Cookbook Club – Holiday Year in Review

We’ve found that the December Cookbook Club is the perfect time to celebrate the holidays and look back on all the food and fun we’ve had throughout the year. For our Holiday Year in Review event, any recipe from any of the cookbooks we’ve used in the past year is fair game – whether it be a repeat of a favorite, or a new recipe you never got the chance to try. Go to my Cookbook Club site to experience our snapshot of the year’s feasting. For now – my dish!

I knew I wanted to take this opportunity to try a new recipe and when I thought back to recipes from the past year that I might want to cook, one immediately popped into my mind – the Flowering Choy with Lime and Fish Sauce Vinaigrette from Baco. It had been the runner up when I was choosing a dish for that event, so I was excited to get the chance to try it out now, especially the vinaigrette which with its combination of lime, fish sauce, garlic, ginger, scallion, and chiles sounded like exactly the flavor profile I enjoy.

The vinaigrette had to be made a day in advance so all of the flavors could meld. I combined lime juice, fish sauce, ginger, garlic, scallion, arbol chiles, and black pepper. I toasted coriander seeds in a dry frying pan until fragrant, and added these to the mixture. I muddled all the ingredients in a jar and refrigerated overnight.

The next day, I strained the vinaigrette mixture, discarding the solids (I felt bad about discarding what seemed like perfectly good ingredients – next time I will use the solids to make fried rice).

I sauteed garlic in hot oil over medium heat until it began to color.

I added the yu choy, turned the heat up to medium high, and sauteed for another minute.

I added water and continued to cook. The recipe said to remove the yu choy from the heat when the water evaporated which should take 1 to 2 minutes, but after a couple minutes there was still a lot of water remaining. I didn’t want the yu choy to get overcooked, so I just removed it from the heat and poured off the extra liquid.

I transferred the drained yu choy to a serving dish, tossed it with salt and the strained vinaigrette, and squeezed a bit more lime juice over the top.

The dish was very tasty and went fast – even though I’d made a double recipe, it ran out quickly. Next time, I would quadruple the amount of yu choy (the vinaigrette recipe makes plenty for this) and not bother adding the water during cooking. But there will most definitely be a next time.