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Stir-Friday

Posted by Mary on 9th Jul 2015

If you're like me, you're always on the hunt for easy dinner recipes. You're don't want to be bland, but you don't want to be buying 30 ingredients to make something that you read in a magazine. The solution? Stir fry. If you want to add it into your weekly rotation of meals then make it fun... Stir Friday!

July is actually a great time to be cooking stir fry since bok choy, mushrooms, and snap peas are all in season and easy to find at the market. You can any number of veggies and meats to a stir fry, but I'm going to share my favorite recipe. I lived in Shanghai for two years and learned how to use a wok well during my time there. The best part of my day was walking to our neighborhood wet market and picking out super fresh veggies to throw into our dinners.

 

{This picture was taken during Chinese New Year, hence the huge fish hanging up to dry.}

From Shanghai to Dorset, stir fry ingredients are always easy to come by. Since the market was out of bok choy I bought cabbage, peppers, snap peas, ginger, garlic, sliced beef, and Udon Sitr-Fry noodles. You don't need to have the noodles, but it adds a nice element to the bowl. I also bought Stonewall Kitchen's Sesame Ginger Dressing right here at Vermont Kitchen Supply {shameless advertising}, to throw in at the end to get some extra flavor into the wok.

Start by mincing the garlic and ginger then shopping the veggies into bite-sized portions. The snap peas don't need to be chopped.

Put enough oil to cover the bottom surface of your wok and heat it to medium-high heat. Cook the beef until it's almost all the way cooked, and set it aside. Quickly drain and rinse the oil off, or you can cook the beef in a different pan, and add once again add in enough oil to cover the bottom of the work.

Once it's heated, add in the ginger and garlic for a couple of minutes. Next, add in the peppers. No matter what veggies you are cooking, when you are cooking in a wok put it whatever you think is going to need the longest time to cook in first. Then every couple of minutes add in the rest of the veggies. In this recipe, I put in the peppers for a few minutes, then the snap peas then the cabbage.

Start heating up your noodles in your microwave since that takes a few minutes. Look at the veggies and see how they are coming along. Sometimes I add in more oil if needed, but just make sure the veggies are getting soft enough to enjoy. At this point take your beef and add it back into the wok so that it can warm up. Once the veggies and meat look ready, add in the Udon noodles and mix them around. Then add in some Rice Vinegar and however much of the Sesame Ginger Dressing as you would like. Don't put in too much or else it'll take over all of the other flavors.

Yum! You're going to want to serve this in a bowl, so grab whatever you have and get some chopsticks as well.

Time for the best part: EAT! Cleaning is a breeze since all you used was a knife, cutting board, and the wok. Who doesn't love that?

Stir fry can be made so many different ways, so decide what veggies/meats/noodles you like and experiment or look up recipes online. It's such an easy way to add it lots of veggies to your diet.

If you don't have a wok or are looking to replace yours, I found a fantastic article on purchasing carbon steel woks and how to season them: How to Buy and Season a New Wok

You don't need to a  have a carbon steel wok, but it's the more traditional one to use. I have a Cusinart 14" and love it! It's all about preference. 

This website is fantastic for seeing what food is currently in season: Seasonal Food Guide

Happy Cooking!