Stir Fry


Warning: This isn’t authentic stir fry.  This is more like graduate school, impoverished stir fry.  

Ingredients
  • A couple green onions, diced fine
  • A carrot, peeled and cut up into little bits
  • A quarter-sized piece of ginger diced fine.  (Hint: you can get a hunk of ginger root from your health food place, peel it, cut it, and then freeze the bits.  It keeps forever.)
  • Some other vegetables – whatever you like to eat or have on hand, basically. Peapods are good, or sugar peas; fresh green beans in season; broccoli if you like that (I don’t); maybe a little fresh spinach; a little bok choy; water chestnuts and those little ears of baby corn if you’re in the money.
  • About 1/4 cup of broth.  Your vegetable broth is fine and you can used canned broth or water here.
  • A little soy sauce – maybe a tbs?
  • Sesame oil if you’ve got it – it’s not vital, but it’s tasty.  Also about a tbs.
  • Meat if you’ve got it – maybe ½ cup of whatever you’ve got.  I use up leftover chicken or beef this way.  But any sort of meat is fine, and you can leave it out.
  • Peanut oil for frying (Use any kind of oil you like, really, but peanut oil is the best).
  • Cooked rice


Cook your rice beforehand.  You want it ready to go when the vegetables are done. White rice or brown rice, whichever you like best.

Cut up everything while the rice is cooking.

In a nice big cast iron skillet put enough peanut oil to cover the bottom.  Get it hot. It's ready when a drop of water flicked into the skillet dances and sizzles.

Add the ginger and the green onion and stir.  Dump in the carrot and whatever other “tough” vegetables you’re using – veggies that need lots of cooking. (Broccoli, green beans, that kind of thing.) 

Stir well for three or four minutes.  Add soy sauce and Sesame oil.  Add broth or water.  Add meat. Cover, let it cook for about five minutes. (Skillets don't usually have lids.  If yours doesn't, cover with anything that will work -- I use a pizza pan.)

Remove cover, add the rest of the vegetables, stir for another few minutes.

Serve hot over rice.  Or rice noodles – those are good too.  Extra soy sauce at the table!



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