Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

bok choy

Sunday actually turned out to be quite the day for cooking. I followed up the cookies with dinner, in the form of steamed shrimp, rice and bok choy. (I swear it was more appetizing than this photo makes it look.)

The steamed shrimp and rice is so incredibly easy, it’s become something of a standby. The rice cooker does all the work. First, in the main nonstick bowl, I’ll throw in a cup or two of jasmine rice, plus whatever quantity of water that brand of rice requires (this particular one is a 1:1 ratio). Next, I’ll insert the steamer basket and add a handful of frozen shrimp, drizzling the the shrimp with some olive oil and giving it a nice dusting of Old Bay. Then I’ll set it to “rice cooker” mode and let it go. While it cooks, the olive oil and Old Bay will drip down and flavor the rice as well.

And then there’s the bok choy. We’ve started using baby bok choy in Rob’s double tofu soup, and it adds a nice bit of body and texture. Simply Recipes featured a really fab-looking bok choy and cashew dish last month, and, inspired by that, I wanted to try using bok choy in a non-soup setting.

Rob’s the king of veggie-cooking in the house, so he took the reins on this one. (This was an “eyeball it” kind of dish, so all measurements are pretty inexact.) He started by heating the pan and adding 1-2 tbsp of olive oil and a light dusting of garlic powder. Then he added four chopped green onions and about ¼ cup of roasted unsalted cashews. (We like to add the cashews early on in the cooking so they soften up a bit.) After that, he tossed in three heads of baby bok choy that had been pulled apart and stirred in about a tablespoon of oyster sauce (for a salty / savory taste) and a pinch of sugar (to help cut some of the bitterness). He let it sit for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until the bok choy’s leaves had wilted and the stalks had begun to soften but still had some crispness. (Rob applies the same basic recipe, minus the cashews, to cooking green beans, spinach and bean sprouts.)

It was a bit of an experiment, but it came out really well. I guess it’ll be something new to add to the veggie arsenal.