Typical Pok Choi

P and I have this so so often that there is no other word for it but ‘typical’.
But it does stay delightful. Do NOT laugh, but we often do this for breakfast too as a sundry item. (actually, we used to eat quite a bit of oriental food at breakfast).


What do you need?
Pok Choi – one pack, about 200gms – break up each leaf into 2 or 3 parts.
Oil – sesame, peanut – 2 tsp
Garlic – 3-4 pods, finely sliced
Light Soy sauce – 2 tbsp
Some water
Sesame seeds
One red chilly sliced


So. Heat the wok and the oil. Get a spatula ready to fly! Bung in the garlic and stir – like 15 secs! Then throw in the pok choi (oh, iI truly hope at this stage that you washed off all the grime off the stems). Stir stir stir. Keep things moving. The leafy parts will start to wither!


After a couple of minutes, throw in the soy sauce. Stir things around well. And within a minute as things are sizzling, I add some water to cool things down! Not too much, barely like 3-4 tbsp worth! This provides the nice head of steam to cook off the white stems of the pok choi.


Finally add the sesame seeds and red chilli, stir, check one of the stems in your mouth for a ‘done test’ and plate the dish. It will have a watery residue, but very little, and that is the point of pok choi well done.


Had with a fork. Or chopsticks. Better with rice. 
I have often added some sliced mushrooms to this dish with good effect! Don’t be scared!

Chicken in Hoisin

Disclaimer – that is a web crawled photo. But it looks just like what I just dished up and ate, so using it with credit! Its missing the sesame seeds though 😦


The ginger, soy fish is wonderful! But like everything else from an amateur kitchen, it needs a bit of de-risking. Specially when demanding & picky kids are involved. V doesn’t like fish anyway!


Chicken –  boneless pieces 2″ square – about 200gms
Chopped garlic – about a tbsp
Hoisin sauce from a bottle – 2 or 3 tbsp
Sliced spring onions and sesame seeds for garnish


So this quick and easy chicken in hoisin sauce. Simple as hell. Just fried the chicken with a little garlic in sesame oil. Dumped in 3-4 spoonfuls of readymade hoisin sauce. And then stir stir stir (i’m using a wok for this stuff… just don’t let anything sit still in the wok for long). Once the chicken is done, I tend to add water, mix everything up once, and remove the chicken pieces with a slotted spoon. This allows me to scrape all the juices and sauce from the pan into the liquid now. And then on high heat I let the liquid dry down to a thickish sauce, at which point back goes the chicken! Turn everything around, garnish with some sliced spring onion and sesame seeds, give another nice toss, and its ready to be plated! 


Serve with rice or some spicy hakka noodles.


Hoisin tends to be on the sweeter side; so if you want to adapt it you may want to add a dash of soy or fish sauce to balance the sweetness, as well as some lime juice. I tend to use very little hoisin when I make this dish.


Cost estimate for this dish (fed 2) – is under Rs.100! A bottle of hoisin costs about Rs.150 I think. Good thing to keep if you’ve got kids in the house!