Betty Crocker. I'll call her Betty here as we've known each other long enough now. You have sorely let me down tonight. Lending context to the reference for anyone who is not my mother or bf will know that I "consult" Betty Crocker's "Big Red" Cookbook. The one passed down generation by generation. The one with the batter splotch splatted right atop the picture of the Rosemary Roast Chicken or the lovely pineapple baked ham. Or the one that is brand spanking new that your new husband just spilled a pot of coffee on - Oh Gosh. The ever ready house expert in all matters of basic cooking did not include a picture, description nor instructions for Bok Choy.
Now, cooking and me - we are pals. I'm forgiving of the cuts, burns, broken fingernails and dry, chapped hands whilst I reap famous blueberry cobbler, fresh strawberry pie, put by corn, carrots and green beans, sauteed' fish and the Classic Thanksgiving Dinner.
I began my love affair with cooking when I first saw Julia Child. One of the shows I remember fondly was her lesson on garlic. I watched her carefully cut each end and then hold her knife up and say "WHAM" - as she simultaneously let the wide end of her blade crash down flat on the head of garlic. I was hooked! From there I started reading cookbooks - one being Betty Crocker's - and learning the basics by trying recipes for which I had all the ingredients on hand.
So, when I bought a head of Bok Choy tonight to include in a recipe found in the newest issue of Real Simple Magazine, I knew right where to turn. Flipping through the overused cardboard tabs to "Vegetables" and then looking at pictures and through descriptions: baby vegetables, broccoli rabe, celeriac - wait a minute...no bok choy?
Resort to Google Search "bok choy istructions." I didn't take the time to read full descriptions so I searched for key words - in context of what I know. I found "Chinese Cabbage" - okay, I'm Hungarian, I don't need instructions for cabbage. Proceed to slice the bok choy, bottom first and saw an unsightly mound of dirt resting in the underside of the stem. Okay, so, not cabbage. This has now become a leek. Leek protocol is the the slice/soak/spin method of cleaning. Steps should be self explanatory.
In the meantime, new recipe prep is in crisis phase. I don't know the technical term but it's usually the 10 minutes before you need to serve the thing and you have to do something very complicated, very fast, usually when you've never done it before. Crisis phase can be even more stressful if preceded by 8 hours of crock-pot cooking, otherwise known as a 10-hour work day.
Crisis now averted, the boyfriend strolls into the room, grabs a handful of the interesting vegetable resting in the spin and says, "Whooo, I like the new veggie, it's kind of like a radish or a head of celery. Bok Choy is just like celery but with really leafy green tops. You must clean the parts that rest close to the base - think where you need to clean the white parts of the celery. You can use both the base part and the leafy parts. It is especially great folded in the last minutes of a crock pot soup or hearty stew. This is the culmination of what I leaned tonight about Bok Choy. It was a multi-media effort, but eventually I figured it out.
What ended up being my downfall in this dish was the garlic-chili sauce. The recipe called for 1-2 tablespoons. Note to self and for the protection of other innocent bystanders that others might inflict, when using an unfamiliar ingredient, go the conservative route and choose the lower end of the 1-2 scale, especially when you have procured said item adjacent the Sriracha in the "foods around the world" section of "this is my only choice" Grocers.
A cook's ultimate compliment was received by me tonight when my boyfriend said matter-of-factly, "hey honey, this isn't too hot, I really like the bok choy. It tastes better than the Jiffy Wok!" Thanks, sweet, thanks. Methinks it super to be compared to order-by-picture Chinese take-out.
Ro's Picks for the Week
Betty Crocker's Cookbook
Google Docs - budgets
