Every Wednesday, New York Times has a food & dinning section where they talk about food, restaurants and share recipes. This past Wednesday’s edition was “The United States of Thanksgiving” and had numerous recipes. One of the recipes that piqued my interest is this glazed shitake mushrooms with bok choy. I had initially planned on cooking something else for this week’s CCChallenge but after seeing this recipe, I thought if I am going to make it for CCChallenge, I might as well do it before Thanksgiving.

I made half the recipe and followed it as given. The only change or rather only ingredient I left out is sugar. And I substituted Chinese chilies with Indian red chilies. Recipe looks lengthy but it is not. The only time consuming part of the preparation is boiling water to blanch bok choy. Mushrooms are sauteed or stir fried in a hot pan and served over a bed of blanched bok choy. I served it with some white rice, grilled fish and some curry. Obviously it did not pair well with the curry but it was good with fish & white rice. I ate it as it is, without mixing it with rice.

When I take pictures, I like to take my own sweet time to set up and shoot at my own pace. Since I made this for lunch today, I did not have much time and took a very quick picture. I did not even check my settings. Luckily, the above image is not that bad.

Source: New York Times 2014 Thanksgiving Edition
Total Time: 20 – 30 minutes
Preparation: 15 – 20 minutes (time required to boil water)
Cooking Time: 5 – 10 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. Baby Bok Choy (I used regular bok choy)
• 1 ½ tbsp. Vegetable Oil (I used olive oil)
• 1 – 2 small Dry Red Chinese Hot Peppers (I used 2 long red dry chilies from Indian store)
• ½ lb. Shitake Mushrooms
• ¼ tsp. Salt (adjust to taste)
• 1/8 tsp. Black Pepper Powder (adjust to taste)
• 2 big Cloves of Garlic minced
• ½ tbsp. grated Ginger
• ½ tbsp. Sugar (I did not use it)
• ½ tsp. Sesame Oil
• 1 ½ tbsp. Soya Sauce or Tamari Sauce (I used 1 tbsp. dark Soya sauce)
• 3 Scallions sliced diagonally, for garnish (it depends on the size of the scallion and used only 1)
• ½ tbsp. Roasted Sesame seeds for garnish (opt.)

Preparation:

• Bok Choy – In a 4 quart pan bring water to boil. Add 2 tsp. of salt.
• Wash bok choy and cut off the stems. I left about 1-2″ of the stem towards the leaves but next time I will discard that too.
• Once the water comes to a boil, drop the leaves in the water and cook for 1-2 minutes, until the leaves are barely cooked. I cooked for 2 minutes but if using baby bok choy, I would recommend less than 2 minutes.
• Remove from water or drain in a colander and run under cold water. Pat dry the leaves and arrange in a platter or an oven safe dish. I let the leaves dry on paper towels until my mushrooms were ready.
• Mushrooms – Remove the caps of the mushrooms, wash and keep aside. If the mushrooms caps are big, cut them into two. Discard the stems.
• Heat a wok or cast iron pan on high heat, add oil and heat until smoking hot. Add peppers, mushrooms and stir.
• Season with salt & black pepper, and stir fry for 2 minutes until mushrooms shrink in size.
• Reduce the heat; add garlic, ginger, sesame oil, soya/tamari sauce and sugar if using. Stir fry for 1 – 2 minutes.
• Serving – Place bok choy on a platter or an oven safe dish in a single layer or in two layers as I did. Spoon mushrooms on to arranged bok choy. Sprinkle scallions and sesame seeds on mushrooms to garnish. I served it at room temperature but if one wishes, cover it with foil and reheat in a hot oven for 10 – 15 minutes. If reheating, garnish the mushrooms after reheating.

Events: This is my entry for this week’s Cooking from Cookbook Challenge.