BAK choi, pak choi, choi sum, green pak. When fresh, light vegetables are scarce, the crisp flavours of the Chinese greens are a delight.
Bak choi, with its slinky white stalk and deep green leaves, needs nothing more than to be quickly stir fried with some chopped garlic, maybe shaking on some soy sauce at the end, but I wanted to try some with a recipe for Japanese dressing from Richard Whittington's book, Cutting Edge.
Japanese Dressing
2 teaspoons mustard powder
3 tablespoons soy sauce
Juice of half a lemon
1 teaspoon olive oil
6 heads bak choi
Separate the leaves of the bak choi and wash them well. Drain them, heat a frying pan, add a tablespoon of vegetable oil and stir fry the leaves with two cloves of finely chopped garlic. Don't have the heat too intense, so the process will take a couple of minutes, during which time stir the leaves and garlic in the pan. The stalks must remain crisp. Remove to a warm serving dish.
Mix the ingredients for the dressing and spoon over the Chinese greens when still hot.