, hoping none of my locavore friends see me pouring over the out-of-season vegetables in the produce section. I\u2019m not sure why I feel guilty, as we\u2019ve definitely done our best to make do with our winter CSA veg (and we STILL have some in the fridge and in the attic). We deserve a little fresh green stuff. But I hate the fact that it\u2019s shipped from so far away. It\u2019s one of the most ironic parts of my job\u2014I encourage people to eat and cook seasonally, but often I\u2019m developing recipes out of season.<\/p>\n

Well, I guess it\u2019s not so bad this time\u2014spring is right around the corner; I actually saw a forsythia bush in bloom yesterday. (It was wedged between two barns, so I think it must have its own micro-climate, as the rest of Martha\u2019s Vineyard is still chilled by the cold Atlantic waters swirling around us.) But next week I\u2019ve got an assignment to work on some summer recipes, and talk about challenging\u2014ripe, juicy tomatoes in March?<\/p>\n

Anyway, when I got home the other day with all these pretty green things\u2014peas and sugar snap peas and fresh mint and frilly lettuce\u2014I got a little giddy. There\u2019s something about the color green that knocks my socks off. And there\u2019s one particular spring green that really tickles me. It\u2019s baby bok choy. These mini-versions of the big honking Asian cabbage barely resemble their big sisters. They\u2019re slender, curvy, and petite\u2014about 6 to 7 inches long\u2014and their color is a soothing mix of celadon and shamrock. Best of all, their fabulous flavor borrows from the nutty side of arugula and the tangy bite of a mellow mustard. (In the photo above, you can see that these baby bok choy were starting to bolt (sprout flowers). The good news is that they still taste good, unlike some bolted greens that become unbearably bitter.)<\/p>\n

It won\u2019t surprise you that I take this pretty green thing and brown the heck out of it. I\u2019m like a broken record on that subject\u2014browning green veggies almost always makes them sweeter. So I cut these babies in halves or quarters lengthwise (keeping the hint of that lovely shape\u2014why slice these across and wreck that?), and sear them cut-side down, in a little combo of oil and butter. Then I finish cooking them (sort of part steaming, part braising), covered, in a little bit of liquid. You can easily add garlic, ginger, citrus, soy, or other flavorings to the liquid or at the end of cooking to fancy up the side dish. But this basic cooking method gives a perfectly delicious result.<\/p>\n

Skillet Seared & Steamed Baby Bok Choy\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

Baby bok choy can vary in size a lot; choose heads that are all about the same size for this technique. If the heads are wider than 2 inches, cut them in quarters, rather than halves, for cooking.<\/p>\n

___________________________<\/p>\n

\u00bc cup chicken broth
\n1 teaspoon soy sauce
\n\u00bd teaspoon honey
\n1 Tbs. vegetable oil
\n1 Tbs. unsalted butter
\n4 baby bok choy (6 to 7 inches long, 2 inches wide), about 10 to 12 ounces, trimmed, cut in half lengthwise, washed and spun dry
\n\u00bc tsp. kosher salt<\/p>\n

__________________________<\/p>\n

Combine the chicken broth, the soy sauce, and the honey in a glass measuring cup and whisk to combine well. In a 10-inch straight-sided saut\u00e9 pan that has a lid, heat the vegetable oil and \u00bd tablespoon of the butter over medium heat. When the butter has melted and is bubbling, sprinkle the \u00bc teaspoon salt over the pan. Arrange the bok choy, cut-side down (or one cut side down), in one layer in the pan. (They will be snug.) Cook, without stirring, until the undersides of the bok choy are deeply browned, 6 to 7 minutes.<\/p>\n

Carefully pour the liquids into the pan and cover immediately. Simmer until the liquid is almost completely reduced (a teaspoon or two will be left), 5 to 6 minutes. (Check occasionally to make sure the liquids don\u2019t reduce entirely and start to burn.) Uncover, remove the pan from the heat, and transfer the bok choy to a serving platter. Add the remaining \u00bd tablespoon butter and a tablespoon of water and stir well with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon as the butter melts, scraping any browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Scrape and pour the pan sauce over the bok choy.<\/p>\n

Serves 2 to 3<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week I\u2019m in major recipe-development and photo-shoot mode, as I\u2019ve got some last-minute assignments from magazines that need spring vegetable recipes. So I have been tiptoeing off to the grocery store, hoping none of my locavore friends see me pouring over the out-of-season vegetables in the produce section. I\u2019m not sure why I feel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[14,1],"tags":[42],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions\/246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}