Roughly three weeks or so ago, a new Asian market opened up near my neighborhood. I cannot tell you thrilled I was to know that I actually could cut my commute in half when I needed a special Asian ingredient. The location of this store is in Greenfield, Wisconsin, near the intersection of Highway 100 and Oklahoma Avenue near the Southtown Shopping Center. As much as I would like to give you the name of the store, I cannot, as it is in Chinese characters, but it might be Meingh Hei. Guessing aside, this is one great little store, and the few times I have been there, it has been packed with Chinese customers! I often am amazed at how many customers are in the store as the area itself does not lend itself to a large Chinese community, but they are there, and they are shopping for fresh and frozen ingredients. I was toured the shop, I was amazed that they had everything from the array of rice, noodles, sauces, and teas, but also fresh produce, a meat counter, and fresh seafood (Yes, they have my favorite blue crabs there as well!). My recent visit however, I wanted to purchase some of their fresh greens, and bok choy is one of my favorites.
Not sure if you are like me, but when going to a great Chinese restaurant, I really like to order some of the stir fried greens whether they be bok choy, Chinese broccoli, or cabbage. I love the flavors of oyster sauce and garlic. So this week has already started off to be a hectic week, not only in a work schedule, but also in the family schedule. I knew I needed to be able to make something quick, and easy. I already had rice on hand as my kids love soy sauce and rice, so I decided to make a quick stir fry of bok choy and a killer stir fry sauce that you will probably want to use on all of your stir fry dishes!
Ingredients for the Stir Fry Sauce:
- 3 tbsp of soy sauce
- 3 tbsp of rice wine vinegar
- 6 cloves of garlic, minced
- 3 tbsp of oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp dark sesame oil
- 1 tsp chili paste
- 3 tbsp of brown sugar
- 2 tbsp of sherry cooking wine
- pinch of black pepper
If you do not have these ingredients, pay a visit to your local Asian mart. They are inexpensive and can be used in a lot of different marinades. To make the sauce, combine all of your ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until all fo the sugar dissolves. You can seal this and place in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks as well, which is pretty awesome.
Ingredients for the Bok Choy stir fry:
- 3 bunches of baby bok choy, rinsed, white end cut off
- 3 or more tbsp of stir fry sauce
- 1 tsp of olive oil
- cooked white rice (optional)
Begin by trimming the white ends of the bok choy. Chop the bok choy, or heck, you can leave them whole if you want. It just depends on how you want to present the dish. Heat a large skillet on medium to high heat, adding the olive oil. Add the chopped bok choy, and drizzle about two tablespoons of the stir fry sauce on top of it. Give a good stir, or flip, and let this reduce down. When the white ends are slightly tender, add a couple of more tablespoons of the stir fry sauce, mix, and plate. Simple as that. You can have a killer bok choy stir fry on your plate in no time at all.
Serve with warm, white rice.