The Beauty of Bok Choy

Every dish needs color.  Every dish needs texture.  Every dish needs a variety of tastes going on.  Occasionally, you run into a substance that gives you points in all of these things.  One of those is the underused and under-appreciated bok choy.

Bok choy is a necessity for a good stir fry, which is incidentally what we had for dinner tonight.  It has a vibrant green color and a great crunch; even when sauteed with your other veggies the stem will retain some texture.  More importantly, it also gives you a flavor from one of those rarely used taste buds that most people forget is around: bitter.

There is a bit of bitterness with bok choy.  Now if you are like me, that is just something to be celebrated, maybe even accentuated, just as collard greens' bitterness is one of the better things in life if made right.  But, if bitter is something that gives you pause, there are easy ways to get around it.

First, cut your bok choy into manageable sized pieces.  If your hunks are too big, you will have just bok choy in a bite and the bitterness will come through more strongly.  Second, don't be afraid to braise it or saute it.  There is no rule that states that bok choy must only be blanched.  Pour in a little vegetable stock and cook it down a bit with some salt and red pepper flakes.  Put it in a good pan, add soy sauce, rice vinegar, srirocha, and sesame oil and let it break down that way.  It will absorb flavors, so the bitterness will be a little more hidden.  Finally, pair it with some sweeter vegetables.  Red bell pepper goes well, as the sweetness in that makes for a really good pairing with the bitter notes in the bok choy.

Bitter is your friend.  Embrace it, and embrace the bok choy!