The Difference is Ginger

Last time I defended the Betty Crocker cookbook; now I draw attention to it's differences. Specifically, with a recipe from Some People Outside Of Boston. Perhaps still not the most authentic source, but the Cooks Illustrated/Americas Test Kitchen folks do try their best to really engineer good flavor and technique out of every recipe. Above you'll see the picture of Stir-fried tofu and bok choy in ginger sauce. And as the name suggests, the real difference here is ginger. The Cooks Illustrated recipe also makes liberal use of Dry Sherry (both in the sauce, and as a pre-stir fry marinade of the tofu along with soy sauce; the Betty crocker recipe just combined soy sauce and cornstarch as a dressing for the steak).

But in terms of final taste and what I would expect from a 'restaurant' vs. what I would expect from a home cook, that fresh zing of ginger is the one thing missing from 'Madame' Crocker's recipe. If you were to add about half a tablespoon of grated fresh* ginger (*and by fresh, I mean a piece torn from the giant hand of ginger I keep in the freezer...) to the Betty Crocker recipe it would be a significant update.


/As you may have guessed, this recipe fulfilled the bok choy content of our CSA haul!