Bok choy bounty

The little rosette in the middle of my bok choy, depicted above, is not something you’d see in an exhibition-standard specimen.  It indicates the plant in question has gone to seed.  Far from being ashamed, I am absolutely delighted I kept something alive long enough for it to reach the gone to seed stage.

I am not the only creature in my neighbourhood who seems to enjoy bok choy, given the amount of nibbling something was doing on my hapless plants, risking the very existence of this blog post.

Luckily, my third ever gardening-related purchase saved the day. This little spray bottle below (which happened to be gift-wrapped in cellophane and metallic pink ribbon for Father’s Day – apologies readers, I did not think to capture this image) filled with a blend of dishwashing liquid, warm water and baking soda put a stop to the nibblers.  There you have it, a hot gardening tip for you all along with my ramblings about food.

The bok choy one buys in a shop tends to be robust and very leafy in my experience.  My little crop of bok choy was much smaller in size.  Good things come in small packages however – they were lovely and green and pretty when picked.  I almost felt bad about eating them.

It’s not surprising that the majority of recipes you might consider involving bok choy are Chinese in flavour.  Bok choy, after all, hails from China and is even known as Chinese Cabbage by some.

So, when it came to deciding how to treat my tiny little harvest, a simple combination of soy sauce, ginger and garlic seemed only natural, not wishing to drown the tender little leaves.  I gently stir-fried my bok choy in one sliced garlic clove, a tablespoon of grated ginger, a liberal sprinkling of soy sauce and a little vegetable oil.

They were sweet and tender, and I gobbled them up from the top a large mound of jasmine rice, with a sprinkling of sesame seeds and some chicken with lemon juice.