Summer is here, the vegetable gardens are starting to deliver all around us and the time has arrived for vegetable swapping. Nothing to do with Wife Swapping in Suburbia, oh no, much more interesting (well, I’m guessing) and enjoyable. This week we’ve been lucky to get a good supply of pak choi (or bok choy).
Staying with the Asian Food theme, I cooked this quick vegetable dish to enjoy with the Ginger Beef.
Ingredients (serves 2-4)
- 2 tablespoons groundnut oil (I used olive oil)
- 2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
- 300g pak choi, washed and cut if necessary to fit in your wok or frying pan
- 100ml water
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1-2 teaspoons fish sauce
Heat the oil on high and stir fry the garlic for 30 seconds, add the pak choi and continue to stir fry for about 2 minutes (or until it begins to wilt). Add the water, bring to the boil and continue to cook on high for a couple more minutes, turning the vegetable to cook evenly.
Reduce the heat and remove the pak choi to a serving dish, leaving the liquid in the wok. Add the remaining ingredients, stir and turn up to high to reduce a little. Pour the sauce over the vegetables and serve.
Recipe from Gok Cooks Chinese.
Chica Andaluza 
Delicious – that would be good with my barbecue 😉
Hope it was a good one – you certainly have the weather for it. Hope the tooth is better too!
Yes thanks Tanya, though there was no pain, just swelling. I can drink today 😉
Phew, I was getting worried!
After nine days and very hot weather, I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to it. I bought myself a nice bottle of Catalan rosado this morning and it’s chilling in the fridge 😉
Enjoy – you deserve it!
Yum to the max!! Make this all the time and in about the same way as you do!! I’m told bok choi and pak choi are slightly different: well in our markets it’s usually labelled bok choi, and one can get it ‘normal’ sized or small, which is what I use. I’m all into rice bran oil at the moment – almost tasteless and feels ‘virtuous’ 🙂 ! Have a good weekend!!
Hi Eha – it’s such a shame you don’t have a blog, I just know I’d love to read about all the things you cook! My neighbour who gave me the veggies is Californian calls it bok choy and I call it pak choi but we too were not sure if they were indeed slightly different vegetables. Now we know!
Yes, well, sometimes I feel frustrated too!! About being ‘the cuckoo’ I mean!! BUT, I live rurally and don’t enjoy all the conveniences many have and am a ‘mixed’ character: food and gardening and politics and philosophy and some photography. I AM working at it with a number of informal ‘circles’ posted email [post yours > me if you would like everything from blogs to recipes to photos!]. Hate to be a bore 🙂 !
You are neither a bore nor a cuckoo – just a very welcome friend who pops round for a cup of coffee, a glass of wine and a chat!
Vegetable swapping sounds grand! As does a plate of bok choy…
We get our kicks where we can 😉
Ooh delish! We had Pak Choi last night – I love how the stems are all juicy!
Yes, they go tender without going mushy!
I used to make this a lot, before we came to France. Our little supermarche doesn’t stock pak choi, nor do the markets. I miss those flavours. Delicious.
It was a lovely treat for us as we don’t grow it, but I think we will next year as it seems to do really well here and the more you harvest it, the more it grows…
One of my favourite vegetables and this is a great way to cook them Tanya 🙂
So much flavour and the colour is amazing too!
I can’t make out what kind of vegetable this may be……
From now on , I ‘m going to look for it in the various markets I know.
It must be delicious!
It’s a kind of lettuce/cabbage cross – click the link to see it raw!
Thank you!
It’s been years since I made pak choi…might be time to give it another whirl! This sounds so good!
We love it – delicate yet flavourful!
Ooo, scrumity! I could enjoy this as a meal all on it’s own.
🙂 Mandy xo
I’ve made it without a meat dish and eaten it with rice (I needed some carbs!)
Perfick.. and with ginger beef too, what an excellent meal, now i am off to look at your ravioli, i am thinking of making some today too! c
So you’re not having a quiet day then! (Do you ever?!)
Yummo! And for any vegan’s reading this delectable post, you don’t have to sideline yourselves any more! Here are 2 good vegan subs for oyster sauce…
http://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.com.au/2007/02/chinese-style-vegan-beef-and-asparagus.html
and
http://caloriecount.about.com/vegan-oyster-sauce-recipe-r151922
Thanks for that narf! I did realise that it looks veggie but it’s not with the oyster sauce. Am off to check out those recipes now 🙂
We vegans are incredibly inventive when trying to make things taste good. People don’t give us enough credit for our inventiveness. Rabbit food is so far away from what we live on and there are some amazing recipes out there if you sift out the faux processed meat analogs etc. that many vegans seem to live on. I don’t have that option as we just don’t get them here in the shops so I make everything from scratch (healthier and cheaper even if I COULD buy it 😉 ) and at least know that I can make it myself and that I have learned something in the process 🙂
Whilst not vegan or vegetarian, we often have meat or fish free days, so it’s always interesting to look at alternatives. Also, living where we do for most of the year, we don’t have access to “exotic” ingredients but we have an abundance of seasonal fresh produce. So….we enjoy what we have and like you, if we need something “different” we get inventive and learn something along the way 🙂 It’s great fun isn’t it!
It certainly is exciting :). I have been making some interesting things and love that I can just head over to the net and find whatever I want. There is always some inventive soul out there who has been there before I have and has been generous enough to share or at least experiment a bit and put the results online so that we don’t have to make the same mistakes that they did :).
YUM! We always order this dish at any Dim Sum place we go to. My daughter especially loves it and would eat a whole plate on her own. 😀
Now that you mention eating a whole plate to yourself…I did cook it again a few days later when Big Man was out and it was Mine All Mine!
This reminds me of one of my favorite veggie dishes when we eat out. I love the flavors in this recipe:) xx
Who would have thought something so simple could taste so good!
This sounds really tasty, Tanya. I see pak/bak choi in the markets all of the time and haven’t done much with it — not any more! It solves a problem I’ve had. I never know what to serve as a side when I cook an Asian-inspired main that doesn’t have vegetables. I’ll gladly give this one a try. For a change, I’ve got all of the ingredients. Thanks, Tanya.
It sure is good to see you around again. 🙂
It’s great when you have all the ingredients to hand! Am blogging a little less as we seem to be catching up on going out so my cooking is a little reduced right now – which is a good thing and bad thing!
The flavor mix of soy with oyster sauce and fish sauce is perfect! Love the crunchy bok choy spooned over warm basmati rice and perhaps a touch of chili vinegar with it!
I am addicted to chili oil but have never tried chili vinegar…will have to make some!
Beautiful. And “a touch of chili vinegar” is just perfect – so even my husband will eat it :). And since I seem to be the only one who knows this vegetable and buys it in our new (Dubai style) grand hypermarket (oh bliss!!!!!) I stock up very well each week. Other customers regularly stop me in the aisle and ask what is it and what you do with it.
Answer: Bok Choy and I eat it! 🙂 🙂 🙂
I love it when people ask me about ingredients I buy – I like to think of people finally plucking up the courage to try something they have been looking at but not knowing how to cook it. And I, of course, am also quick to ask people about what they have in their baskets if it’s new to me!
Yummy, yummy, yummy. and hasn’t the weather been grand!
I hear it’s glorious in the UK, hope it holds till the end of August (but I won’t hold my breath) enjoy it!
I just love any of the “choi” veggies, but haven’t tried them with oyster sauce. The combo of the sauce and garlic sounds perfect….
Can highly recommend it!
just about to sow some more pak or bok choy or choi …… it does ok here in autumn, if you can keep the slugs of it. and I like it like this, simple, and quick and tasty.
and reading Eha’s comments – yes she should blog!!!
I’ll be there in the autumn (lurking round your allotment)! And yes…Eha should SO blog, she writes so beautifully and we know she cooks 🙂
dishes are simple but appetizing meals Asian people … I like it