Ginger Garlic Broccolini

This is a recipe Hilary and I made for our Sister's Day party this year. We got it from Cooking Light magazine.

Ginger Garlic Broccolini

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp fresh ginger, peeled and minced

¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb. broccolini, trimmed

¾ tsp salt

¼ cup mirin (sweet rice wine)

¼ cup water

Directions:

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add ginger, pepper flakes, and garlic; sauté 30 seconds. Add broccolini and salt; sauté 2 minutes. Add mirin and water; cover and cook over low heat 10 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally.

Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 109

Fat: 3.5g

Saturated: 0.3g

MonoUn: 2.1g

PolyUn: 1.1g

Sodium: 472mg

Cholesterol: 0mg

Carbohydrates: 12.4g

Fiber 1.3g

Protein: 3.7g

Iron: 0.9mg

Calcium: 75mg

In case you are not familiar with it, mirin is a sweet rice wine used in Asian cooking. You can find it in the Asian section of the grocery store; it comes in a little bottle.

This was good, but I think I would make a few changes to it if I make it again. First of all, the mirin made it too sweet for me. And I couldn't really taste either ginger or garlic. All I really tasted was the sweetness of the mirin and the spiciness of the red pepper flakes. I think next time I would substitute vegetable stock for the mirin and I would add more of the ginger and garlic. I think that would highlight those flavors better.

Also, I wasn't crazy about the cooking method. It took a lot longer for the broccolini to get tender than what the recipe said, and if you didn't turn them constantly, the side on the bottom of the pan would get really dark and yucky-looking compared to the bright green side. For some reason, they didn't steam that well. Since they weren't getting tender, we turned the heat up and then we got the one side looking overdone while the top side looked raw. I'm not sure what is the best way to remedy this. I'll have to think about this.