New Year's Baby (bok choy)!

Happy New Year Readers!

It's almost a brand new year! I know I never told you about our Thanksgiving fun, brining the turkey. I also realize I haven't said a peep about our Feast of the Seven Fishes at Christmas. Here I've been, dropping the holiday ball, but I promise that I will catch you guys up on everything, it has been mostly delicious!


But here we are, about to ring in the new year, and I have something quick and easy to share. I am hoping to stop by a couple of lovely parties this evening, but I am not sure what the actual food plan is besides snack foods, so I wanted to have something substantial in my stomach before the wine starts to flow, and I had a bag baby bok choy in the fridge. Et Voila! Brown rice and bok choy.


I put the rice on to cook first, as brown rice takes about an hour (50 minutes or so on the stove, at least 10 minutes to sit off the heat). I also took turkey broth out of the freezer and threw it into the microwave to defrost. Then i minced about 12 cloves of garlic, and sliced into thin rounds, about 2 tablespoons of ginger.
I put about a tablespoon of unsalted butter in a large frying pan, as well as pouring in the leftover fat from some andouille sausage that Kitty had browned a couple of days before for her Lamb Shank Stew. It was tasty, and about a teaspoon.


Once the butter and sausage goodness heated up over a medium-high flame, I added the garlic and ginger and let that cook slowly for about 5 minutes. I added about a teaspoon each of mild curry powder and hot paprika, and stirred. This cooked for abother 5 minutes, before I started adding the defrosted broth. I added about a half a cup of the broth, 1/4 of a cup of dry white wine, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and let that cook at a gentle simmer for about 3 minutes. Then added more broth, about 1/4 of a cup at a time every 3-5 minutes, a total of about 2 cups of broth in total, bringing it up to a simmer.
After washing and spinning the 1 lb of baby bok choy dry, I separated the larger bunches from the individual leaves. When the garlic, paprika, broth mixture was ready, I added the larger bunches of the baby bok choy and turned the heat down a little, then flipped them once the side in the broth was a little wilted ~1 minute. After 2 minutes, I added in the individual leaves into the pan and flipped those after about a minute as well.


I turned the heat off, and let both the bok choy and the rice sit for about 10 minutes. And then in a bowl, combined the rice, the bok choy, and broth. The whole meal took about an hour total. It was tasty, flavorful, and really good.
Who's ready to take on 2012?






Happiest of the latest of the newest of all the years ever!
love,
Alyce