One of our friends grills a fine bok choy on the charcoal behemoth he keeps on his patio; so whenever we’re out and he spots a nice batch o’ these tasty little cabbages, Rich likes pick up a few to try on our grill at home. I haven’t quite reached our friend’s level of bok choy mastery, but this recipe is getting close, I think.
One note, a lot of baby bok choy doesn’t really go that far – this bowl, which was OK for the two of us, filled a 6×9-ish package at Trader Joe’s when we picked it up.
INGREDIENTS
•8 (or so) baby bok choy
•1/4 cup sweet chili sauce
•1 tbsp rice vinegar
•2 tsp low-sodium tamari (or soy sauce)
•1 tsp chili sesame oil (or plain sesame oil)
•1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
•1 tsp Aleppo pepper
•1 tsp sea salt
Slice the bok choy in half, rinse under cold water, if desired, then set aside to air dry or run through your salad spinner.
Crush the Sichuan pepper corns together with the Aleppo pepper and sea salt in a mortar and pestle… or, just put them all in a heavy bowl or plastic bag and given ’em a good whack! with a heavy-ish object.
Whisk together the sweet chili sauce, rice vinegar, Tamari, and sesame oil in a bowl, then add the crushed peppers and salt and give it all another good whisk. Set aside.
Arrange the bok choy on a flat-bottomed bowl or plate and pop into the ‘wave for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes. The recipe I was referencing to make this one recommended 3 to 5 minutes, I went with 3, and thought the bok choy came out a touch too well done; but you do what you like.
Toss the ‘waved bok choy with the sauce and heat your grill to medium. We had planned on doing these on the Weber, but the weather was not great for cooking outside, so I used my kitchen grill.
Arrange the bok choy halves on the grill and cook for 1 to 3 minutes per side, until they begin to get nicely charred, brushing with additional sauce from the bowl as needed, or as you feel like it.
As I’ve noted in the past, my kitchen grill is great for a lot of stuff, but does not get as hot as our Weber, so if you are doing these on a real grill, do watch them, and watch your cooking time.
Still and all, pretty darned tasty bok choy.
We had ours with some pan-fried frozen pot stickers we picked up at Trader Joe’s along with the bok choy (and a bottle or two of my favorite Côtes du Rhône) and a good drizzle of my home made pot sticker sauce…
which will be tomorrow’s post.
Enjoy!