Friday, July 16, 2010

Bok choy with Tofu and Cashews.

I hope everyone has gotten over their world cup fevers! For some, it must have ended in disappointment as their favorites got knocked out earlier that anticipated. I'm one of them since I am a huge Brazil fan! But at least they lost to Netherlands that eventually finished second. I don't intend to consume this space with my personal analysis of the world cup but it suffices to say that Spain really deserved to win. They outplayed their opponents in every facet of the game.

Things have taken a turn the personal front as well. I'll be moving to India for good! The support I've received has been tremendous, including the food blogosphere. People have been kind enough to answer some of my inane queries regarding availability of ingredients, oven-related concerns and so on ;)

Coming to Bok Choy, it is something that has been flying under my radar for a long time. No real story about it! I've been wanting to try it for quite sometime and after googling for recipes, I got the hang of how to handle Bok Choy and then came up with this recipe on the fly.



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Ingredients:

2 medium size Bok Choys
2 c tofu, cut into 1" cubes and lightly fried on both sides
1/3 - 1/2 c roasted cashew nuts
4-5 dried red chillies
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp finely chopped garlic
2 tbsp finely chopped ginger
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
4 tsp honey
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1 c water+extra for blanching the Bok Choy leaves.
salt to taste.



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1. Cut the Bok Choy stems into 1" pieces after separating the leaves. Blanch the leaves in hot water for about 30 sec. Remove from water and place them on a kitchen towel to dry.

2. Microwave the dried red chillies with 1/3 c water for about a minute. The water will turn red. Allow to cool. Grind into a paste with some salt and a couple of cashew pieces.

3. In a pan (or Wok), add the vegetable oil, garlic and ginger and set the heat to medium-high.

4. When the oil gets hot, add the stems. Sautee for about 3-4 mins until somewhat tender.

5. Add the chilli paste, the blanched leaves, vinegar, tofu cubes and the roasted cashew nuts.

6. Cook for another 2 mins and then add the remaining 1/3 c water.

7. Cook until the stems are tender to your liking.

8. Stir in the sesame oil and top it with toasted sesame seeds.

This goes well with rice and serves 2 pretty hungry people.



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12 comments:

amna said...

the line up of ingredients made for a lovely picture. this is probably the easiest thing for me to whip up in SG, considering the availability of ingredients!

Archana said...

N, u moving back ? hope you are happy with the decision ! will hope to meet u in India, then ! The tray with the ingredients looks absolutely lovely !

Priya Suresh said...

Such a droolworthy dish, looks incredible and i love bokchoy as anything...

Indian Khana said...

Looks gr8 ..shall try as Nags say we can find these things easily here ;)

delhibelle said...

Looks so spicy and scrumptious!
All the best.

Indian Food Rocks said...

All the best with the move, Ajit, and congrats, too! I hope you will continue to blog from India, too. You can get everything in India - ingredients, appliances, etc - as long as you don't care about the carbon footprint or the cost. :-D

Soma said...

Love it. I had almost done the similar thing, but without the honey, tofu and had peanuts instead. was a kind of stirfry with similar flavors.

Good Luck to you. Hopefully you will still feed us from there.

Ramya said...

Hi Just wanted to know how you roasted the cashews?? Cause they look evenly roasted. Shd oil be used a wee bit while roasting???

A_and_N said...

@ Nags: Thanks! I can imagine those tihngs being available in a jiffy in Singapore :)

@ Arch: I'm moving back to India. N will join me in a bit. It'd be nice to meet our food blogger friends!

@ Priya: Give it a try, its good :) But the main ingredient here is cashew.

@ Priti: Thanks! Give it a try when you can.

@Delhibelle: Thanks for the wishes :)

@ Manisha: Thanks Manisha. I'll try to adapt to what is available there. And take tons of stuff with me from here ;)

@ Soma: Thanks! I hope to keep the food blog going. It'll probably be a lot better once N joins me in a bit ;)

@ Ramya: you caught me red handed ;) I bought roasted cashews from Publix. Although the hue in the pictures could also be the result of them soaking in the soy sauce based gravy.

Sherlock said...

Your blog has been on my google reader forever but I just found yesterday. And I am so glad I did! Your posts are lovely:) I will be trying this recipe soon.

-sriyuspeaks.wordpress.com

kelly said...

This sounds so delicious! The ingredients are mouth-watering. We don't have tofu much -- hardly at all, and when we do it's in a restaurant. I need to give this a go :)

Priyanka Agrawal said...

I've bene toying with the thought of bok choy for a while now. I am sure to try your recipe. thank you! :)