Hot Friday Night Dinner

It's getting warmer here on the eastern seaboard, so I wanted to cook as little as possible. I had a plan for this evening, and fortunately it involved some quick sautés, which meant the kitchen did not get as hot as it might!

My CSA haul on Wednesday night included garlic scapes, these lovely green curlicue stems of garlicky goodness. I sliced them up on a diagonal, rather thin.

Then I washed my CSA pac choi (commonly known as bok choy) in the sink - it did require a couple rinses, as all farm fresh veggies likely will - and sorted the leaves by size, with the smallest on the bottom of the bowl. Then I decided to utilize some dried mushrooms I've had in the cabinet for some time, so I reconstituted them in hot water, with a splash of wine; after 35 minutes, I sliced them.

I pulled out some butter, some sesame oil (mine is toasted sesame), some fish sauce and some rice vinegar. Now my mise en place (to put in place) was complete (the French way of saying I had prepped all my ingredients and had them ready to cook), so I hauled out my big saute pan. I do not own a wok, but use this curved saute pan in the same manner, even flipping veggies in it.

I started with some butter, which I let melt, and then added the scapes. After a few minutes, I could smell the lovely garlic aroma wafting through the house, and turned the heat from low to medium to give them a little more caramelization. After I was satisfied with their doneness, I took them out, leaving behind as much of the garlicky butter as possible.

I added the biggest pac choi leaves. I added a dollop of sesame oil, and swirled them. After about 45 seconds, I added the next smaller size of pac choi leaves, and about another 45 seconds later, added the last of the small pac choi leaves. They quickly saute and wilt, looking beautiful. I couldn't help but eat one then! I removed them to the same bowl as the scapes.

I added a bit more sesame oil, a bit of the mushroom soaking liquid, and the sliced mushrooms. After some of the liquid began to evaporate, I added some shrimp. I shamelessly purchase frozen peeled, deveined shrimp in the bags in my grocery store frozen seafood section whenever they are on sale - they are great for such meals! I sauteed carefully, stirring to ensure the mushrooms and shrimp got even heat. When most of the liquid had evaporated, I added a splash of fish sauce, a splash of rice vinegar and turned the heat up.

I know it takes longer to cook all the veggies separately, but I like doing it because it allows me to control the doneness of every ingredient. When there was very little liquid left after those additions, I added the pac choi and scapes back to the pan, swirling all of the food together. I also added some chives and basil, but that's just me.

I tasted, added some sea salt and fresh ground pepper, and when I was satisfied with the flavors, I simply dumped the pan of food onto a plate. Gorgeous! I really hope to keep up this type of cooking with the CSA - it is nourishing in so many ways!