Asian BBQ Tuna Steaks & Chinese Five Spice Bok Choy

When Joe came home with our second batch of produce I was so happy to see our number of veggies had almost doubled! We had 2 bunches of radishes, 2 bunches of bok choy, swiss chard, arugula, butter lettuce and STRAWBERRIES! The strawberries unfortunately did not make it in to any recipe because we ate them all while planning our recipes for the week. Not even in the house for an hour and they were already gone. Can you tell we like strawberries?

Everything looked gorgeous and green, but the one vegetable that stood out was the bok choy. We always knew the CSA was going to be a challenge as far as keeping up with the amount of fresh produce but I love the challenge of using new ingredients too. I scoured my cookbooks for recipes with bok choy and surprisingly found four. One small side dish recipe stood out, "Bok choy with five spice sauce" out of Cooking Light. The main reason I wanted to try this particular recipe is because Joe has a serious love of Chinese five spice. Bok choy is commonly associated with Asian-inspired recipes so it pairs well with the five-spice flavor. As with the leeks last week, it's important to clean the bok choy well since dirt gets in all the tiny nooks and crannies.

Bok choy with five-spice sauce
2 bok choy (smaller is more tender) cleaned and halved length-wise
1 c. chicken broth
1/4 tsp. five spice
1 tbsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. rice vinegar
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper

In a large skillet, bring the chicken stock and five spice to a boil. Place the bok choy halves in the pan. Cover and cook until tender (about 3-5 minutes). Take out the boy choy and stir in the soy sauce, rice vinegar, and red pepper. Cook until reduced to about a 1/4 cup.

We had the bok choy with an Asian marinated ahi tuna steak and cilantro lime couscous. The tuna steaks were fresh from our local fish market. They were quickly marinated (about 30 minutes) in a mixture of soy sauce and BBQ sauce with a tiny tsp of sesame oil and then sprinkled with ground coriander and sesame seeds. The tuna was then grilled. The couscous had fresh cilantro and a squirt of lime mixed in. The tuna worked perfectly with the Asian marinade. The bok choy was much milder than I expected and really took on the flavor of the five spice. Next time we plan on cooking the bok choy on the grill with the tuna. If you get the chance, pick up some bok choy from your local farmers' market. Throw it on the grill or cut it up and make it a part of your favorite stir fry (I bet kids wouldn't even notice it was there). Happy cooking!