Crab and Bok Choy Stir-Fry

The tinned crab I bought at Vii Voan, the Asian grocer in Hakaniemi, turned out to be second-rate, which took some of the pleasure out of this Thai stir-fry. The crab was all right otherwise, but far too many of those bony "plates" you find between the pieces of crab meat had been left in. I was picking them out of my mouth and off the plate all through the meal, and every one that crunched between my teeth took away a little more of my appetite. Afterwards I read that crab meat is taken from the shells by hand, and that in cheaper tins picking out the bits of shell and cartilage is apparently often left half done. Still, I believe that with better ingredients the recipe has potential.

The bok choy, on the other hand, did not disappoint. A giant bag of baby bok choy cost only three and a half euros (4.00 euros a kilo) at Aseanic Trading on Kolmas linja in Helsinki. Kolmas linja is only a couple of blocks from Hakaniemi, so Vii Voan and Aseanic can be done in one trip. Do try it, as bok choy is really good in stir-fries in particular. It is excellent on its own as well, just steamed. It also goes by the name pak choi, and it is indeed a relative of Chinese cabbage. My sister Anna has just written about New York's Chinatown, where bok choy is sold everywhere, and she could not resist the baby ones either.

In a hot pan the leaves shrink in no time, like spinach, while the pale stalks stay crisp and juicy for a long while. The trick in the wok is to stop when the leaves have collapsed and the stalks still crunch. That takes two or three minutes, so everything else is best chopped before the pan heats up. I cut the bok choy into three-centimetre pieces, so that it cooks evenly and no whole stalk is left raw. There is enough left in the bag for several more meals, stir-fried and steamed.

For seasoning all it takes is garlic and a couple of tablespoons of oyster sauce. I read somewhere that oyster sauce was invented by accident in southern China in the late nineteenth century, when a cook boiling oysters forgot his pot on the stove and found a thick brown sauce cooked down at the bottom. The salty-sweet sauce suits vegetables perfectly, and it hardly tastes of oyster. A bottle is worth keeping in the cupboard, as it goes into almost anything stir-fried. The halved cherry tomatoes bring colour and a little acidity, and the crab goes in last, only to warm through.

The stir-fry is light, only 170 kilocalories a portion, so it follows yesterday's green beans nicely and keeps the calories down. Next time I will try fresh or frozen crab, or prawns, if no better tin turns up.