Grilled Baby Bok Choy

When I started getting back into cooking over the past year, I made a promise to myself to try new things. I found myself cruising through the produce section of the grocery store – skipping huge sections – stopping only at my favorites.

Fennel? How the heck do you use that?

Brussels Sprouts… oh yah, the things Dad hated…

Leeks? Turnips? Bok Choy? Parsnips?

It was then that I started thinking… I got this! They are vegetables… not scary math problems. Worst case scenario, I don’t like them… at least I can check them off the list.

Last weekend I decided to grab baby bok choy. I have a new obsession with rice noodles, so I thought I could just do a little stir fry to make a homemade noodle bowl. I grabbed a few of them and off I went.

I got home to find the June/July Everyday w/Rachael Ray Magazine in my mail box. As I flipped through the pages, I came to the “50 on a Stick” article filled with pictures of grilled delights. The second page had Prosciutto-Studded Baby Bok Choy and it looked delicious. I had all of the ingredients except the prosciutto… so I put it on the list for the week.

The Ingredients:

4 Baby Bok Choy
2 Cloves of Garlic
3 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 Ounces of Thinly Sliced Prosciutto
Salt and Pepper

The first step was to give the bok choy a good cleaning – similar to the leeks…

It’s really important to get between the leaves and to pat them dry after a good washing…

You then want to cut the bok choy lengthwise – double-check to make sure they are clean between the leaves.

In a bowl, season 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil with 2 crushed garlic cloves. Next time I will probably use less oil.

Cut the 3 ounces of thinly sliced prosciutto into ribbons and stuff between the leaves of the bok choy.

This was actually pretty easy…I ended up using kitchen scissors to get a better cut on the prosciutto, it was sticking to my knife too much.

The next step of the recipe called for you to skewer the bok choy. I decided to use a grill pan on the stove instead of the outdoor grill. I skipped the skewer step and went to the next. I brushed both sides of the baby bok choy with the garlic oil and then seasoned them with salt and ground pepper.

It was at this point that the batteries in my camera died… I got the camera battery into the charger (oily fingers and all) and waited 10 minutes – perfect to start the clean-up process.

I also got the grill pan heated on the stove – I set it on high.

With Dan’s help – I put the bok choy onto the grill (prosciutto stuffed face down) – they sparked and sizzled like the 4th of July… it was a little crazy, but it smelled awesome!

They took about 6 minutes – the recipe suggested 8.  The pan was pretty smokin’ hot. The idea is to grill them on one side for the majority of the time and then flip once at the end to get the back side.

You want them to be crispy, yet tender.

They were delicious! The perfect vegetable side to any dish… I actually ate them as my main course. Dan tried them and thought they were a little too oily. Next time I might try an olive oil spray instead of using a brush. I actually already have some garlic infused olive oil spray. Since I didn’t cook all of the bok choy, I’ll use that for next time.

I could not stop taking photos…they were so pretty and vibrant in color.

Happy grilling… bok… bok…