This year I decided to join a CSA and get big hulking bags of produce once a week from a local farm. All well and good, and I was looking forward to having to come up with stuff to do with extremely local and profoundly seasonal produce - a little offputting when I got the Enormous Greens Explosion last week, which was my first week, though! (Luckily I found their online newsletter had a sort of “spotters guide”, 'cause, I mean, mizuna?) I used the kale in a soup, I made a salad out of the speckled lettuce and the mizuna and the baby beet greens and the radishes. But I still have a whole freaking head of bok choy.
I know you can stir fry it, I know you can braise it. I’m getting another load today so that bok choy has got to get gone! Tell me your favorite thing to do with it.
I like to fry off some little bits of bacon so that they’re starting to go crispy, but aren’t brittle, then throw the thinly-sliced bok choi in with it for a minute and dress it with a bit of stock or some soy sauce. I know that’s only a stir fry, but bacon works really well with it. I could eat a mountain of that with some mashed potatoes.
I like to steam it. I actually like the flavor of it without any seasoning at all. But I’m weird that way.
I have, in all seriousness, occasionally considered starting a thread entitled, “How many foods can we name that bacon IS NOT good with? (because I can only think of a few)” or something similar.
Once, while discussing home made meals, I told a Chinese American coworker that I steamed bok choy. She lost her shit and had a laughing fit. “Nobody steams bok choy!” It was really surreal.
Oh, christ. Just saw the newsletter - I’ve got another big fat bag of kale coming! I don’t like kale! It reminds me of washing damned turnip greens with my grandma when I was a kid. It makes me think of ham hocks, and not in a nice way. Any idea what to do with kale if you don’t particularly care for cooked greens?
It depends on what kind of kale. I don’t care much for the big tough kind, but it can be okay in soups. Try searching on Portuguese kale soup and see if that looks good.
I do like the dinosaur/black kale, though. It’s much more tender and goes well sauteed with plenty of garlic and a dash of vinegar alongside rich meats like steak or lamb.
I do like a lot of cooked greens, though, just not standard kale.
I like to invite some bok choy over, turn the lights down low, and put on the Barry White mood music. Then, over candlelight, I like to lean in, caress those green leafy tresses, cup my hands around those gorgeous milky white, bulbous stalks and whisper sweet nothings directly into the head. Then I like to get my bok choy nice and wet. We head over to the nearest faucet, where a vigorous shower of clear cold water gets us to the shiver point and when we can stand it no longer, we proceed to the hot tub, gingerly dipping one appendage in at a time. Yeah baby, just me and my bok choy getting our hot tub on, with full Jacuzzi jets massaging our fibrous cellulose membranes. Good times…
Give it a stir-fry with a little garlic, and a minute or two before it’s done, dribble some prepared oyster sauce over it plus a little water to help it in its final cooking.