Most of the members of the cabbage family — cauliflower, savoy and red cabbage, brussels sprouts — are dense and heavy tasting, best suited to the long-cooking, hearty preparations of cold weather cuisine. The exception to that rule is also my favorite cabbage: bok choy. Bok choy, or Chinese cabbage as it is also known, is light and crispy, with a very mild cabbage flavor.
Bok choy is usually stir fried (though it is also delicious steamed or boiled and tossed in a hot vinaigrette); its high water content means that it is a nice foil for strong flavors.
Until I tasted the stir-fried bok choy at David Chang’s Momofuku Noodle Bar in New York, my habit in the kitchen was to cut the bok choy into wedges or halves, blanch it then stir fry it. At Momofuku, Chang separates the individual leaves, then stir fries them from the raw state which allows each leaf to become saturated with flavor.
This recipe calls for shrimp paste, a condiment that is often used in Chinese and Thai cooking. Shrimp paste is made from salted fermented dried shrimp. Like fish sauce, it has a strong, aggressive aroma and flavor that becomes milder when combined with other ingredients. Shrimp paste is available in Asian supermarkets.
Serve Stir-Fried Bok Choy with grilled steak, chicken or beef, with steamed rice on the side.
John Broening cooks at Olivea restaurant in Denver.
Stir Fried Bok Choy
Serves 4-6 as side dish
Ingredients
3 tablespoons peanut or canola oil
2 tablespoons ginger, peeled and cut into 1-inch batons
4 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
1 head bok choy, washed and separated into individual leaves
1 tablespoon shrimp paste
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 teaspoons sesame-chili oil
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
Directions
In a large saute pan or a wok, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the ginger and garlic, stirring constantly, and cook until softened, about 1 minute. Add the bok choy leaves and cook, stirring often, for about 2 minutes. Add the shrimp paste, soy sauce, rice vinegar and brown sugar and stir well.
Fold in the sesame- chili oil and sesame seeds.
