Salmon & Bok Choy

I'm Chinese and grew up on cooking from my grandmother and mom.  They both used to stand for hours preparing each meal.  This is a simplified version of a typical fish and vegetable meal, inspired by ingredients that are easy to find and Americanized to some extent. If you can't find bok choy, you can use broccoli or kale. From beginning to end, it takes about 20mins. If you're serving with rice, make rice before starting this. 

Salmon with Bok Choy

Ingredients

1 lb of salmon (wild or farm raised)

4-6 heads of bok choy or 1 package if you're buying from Trader Joe's

1-2 Tbsp of Canola/Vegetable/Light Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Optional: Pickled ginger, minced garlic (1-2 cloves of garlic)

Hardware

2 Frying Pans - At least 1 should be non-stick

1 Kitchen Knife and Cutting Board

1. Place non-stick pan on stove on medium low and only add oil if you're using wild salmon. Otherwise, just heat pan dry. 
2. Season flesh side of salmon with salt and pepper.
3. Place salmon, seasoned side down, skin side up, in the pan. Season skin with salt and pepper.
4. Place your other pan next to your cutting board. 
5. Cut ends off of bok choy, separate into stalks and rinse. 
6. Cut stalks into 1-2 inch pieces and place into pan next to cutting board. 
7. Drizzle oil onto chopped bok choy.
8. Put the pan with the bok choy on medium heat. 
9. Skip this step if you're not using garlic. While the bok choy is starting to heat up, mince garlic.
10. Check on your salmon. If you see the edges starting to become golden, it's time to flip. If not, turn heat up to medium. Flip onto skin when golden. (Careful of splatter when flipping!)
11. Turn heat up to medium high once salmon is skin side down. 
12. Stir fry bok choy and add garlic if using. Turn heat off when leafy parts are wilted. 
13. Turn heat off of salmon pan. Serve with rice. Garnish with pickled ginger if you can find it. 

Things to consider:

Wild salmon is leaner and farm raised is much fattier. Both types work for this recipe. If you're using wild salmon, it cooks faster and is easier to dry out.

Whole Foods usually sells the most consistently good salmon. It's usually have both farm raised and wild caught. Trader Joe's will have wild salmon now and again but the quality is touch and go. If you happen to live by a Japanese grocery store, you can also try making this recipe with sashimi grade salmon. 

Most supermarkets carry bok choy in one variety or another. Baby bok choy works as well and you just have to rinse. Chopping is optional.