This longer than intended break from blogging occurred because we had a big change in our lives. As those that follow me know, we’ll be moving back to the UK next year so we would have had to sell our home. We always thought it would take awhile to sell our home as it’s not like a lot of people are clamouring for Queen Anne Victorians. Who’d have thought in a raging pandemic, the real estate market would set itself on fire? So suddenly we were faced with several weeks going flat out to get the house ready and list it. In a few days it was under agreement. So we had to find a rental quickly and get a move on, literally.

This all meant we were too tired and stressed to think about cooking creatively. There were a lot of takeaways and routine throwing meals together. As we’ve settled into our temporary home, we’ve started to breath again and it was time to have fun with cooking again.

My sister loves authentic Chinese food and we were talking about how hard that is to find in this country and I was intrigued about recipes. Luckily, I have a colleague, whose family is from China, and I picked her brains. She gave me a couple of recipes, one of which is this one. I added the rice noodles and seared marinated pork.

Technique for Bok Choi and Shiitake Mushrooms

This is a very easy meal to make, you just need to do a couple things at least an hour before.

Boil water and cover the shiitake mushrooms until they are covered by at least an inch/2.5cm. Set aside to rehydrate the mushrooms. You’ll want to keep the liquid for later.

Trim any tough fat and fibers from the pork. Mix the ingredients for the marinade and make sure the pork loin is coated well. Chill for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 375F/190C. Heat up the garlic infused olive oil in a large skillet. Sear both sides of the pork and transfer the pork to a baking dish and cook until done. Cook the rice noodles at this point according the directions on the package.

Depending on the size of the bok choi cut in half or quarter them. Wash and dry them and set aside.

In the skillet the pork was seared in add the rehydrated shiitake mushrooms. Sauté them in the oil for a minute or so and then add the liquid from the mushrooms and the sherry, simmer on low for a couple of minutes.

Add the chicken stock with the corn flour and bring to a boil. Reduce slightly and lower the temperature so it is a low simmer. Season with sea salt and pepper.

Add the bok choi. Keep turning as it cooks so the bok choi is evenly coated with the sauce. Cook until the bok choi starts to soften. I like my greens to be on the crisp side but feel free to cook until soft all the way through. It’s a texture thing with me. Remove the bok choi from the sauce and then add the rice noodles to the sauce and toss until the noodles are evenly coated.

Slice the pork once it’s had a chance to rest for several minutes. Add the noodles to the plate and then layer the pork and bok choi. Serve immediately.

I found this Bok Choi with Shiitake Mushrooms delicious but very mild in flavour. When I talked to my colleague, she mentioned sometimes adding hoisin sauce to make this dish bolder. I will have to try that next time. It was so nice to get cooking again, I can’t tell you.