Quick Weekday Stir Fry

My kids are big fans of stir fry, and we make one almost every week.  The ingredients are healthy and inexpensive.

Here's the basics:

1) Quickly fry chunks of chicken breast in peanut oil until about 2/3 of the way cooked.  Remove and set aside.

2) Boil water for noodles or rice--I prefer capellini or vermicelli, but also use ride noodles or sticky rice.  Use what is preferred and easiest.  Don't discount instant rice either! This isn't Saturday night.

2) Add more oil then stir fry sliced onion, pepper, bok choy, or any vegetable you want to add.  When the fresh veggies are somewhat caramelized and still with a bit of crunch, I add any canned veggies. We like whole water chesnuts for more crunch.

3) Add sauce ingredients and then add chicken back to finish.  Serve over noodles or rice, or to blend flavors, we like to add the noodles into the stir fry pan to coat thoroughly.

For sauce from scratch, I might use chicken broth, soy sauce, Chinese five-spice, garlic, etc.  For more of a teriyaki flavor, use some honey, ginger, garlic, soy, and broth.

Don't be ashamed of using bottled sauce, but if you do try Soy Vay Island Teriyaki.  It is packed with ginger and garlic flavors and is the best kind I have found.

Enjoy any weeknight!

Egg Rolls at Home

While looking for something new to try, I came across the section of a local grocery that has Asian vegetables; it also is where I would buy the little wraps I have used to make either gyoza (potstickers) as well as ravioli.  This time I spotted larger wraps used to make egg rolls.

What I did was chop up onion, shredded carrot, cabbage, and garlic, and saute it for a few minutes.  Then I added ground pork and some sesame oil and soy sauce and cooked it all through.  I seasoned it further with soy until it had good flavor but without too much saltiness.  Since this was for my kids, I didn't add more than a touch of cayenne for a kick (one kid loves spice, the other doesn't, but I do add a little bit to condition her to enjoy at least a little!).

Once the filling was cooled off, I added it to each wrap and sealed the edges with water and rolled them up like little burritos.  I then wiped out the pan, heated up peanut oil, and fried them gently all around.  Then it was "pick your own sauce" time, and in the picture you can see I had soy, peanut sauce, and mustard.  I would have preferred either Dijon or hot Chinese mustard, but all I had last night was the yellow kind.  My kids preferred the soy, but I found the spicy peanut sauce to work really well.  Next time I'll make this even better with scallions instead of yellow onion and perhaps some baby shrimp in the filling!

Noodles with Thai Peanut Sauce, Chicken, and Carrot--Easy Kid Fuel

Many weekends when my kids have soccer games or tournaments, they get sick of concession stand hot dogs and hamburgers.  As a healthy and tasty alternative, I often whip up a pile of noodles the night before and stir in either a quick Alfredo sauce or use jarred Thai peanut sauce.

In this version, I used partially whole grain spaghetti, a decent jarred Thai peanut sauce ("Bankok Padang"), shredded carrots, and leftover braised chicken.  Sometimes I'll toss chopped green onion and peanuts for even more flavor.

My son loves spicy food but you can easily use less of the sauce, or buy a milder version.  When I make something like this for myself, I will squeeze lime juice on top and use julienned red pepper instead of carrot.

Thai Veggie Stir Fry

I had some luck experimenting with Thai-style flavors and came up with this little dish.  I won't describe how I cooked this up, as it should be a fairly obvious stir fry preparation, but here are the ingredients:

chopped garlic
chopped ginger
thinly sliced red pepper
baby bok choy
sesame oil
soy sauce
Sriracha Thai chili sauce (see below, a classic)
curry powder
Thai-style noodles--cooked and tossed at the final stage
cilantro and lime juice to garnish
optional--shrimp, beef, or chicken

"Twice Cooked Pork"

Have you ever ordered "twice cooked pork" at a Chinese take-out place but wondered what the heck it means and why it tastes so good?  I took my turn at imagining how it might be prepared and offer the following plan:

1) slowly roast pork country ribs in a teriyaki sauce for about 90 minutes in a cookpot at about 325 degrees

2) remove ribs from the pot and let cool, and discard about half of the cooking liquid.  heat pot on low heat on the stovetop.

3) sautee onion until soft, and add mixed Asian vegetables and continue sauteeing slowly--I simply used a bag of mixed Chinese stir-fry veggies.

4) separately cook some sticky rice as per the package directions

5) hand shred some of the roasted pork and add to the pot until your portions are correct, add some red pepper flakes, a dash of soy sauce, and whatever else might complement the stir-fry (dijon mustard, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, etc. are good options).

6) stir in enough rice and heat just long enough to serve

7) enjoy with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc or Sapporo beer!  Another good choice with Asian flavors is actually Champagne, but you don't have to go with the usually suggested Riesling.

Soy Marinated Flank Steak Stir Fry

My kids love stir fry, mainly because it includes noodles but increasingly because of the meat and veggies I toss them in.

This particular dish starts with nice cut of flank steak scored and marinated in soy sauce, brown sugar or honey, and rice wine vinegar. I grill it over charcoal directly for a few minutes on each side and then a few additional minutes on each side indirectly to finish it. Meanwhile, I'm heating a pot of water to cook vermicelli al dente.

I let the steak rest while stir frying garlic, onion, pea pod, baby corn, and bok choy in a pan. Later I add about a cup of chicken or beef broth and a few shakes of soy sauce. When I'm making this for the kids I skip the red pepper, but for myself I'd add enough heat to make me sweat!


When the veggies are done I toss in the vermicelli and sliced steak until the flavors blend and then serve!

Asian fish and stir fry adventure!

Last weekend I ventured into a random southeast asian food market near Elgin, IL, where there's a significant Laotian population. I picked up a few unfamiliar ingredients and decided to put something together. Here's what I got:

*gailan (also known as Chinese broccoli)
*baby bok choy (it was curiously labeled "shan h choy" but I couldn't find anything about that while Googling it)
*golden pompano fish (purchased frozen)
*rice vermicelli noodles
*chili basil paste



I grilled the fish for about 5-6 minutes a side after thawing it out. Separately I stir fried the bok choy and gailan with olive oil, soy sauce, and added the cooked noodles and chili paste until the ingredients were balanced and well cooked.


When the fish was done I served it for a great meal accompanied with San Miguel beer, a lager brewed in the Phillipines but popular in Spain where I spent my 19 year-old summer!

The fish was incredible and the vegetable stir fry good; the paste, however, was a bit strong and I may simply stir with my own sauce from scratch next time!

Asian-Style Grilled Pork with Bok Choy and Peppers

While reading either Saveur or Gourmet, I encountered a recipe for grilled baby back ribs in an Asian inspired marinade with dipping sauce.

Well, I had no time to marinade and had to substitute country ribs for baby backs, which I actually prefer anyway. So I decided to take the core ingredients of the marinade and reduce it into a thick sauce I could top the ribs with after the grilling was done.

Here's some basics on reconstructing what I did:

1) Build indirect fire on a charcoal grill (gas grillers can do this too). Sear 4-6 country pork ribs for 5 minutes per side directly over flames, then place on the indirect side and cover with lid and cook for about 45 minutes.

2) Meanwhile, mix 1/3 cup whiskey, 1/4 soy sauce, 1 tsp fresh chopped ginger, 1/4 cup honey, and a couple TBSP's of olive oil in a pan, reduce slowly by half until a thick syrupy consistency. I added red pepper flakes for some fire and only wish I had some cilantro to add at the end.

3) Saute green or red pepper with sliced bok choy in olive oil with a few dashes of soy sauce for about 15 minutes, or until soft.

4) Cook sticky or jasmine rice according to instructions with the amount you'll need to serve.

5) Plate the dish with a bed of rice, a generous helping of the veggies, and top with a bone-in rib. Add the sauce and enjoy with a crisp Asian lager such as Sapporo or a glass of semi-sweet white wine such as a Sauvingnon Blanc (don't be boring and choose the usual Asian-paired Riesling).