My question about what to do with Celeriac brought in some great ideas. My favorites were:
- Mashed celeriac (just like mashed potatoes, with or without some potato)
- Celeriac soup (made like potato-leek soup but substituting the celeriac for the potato)
- Celeriac remoulade (julienned celeriac tossed in a mayonnaise vinaigrette).
I liked the suggestions so much that I may make this a regular feature.
*I really, really loved the celeriac soup. Delicious. Thank you for the idea, Tom!
My next cry for help is about Bok Choy.
Bok Choy is one of the stars of winter farmers markets. Even in the depths of our cold season, I can find good looking Bok Choy. But what do I do with it? I think of it as an Asian vegetable; it is commonly referred to as Chinese cabbage. So I stir-fry it, or I...well, I stir fry it.
I have two stir-fry recipes for Bok Choy, and I use them over and over. My base technique is to separate the white stems from the leaves and slice them both thin. Then I stir-fry the stems with some garlic, ginger and red pepper flake until crisp-tender, and finally add the leaves to wilt. One of my recipes is to finish the Bok Choy stir-fry with a light lemon sauce. The other is to sprinkle on salt and Szechuan pepper to taste. I love both these techniques, but I've already used them this month, and I bought more Bok Choy at the market last weekend.
So, faithful readers, I'm asking for help. What do I do now? What do you do with Bok Choy? Any new stir-fry sauces I should try? Any other ways you like to cook and serve it? Please leave some ideas in the comments section below.
Thank you!
Marni says
My family's from the Philippines and we make bok choy and pork soup, which we serve over jasmine rice.
This involves chopping some pork loin (maybe a pound or two?) into 1in cubes then browning said cubes in a medium saucepot (about 4qt) with coarsely chopped garlic.
Add bay leaf, a few whole peppercorns and water to fill the pot and simmer until pork is tender. Lastly, add well washed, coarsely chopped bok choy and season with patis (fish sauce) and soy sauce. Simmer until bok choy is tender.
It's very brothy, so it's necessary to eat with a spoon even over rice.
Mark says
The tops came out delicious, but the stems were a little too mushy for my taste. If I had a re-do, I would probably go a different direction with the stems. Have you ever done fried celery? I'm guessing the stems would sub nicely and would pair well with the dressed tops.
MikeV @ DadCooksDinner says
@DineInDiva, Tino:
Grilling! Of all the ways to cook Bok Choy, you'd think I would try that one...Thank you!
@Josh's Dad:
I have not tried an Italian flavor profile with them - let me know how it goes.
Tino says
Totally agreed with @DineInDiva ... grilling it is an awesome way to use it.
There are a couple of ways I enjoy bok choy. One way is simply steamed with garlic. Another way is steamed, then finished with a soy/oyster sauce combo. I had something similar recently at Li Wah up in Cleveland and it was fantastic.
A final way I've enjoyed bok choy was in soup with tofu, You really could use chicken, pork, or vegetable stock as your soup base. Of course, that depends on how adventurous your kids are.
BTW, my pleasure on the celeriac soup tip. Delicious and simple ... a great combination!
Josh's Dad says
Hmm...you've inspired me. I'm going to pick some up tonight and see what I can do with it. Given tonight's menu, though, I'm going to go Italian instead of Asian. Maybe roast the stems as I would a fennel bulb, and then a garlic-balsamic dressing for the tops?
DineInDiva says
Grill It! This works best with the baby version, but you could quarter the larger ones - http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/grilled-bok-choy