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This was a meal I could make easily sitting most of the time.  The salmon recipe comes from the Costco magazine.  The Bok Choy is from a cookbook I bought while living in CA.  This months Fine Cooking has about a dozen Bok Choy recipes.  I’ve tried a couple and haven’t been pleased.  The other night I was laying in bed and remembered the recipe.  I knew it was in a black Chinese cookbook.  I found it and it was dated 10-26-1996.  My memory served me well, they were delicious.

For the Salmon:

Ingredients:

1 1/2# whole salmon fillet

Kosher Salt and black ground pepper

1 T fresh lemon juice

2 t EVOO

2 t honey

1 t Dijon mustard

1 fresh garlic clove,  minced

1/4 C panko

1/3 C pistachios, crushed

2 T Parmesan cheese, grated

Zest of 1 lemon

Lemon slices and parsley leaves, for serving, optional

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Place the salmon on a large parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet.  Pat salmon dry with paper towels.   Season with  slat and pepper, set aside.
3. In a small bowl, which together the lemon juice, oil, honey, mustard and garlic.  
4. In another small bowl, combine the panko, pistachios, cheese and lemon zest.
5. Brush the lemon-honey mixture evenly over the salmon.  
6. Evenly sprinkle the pistachio mixture onto the salmon.  Gently press down so it sticks.  
7. Bake salmon 10-14 minutes or until the salmon flakes easily with a fork (Internal temperature145 degree F).
8. Serve salmon garnished with lemon slices and parsley.

Makes 4 servings.

 

For the Bok Choy

Ingredients:

1# BokChoy

1 T peanut oil

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1/2 t salt

1 T water, if needed

Directions:

1. Prepare the bok choy by removing the stalks with leaves from the stem.  If the stalks are wide, split them in half.  Cut the stalks with leaves into 3” pieces.  Peel the stems and cut it thinly at a slight angle.  Wash the bok shot in sever changes of cold water.  Drain and set aside.  (This step is much easier if you use baby bok choy.  I cut the larger ones in half and trimmed the bottoms.)
2. Heat a wok until it is hot.  Add the oil and garlic cloves and stir fry for 30 seconds.  Add the salt and bok chip and stir-fry for 1 minute over high heat.  If the mixture seems dry, add a T of water.  Continue stir-frying for 4 minutes.  
3. Turn onto a serving dish and serve at once.

It says serves 4 as part of a meal.  We ate the whole thing.  Jim tried to eat the whole salmon, but I stopped him. 

This recipe is from Milk Street and I really blew it.  I rack it up to my back being so bloody bad.  First we went to the Chinese market.  I let Jim talk me into this package of Udon noodles that I knew were wrong.  I knew it was one of those lunch with noodles packages.  But for some unknown reason I listened to some one whose knowledge of cooking ranks below zero.  So, I did not have enough noodles.  Then the package of pork was weird and I just dumped the entire package in.  So instead of having too much for the amount of noodles, I had way too much.  Basically it tasted good; I am going to make it again when I feel better.  I just ordered the correct noodles from Amazon since I can’t walk trough a grocery store.  

Ingredients: 

12 oz. dried wide, thick Asian wheat noodles, Udon.  (The noodles will be visible through the packaging.)  

2 T grapeseed oil

8 oz. fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and finely chopped

12 oz.  ground pork

4 scallions, white and light green parts minced, dark green tops thinly sliced

4 medium garlic cloves, minced

1/2 t red pepper flakes

1/2 C dry sherry

3 T black bean garlic sauce

1 T hoisin sauce

1 T low sodium soy sauce

2 T +1 t unseasoned rice wine vinegar

1/2 English cucumber, thinly sliced on the diagonal, then cut into matchsticks.  (I have a handy device I bought in France that looks like a peeler with jagged edges.  It makes matchsticks.  I think a noodle twister, that might do it also.)

Directions:

1. Bring 4 guards of water to a boil.  Do not add salt!  Add the noodles and cook until al dente, 5-6 minutes.  Reserve 1 C of the cooking water, then drain the noodles and rinse under cool water until cold.  Drain well, then set aside in the colander.  
2. Meanwhile in a 12” skillet or large wok over medium-high, heat the oil until shimmering.  
3. Add the mushrooms and cook until softened and it clinging to the bottom of the pan begin to brown, about 3 minutes.  
4. Add the pork and  cook until crispy and caramelized, about 6 minutes.
5. Stir in the minced scallions, garlic and pepper flakes, then cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.  
6. Add the sherry and cook, scraping the pan, until evaporated.
7. Stir in the reserved cooking water, black bean sauce, hoisin and soy sauce.  Bring to a simmer and cook over medium, stirring occasionally and breaking up any large bits of pork, until the sauce has the consistency of thin gravy, 4-5 minutes.
8. Off heat, stir in 2 T of the vinegar.  
9. While the sauce simmers, season the cucumber with the remaining 1 t of rice vinegar.  
10. Divide the noodles among 4 serving bowls, then spoon the sauce over them.  
11. Top with sliced scallion greens and cucumber.  
12. Serves 4.  

I had planned to make Baby Bok Choy with this dish from an older Chinese Cookbook that I bought when we lived in CA.  That day the new Fine Cooking magazine came.  It is loaded with bok choy recipes and I intend to make them all.  I chose the easiest as I know the above recipe would take time.  As I was using my stove top wok, I should have gotten out my electric wok, but I didn’t.  Big mistake.

Ingredients:

4 baby boy choy, halved and trimmed

1 T butter melted

1 t chives, fresh and minced

salt and pepper 

Directions:

1. Place baby bok choy in a steamer basket over simmering water.  
2. Cover and steam until stem ends are just tender when pierced, about 6 minutes.  
3. Drizzle with melted butter and chives.
4. Season to taste.

Monday and Tuesday I spent the day at the Lift Opera Center helping to get the LBN invites put together and mailed.  Then later Tuesday I had PT.  We ate the NYE pizza and NYD soup for dinner those days.  

Finally cooking again and still with Milk Street.  It is listed in the Fastest Section.

Ingredients:

8 oz. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into rough 1/4” pieces

1 1/2 T oyster sauce

Kosher salt and white pepper

1 QT. low-sodium chicken broth

1 1/2 C jasmine rice, rinsed and drained

1 T grapeseed oil

8 oz. fresh or 1 oz. dried shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and caps thinly sliced.  (If using dry, you must hydrate in water until they are soft.)

1 T fresh ginger, finely grated

1# baby bock why, trimmed and cut crosswise into 1/2” pieces

5 scallions, thinly sliced

Toasted sesame oil to serve

Directions:

1. Caution:  don’t use a pot smaller that 6 quarts to cook the rice or the starchy liquid my over flow.
2. In a small bowl, stir together the chicken,  oyster sauce and 1/4t white pepper.  Set aside.  
3. Ina large dutch oven over medium-high, combine 4 C water, the broth, rice and 2 t salt.  Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Reduce to low, cover and  simmer, stirring once or twice, until the rice is tender, about 8 minutes.
4. While the rice cooks, in a 12” nonstick skillet over medium-high, heat the grapeseed oil until barely smoking.  Add the mushrooms and 1/2 t salt and cook, stirring, until softened and shrunken in size, about 3-4 minutes.  Add the chicken and cook, stirring, until no longer pink, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the ginger.  Turn off the heat, stir in the bok choy and set aside until rice is ready. 
5. When the rice is tender, quickly stir in the bok choy-chicken mixture.  Turn off the heat, cover and let stand until the bok choy stems are crisp-tender, about 3 minutes.  
6. Taste and season with salt (Believe me it does not need any.)
7. Ladle into bowls.  Sprinkle with additional white pepper and scallions, then drizzle with sesame oil.  

This makes a lot and we have leftovers. Good thing as we had, for Nashville, a disastrous snowstorm, 7”.  I know you northerners are laughing, but we only have 13 snow plows and Boston is the same area and has 300.  They can barely keep the express ways open.  My PT for Friday was cancelled.  No one is going anywhere, except the 95 cars, bus, and fire truck crashes reported to the police as of noon on Thursday.  The remaining population wasn’t that stupid.  The snow started at 7:30 AM here.  I got up at 7:00 and there was nothing.  By 8:00 you couldn’t see the grass.  It continued to about 4:30 PM.  I know as Jim was eager to use his snow plow.  He went out at about 5:00 and plowed the driveway.  He said there was slush under all that snow so he wanted to get it off before it froze.  He didn’t get the whole bottom cleared as it got too slick.  He said a snow plow came down and cleared one lane on our road but it was iced over.  

Remember the Chinese cooking cooking class?  Well, The Kitchen had a show called easy weeknight dinners.  Jeff Mauro made this Wonton Dinner Soup.  Did you know you can buy remade frozen wontons?  Neither did I.  You can and this soup was delicious.  Unfortunately, it is not enough servings for 2 when Jim is eating.  Next time I will double the recipe.  this meal was ready in a flash and better tasting than the soup we made in the class.  We could not find a 12 oz. package, so I have a large bag of wontons in the freezer.  

Ingredients:

2 T vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic, finely grated with a rasp

1 T fresh ginger, grated with a rasp

3 scallions, thinly sliced, greens and whites separated

4 oz. shiitake mushrooms, sliced

5 C chicken bone broth or low-sodium chicken broth

4 heads baby bok choy, quartered lengthwise

2 T soy sauce

1 (12 oz.) package frozen wontons (about 20)

Kosher salt

Directions:

1. In a medium pot or Dutch oven, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat. 
2. Add the garlic, ginger, and white parts of the scallions and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, 1-2 minutes.  
3. Add the shiitakes and cook until they begin to soften, another minute.
4. Add the broth and bring to boil.  
5. Add the bok choy and simmer, stirring, stirring occasionally, until the bok choy is tender, 4-5 minutes.  
6. Add the soy sauce and stir.
7. Add the wontons and cook until they are cooked through, 2-3 minutes.  
8. Taste and season if necessary.  
9. Ladle into bowls, then top with the scallions greens.  Serve immediately.  

Yesterday was my outside PT.  I’m about 50% recovered, so I have to keep it up at home.  I will because I still have to use a walker.  The muscle is not strong enough yet and when I use a cane, it objects.  Working out the kinks is a massage technic.  The therapist taught Jim how to do it yesterday.  Since I had vegetables for dinner last night, I decided to make Jim beef or dinner.  Again we went to Jamie Oliver 5 Ingredients.  This recipe serves 2.  We increased the bok choy to 4.  The meal did not set well with me.  I had some 7up and went to bed.  About 9:30, I woke up and my stomach had stopped hurting, finished my 7up and went back to sleep.

This recipe has a strange way of cooking the beef.  I don’t mind cutting off the fat, but I would recommend spraying the pan or using a small amount of oil.  It is 11 WW Pt

Ingredients:

10 oz. strip steak about 3/4” thick

1 1/2” piece of fresh ginger root

1 T white miso paste

2 t liquid honey

2 or more bok choy

Directions:

1. Pull the fat off the strip loin, finely slice the fat, and place it in a cold non-stick pan.  Put on a medium-high heat to crisp up while you peel and matchstick the ginger, then add that to crisp up too.  
2. Cut off the sinew, then dice the steak into 1 1/4” chunks and toss with the miso until well coasted.  
3. Scoop the crispy fat and ginger out and put aside, then add the steak chunks to the pan.  Cook 4 minutes, tossing regularly, then drizzle in the honey and 1 T red wine vinegar.  Toss for 1 more minute until shinny and sticky. 
4. Meanwhile, halve the bok choy, cook in a pan  of boiling water for just 1 minute so they retain a bit of crunch, then drain well and plate up.  
5. Spoon over the steak and sticky juices from the pan, and finish with the reserved crispy bits.