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Today I made this. I wanted something more to do with bok choy besides stir-fry, although there's a little left for one more batch of that.
"Crockpot Pork and Bok Choy"
Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted chicken stock
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 thumb ginger, minced
2 1/2 pounds pork shoulder, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 head bok choy, chopped
Directions:
Into a crockpot, put 1 cup unsalted chicken stock, 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, and 1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder. Turn the crockpot on.
Peel and mince 2 cloves of garlic. Mince 1 thumb of ginger. Add them to the crockpot.
Cut the pork shoulder into bite-sized pieces. Add them to the crockpot. Cover and cook on High; if it boils too fast, turn down to Low. Cook for about 3 hours.
Break apart the bok choy and clean it. Separate the stalks and chop them into bite-sized pieces. Tear the leaves into chunks. Put the stalks into the crockpot, stir, and cook for about 20 minutes.
Stir the leaves into the crockpot. Cook for about 5 minutes, until thoroughly wilted, then serve. This recipe makes about 4 servings.
Notes:
Chinese five-spice powder is made with star anise, black pepper (or Sichuan peppercorns), fennel, cinnamon, and cloves. You can also make your own. Ours smelled strongly of licorice for at least an hour in the crock, but eventually that mellowed and the other flavors came through.
Pork shoulder cooks down well in a crockpot. Cutting up the meat helps the seasonings soak in better. You could also use pork stew meat.
Bok choy is a Chinese vegetable that's kind of like a cross between cabbage and celery. It offers many benefits. It belongs to the mustard family along with cabbage, but it has bunched stalks like celery. The stalks can be huge. Often the stalks and leaves are separated because the stalks take longer to cook, although baby bok choy can be cooked whole. I used most of a head, with several other stalks used for stir-fry. Here are more bok choy recipe ideas.
This really turned out well. It's a good way to use up what's left of the bok choy after you make stir-fry with some.
