Serving a fat filled main course like grilled spareribs usually means I will try to complement it 
with something reasonably healthy. This dish of stir fried bok choy with oyster sauce and garlic literally takes 3 minutes to cook. First, select fresh bok choy (light green stems rather than more common pechay which also works for this recipe), take it home, wash it well in cool water and store slightly damp in paper towels in a plastic bag in the vegetable drawer of your fridge. If you started out with slightly wilted bok choy, this treatment will result in crisper, livelier leaves a few hours after sitting in the fridge. They will also stay fresher for about 1-2 days after.
This variety is sometimes referred to as Shanghai or green stemmed bok choy. 
I like it because the green stems are just as delicious as the green leaves. The curved shape also seems to catch whatever sauce you cook it with. They seem to have less of the bitterness that sometimes creeps into the localized varieties of pechay. This recipe also works for kalian, broccoli, etc. Served with steamed white rice, it makes a great vegetarian meal. Add some fat filled pork and it’s Marketman heaven.
To make, heat a pan up on high heat, add some vegetable 
oil a few whole cloves of garlic and add the bok choy to the pan. Toss the bok choy very rapidly to avoid burning the delicate leaves. Add the oyster sauce and toss some more. Once wilted, remove and serve hot. There is a school of thought that says you never stir fry such a delicate green and some Chinese cooks suggest that you steam it very briefly until wilted or braise it in say a chicken stock and serve with a light soya sauce on top. I happen to like it stir fried so I do it this way. Remember that you need tons of leaves to make one serving. It shrinks a lot once it hits the hot pan.
7 Responses
hey marketman, this is our “staple” way of doing veggies. if i can’t think of any other way to cook veggies, this is what i do. oyster sauce and garlic do great things for everything they touch, don’t they?
wow marketman yan din ang nabili ko kanina (baby bok choy) kaya lang sigang ang luto at salmon at shrimp ang sahug hmmmm invited ka MM .
is the bokchoi similar to taiwan pechay?
i would use barrio fiesta bagoong if there is no oyster
sauce available. sarap din nito!!!
pwede din pechay if there’s no bok choy
when do we add the oyster sauce?
Thanks Suzette for catching that. I have altered the entry to show when to put the oyster sauce. Many oriental greens can be cooked with this treatment. I like this with pechay too but sometimes it has a bitter tinge.
Bok choi is also known as pak choi or bak choi. Hard to find in some supermarkets here down south but I can find plenty in the country market at Paseo de Santa Rosa. Pechay will do but bak choi has a certain aroma to it, especially when stir-fried with mushrooms (oyster, tengang daga, etc.) in oyster sauce.
I usually follow the 1-minute rule. 1 minute stir-frying the bok choi over very high heat, then 1 minute for the mushrooms. Great workout because I’ve sweated a lot on the stove.