Ginger-Garlic Broccolini

I used more ginger and garlic, and less of the mirin and water mix and it got rave reviews. Very easy to make, too. (I also keep ginger root in the freezer and grate as needed - very handy.)

OK. I used what I had on hand and it was still good. I freeze ginger root and then grate it off the frozen chunk as needed, so that was my ginger source. I had frozen broccoli on hand, so I used that. I had just plain rice cooking wine, so I used that and added about a tsp of sugar. And I didn't have any crushed pepper, so I left that out. I also accidentally overcooked the broccoli. Still, it was a yummy side dish and I'll do it again and not shell out for broccolini or fancy rice wine.

I make this recipe with broccoli and it's my kids favorite way to eat it. They ask for it every time I'm making broccoli. It is somewhat sweet, probably why they like it, but my husband and I like it too.

This was good but could be better. Next time I would saute some onion slices after the ginger and garlic cook a bit. I would double the red pepper and add black pepper. I would also only add 2 Tbsp of mirin and get the other 2 Tbsp of liquid from something less sweet and a little tangy like lemon juice or rice wine vinegar. The method itself is great as long as you move your broccolini in the pan a lot before the lid goes on so that it doesn't get burned.

This dish was okay. I didn't really care for the flavor; I thought the mirin made it too sweet. I actually couldn't taste ginger or garlic. I tasted the sweetness of the mirin and the spiciness of red pepper flakes. Next time I would leave out the mirin and use vegetable stock or something like that. And I would increase the ginger and the garlic for more flavor. I also had to cook it longer than stated to get the stalks edible.