Reader Ashanti was asking what she could do with Chinese bok choy and I mentioned that in the Philippines (in wet markets, anyway), the many varieties of pechay, including the variety that closely resembles the Chinese bok choy, are referred to by the generic name of pechay. In other words, ask me how I would cook bok choy and I will tell you, “Much the same way I would cook pechay.” All of that was going inside my head as I was stir frying this vegetarian dish (bottom, right in the photo) for dinner earlier tonight, one of the ingredients for which was the bawang na mura or spring garlic bulbs in the previous entry.
The leaves of the spring garlic went into the fried rice that you see in the photo. I served them with oven-grilled chicken.
Ingredients :
a large bunch of pechay
3-4 bawang na mura (spring garlic bulbs)
5-6 black mushrooms
3 tbsps. of oyster sauce
1/2 tsp. of sesame seed oi
1 tsp. of tapioca (or corn) starch
2 tbsps. of cooking oil
salt, pepper and sugar
Cooking procedure :
If using dried mushrooms, soak in warm water for 20 minutes. When rehydrated, cut off the stalks and cut the caps into quarters (or dice them if the mushrooms are rather large).
Dissolve the starch in a cup of water. Stir in the oyster sauce and sesame seed oil and mix to blend well.
Cut off the root ends of the pechay.
Cut off the roots and dice the spring garlic bulbs.
Heat the cooking oil in a wok or skillet. Saute the spring onion bulbs until fragrant. Add the pechay and mushrooms and toss lightly for about 30 seconds. Season with salt, pepper and a little sugar. Pour in the starch solution and cook, stirring lightly, until the sauce thickens and becomes clear.
Serve at once.
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