Thai-Spiced Polenta with Sweet Chilli Bok Choi

From New Vegetarian Kitchen, Nicola Graimes, Duncan Baird Publishers, 2011.

This was one of those recipes wherein you have to be cooking two things simultaneously so that they both end up ready at the same time: one was the polenta and the other the stir-fried vegetables.

To begin I prepared all of the ingredients. I measured out 2 cups of vegetable stock in a saucepan and placed by the side 100g polenta, a teaspoon Thai spice powder and 10g butter. For the wok I prepared two bok choi by cutting off the green leaves and then slicing the white section into quarters; I chose sufficient baby broccoli for the dish; I washed, topped and tailed some snow peas; I chopped an onion, chopped some garlic, grated a little ginger and sliced a red chilli. I also prepared the sauce: 2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce, 2 tablespoons light soy sauce and 2 teaspoons sesame oil. All was now ready to begin.

I added a little vegetable oil to the wok and began frying the chopped onion. I turned up the heat under the saucepan and poured the polenta into the water, giving it the occasional stir as it was heating up. Now the broccoli and the white parts of the bok choi were added to the wok. They were given about 2 minutes. The polenta by now had boiled so the heat was turned down and I continued stirring. The remaining ingredients were added to the wok: the leaves of the bok choi, the snow peas, the garlic, ginger and chilli. These were stir-fried for a couple of minutes more when the sauce mixture was poured on and the vegetables tossed. The spices and the butter were stirred into the polenta.

To serve, the polenta was spread on the plates and the vegetables added on top.

This quick dish turned out to be full of flavour. The polenta was creamy and bursting with taste from the spice while the vegetables had that great mix of sweet, salt and heat added to them.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔