This week’s mystery ingredient was a tough one for me as not only have I never cooked with this ingredient, I’ve never eaten it as well. At least I don’t remember eating it before. I feel like it has become a pretty common ingredient so I may have eaten at some point in my life. 

So, are you ready to find out what this week’s ingredient is???

It is………..

Bok Choy!

Bok choy is Chinese Cabbage, but it’s not at all like the cabbage that looks like iceberg lettuce. Taste-wise it doesn’t have a very pronounced flavor, I decided to make a sweet/salty glaze to go with it. This recipe is fully vegan, paleo, gluten free, and whatever else diet is in right now.

Basically, it’s guilt free. And the glaze is great to put on many other things. Other things like meat, seafood and veggies

So this is what I used for my glaze:

That there on the left over there yonder is honey with saffron. Uh huh. Get into it.

Plus you need 3 cloves of garlic and two little pieces of ginger:

Slice the garlic into slices.

Slice the ginger into discs. No need to peel the ginger for this.

Pour 1/4 cup of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of mirin, 2 tablespoons of honey, the garlic, ginger and a sprinkle of sesame seeds into a small saucepan.

Stir and bring to boil then reduce to simmer. You want it to reduce down to glaze. Thin enough to drizzle and thick enough so that it’s not watery like broth.

While that happens, heat up some oil in a large pan and then cut your bok choy in half, lengthwise.

Sprinkle on a little S&P.

Once the pan is hot, lay the bok choy in, cut side down and cook for a few minutes on high heat until golden brown and then flip over.

By now, your glaze should have thickened. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking. I tasted it and felt it was a bit too potent to I added a squeeze of lemon juice to brighten everything up and it was perfect. 

If it’s too intense for you add some lemon juice or a touch of water. If it’s too salty add a bit of honey. If it’s too sweet add a dash of soy sauce. You get the idea. 

Once the flavors are to your liking, strain out the garlic and ginger and sesame seeds. They have done all they could for you and now it’s time to set them free, into your trash can.

Place your bok choy on a plate and drizzle on the glaze and another sprinkling of sesame seeds. Enjoy alone or as a side dish with any protein. 

I had it with a fillet of white fish. It was great. I gotta say though, the glaze made it. I’m not a huge fan of bok choy. I wanna try using this glaze on other things and seeing how that turns out.

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