I love cookbooks that show you the patterns, the formulas, so you can easily adapt your dishes according to what’s in season or just what’s in your pantry. How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart is great for this.  Last night my daughter asked for something healthy, maybe a stir fy.  We were at the grocery store to pick up some other needed items so I let her pick the vegetables for the stirfry. She chose mushrooms, an orange pepper, and a red bell pepper.   I added some green onions.  I used a couple of boneless skinless chicken breasts but you could have just as easily used pork, beef, shrimp, scallops or tofu she says.  The vegetables should add up to about a pound, plus or minus.

Sauce:

• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tsp rice vinegar
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp hot red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp sugar

Stir Fry:

• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken cut in bite sized pieces
• 1 Tbs soy sauce
• 1 Tbs sherry
• 1 onion, cut in wedges
• some mushrooms, sliced
• some red pepper, sliced thinly
• some orange pepper, sliced thinly
• some  green onions, sliced in 1″ pieces
• 1 Tbs garlic, minced
• 1 Tbs ginger, minced
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 2 Tbs chicken broth
• 3 Tbs peanut oil

Mix the sauce ingredients together and set aside.

Mix the chicken with the soy sauce and sherry and set aside.

Prepare all the vegetables, including garlic and ginger, and set aside, leaving in small piles on your cutting board or on a large plate.

Mix the cornstarch and the chicken broth in a small bowl and set aside.

Once everything’s ready, pour 1 Tbs of the oil in deep skillet and heat over high. Add half the chicken and stir fry 2-3 minutes, until just done. Remove to a bowl and then stir fry the other half of the chicken.

Add the remaining oil (2 Tbs) to the skillet and cook the onion until browned slightly but still a bit crisp (1 minute or so). Add the garlic and ginger. If you were doing a different combination of vegetables and some took  longer to cook you might add the longer cooking ones now. (E.g. asparagus, snow peas, cabbage, peppers, and celery all take a bit longer to cook than mushrooms, water chestnuts, green onions, or shredded carrots. ) Cook another minute or two, stirring frequently.

Add any other vegetables to the pan (or all of them in my case!) and cook another minute or two, until crisp but tender.  Return the chicken to the pan and stir it in.

Add the sauce and stir to coat. Add the cornstarch and chicken broth mixture and stir until everything is warm and the sauce looks a bit shiny and delicious!  If it seems too thick, you can add a bit of water or chicken broth.

NOTE: If you’re serving this with steamed rice, as we did, start that going before everything else.

I served this with steamed rice and stir fried bean sprouts. The girls like their sprouts raw so I set aside a large bowl of raw ones and then cooked the rest.

Leftovers are delicious for lunch the next day!

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The folks at Wanchai Ferry sent me this dinner kit to try, so that’s what we had for dinner last night. I defrosted two frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts and stir fried some carrots, zucchini, and celery for a side dish.

Other than boxes of macaoni and cheese the kids can make for their lunches, I don’t do many of these “dinner in a box” things. I usually find that they don’t save much time or add much flavor. All they add to is the cost of my dinner!  That said, if you’re in a hurry and want something that’s more like take-out than what you might normally cook, the Cashew Chicken we made last night was really quite good!  The directions were clear and simple and the food was a hit for 4 of us and I have a bit leftover for a nice lunch today.

They have a $1 off e-coupon you can print out if you want to give one of them a try.

Although we eat a lot of meat, we also all like tofu so I often find myself playing around with different stir fries with tofu. The original recipe for this called for hoisin sauce but i didn’t have any so used some jarred black bean sauce instead. It also called for yellow pepper but I used red pepper. It called for a can of water chestnuts and snow peas, but I made do with broccoli. Obviously you can easily play around with the exact ingredients. Just add the firmer vegetables earlier so they have more chance to cook. Regarding fresh ginger: I buy a knob at the store periodically and keep it in a bag in the freezer. I chop off what I need and put the rest back in the freezer. Then peel and mince as needed. I like to serve with brown rice, which takes about 45 minutes to cook. Start that cooking, chop all the vegetables, and then start cooking this about 15 minutes before the rice is done.

1 package firm tofu, drained and cut into 1 inch cubes or so
2 Tbs black bean or hoisin sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
5-6 green onions, minced
1 cup yellow or red or orange bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1-2 cups chopped broccoli
1 cup chicken broth or vegetable broth

Cube the tofu and place in a bowl. Toss with the black bean or hoisin sauce and let marinate while you fix everything else.

Chop all the vegetables so they’re ready to go.

Heat the sesame oil and soy sauce in a large frying pan over medium high heat. Add the garlic and ginger and stir fry a few minutes. Add the green onions, carrots, and pepper slices and cook 5 more minutes, stirring frequently.

Add other vegetables like broccoli, snow peas, and water chestnuts. Add the broth. Stir and cook another few minutes.

Add the tofu and cook, stirring, another 5 minutes or so.

I barbecued a steak the other night and had a good sized piece left over. Usually, I’ll turn leftover steak into either fried rice or burritos, but I had a nice bit of broccoli as well, so opted for a stir fry combo. I combined a few different recipes, based on what sounded good and what I had around. You could, of course, use raw meat and stir fry a little longer, until cooked through.

leftover cooked steak, about 1/2 pound
1 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs sherry

1/3 cup water
2 tsp cornstarch
4 teaspons soy sauce
1 Tbs sesame oil
2 tsp minced ginger
1 clove garlic, minced

about 1 pound of broccoli

3-4 Tbs oil, divided

Slice the meat into 1/4″ thick strips of bite sized pieces. Put in a bowl and sprinkle with 1 Tbs of soy sauce and sherry, mix together, and let sit for a quick marinade.

Slice the broccoli into florets. Slice any thick stems into 1/4″ pieces.

Mix together the cornstarch, water, 4 tsp soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, and garlic. If you want it spicy, add some red pepper flakes, 1/2 tsp or so.

Heat 2 Tbs of oil in a skillet over medium high. When it’s hot, cook the beef in it, stirring frequently. Cooked meat will only take a minute or two. Raw meat should cook in 3-4 minutes. Remove the meat.

Add the other 1-2 Tbs oil and then cook the broccoli 2-3 minutes, until softened a bit. Put the meat back in the pan. Reduce the heat a bit, pour in the cornstarch mix and stir together. Cook 2-3 minutes.

Serve with rice.

This is one of those funny dishes that I like when I make it at home, but I’ve never yet actually ordered it in a restaurant. Actually, I rarely order anything in a restaurant that I can cook at home. I mean, what’s the point? I don’t eat out much and am not going to waste those occasions ordering something I could just as easily fix myself any day! The last time I made lo mein with ham. This time I was skimming through my a Rachel Ray cookbook. I have to say I kind of enjoy watching her show now and then so I bought this book, Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats–A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners (A 30-Minute Meal Cookbook) but I rarely find anything that actually entices me to try it and I don’t like the organization. But this was good and worth repeating. Maybe I should explore the book a bit more. You could add some leftover meat here and have a complete meal. I served it with her breaded and baked fish, which was nothing special so I’m not posting it. This one I’d make again, although my kids didn’t like it.

I did actually use a can of bean sprouts, which somehow I’ve never bought before. But the last bag of bean sprouts I bought with some idea or another spoiled in the few days it took me to get to the idea. I think the canned may go onto my typical pantry list because they added a nice touch here and this could be an easy pantry dinner that way. It’s quick, tasty, and filling.

1/2 pound spaghetti
3 Tbs oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs minced ginger
1 carrot, peeled and shredded or cut into matchsticks
2 cups bean sprouts (I actually used the canned ones)
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1/3 cup tamari (aged soy sauce)

Cook and drain the spaghetti.

Heat the oil. Cook the garlic, ginger, and carrot for a minute or so, stirring often. Add the bean sprouts and bell pepper. (She also called for scallions here but I left those out because my kids shy from onions). Cook another the 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Add the drained pasta and stir. Then mix in the tamari and mix well.

A currently inactive blogger posted this recipe back in March I think. Her blog’s not a food blog or I’d link to it, but since she’s not posting anymore I’m not sure what she’d like. If I hear from her, I’m happy to add a link back.

I modified her recipe somewhat so will try to give you both versions. I’ll post what I did, then post how her original varied from this and why I made the changes. My kids ate this “sauce-less” although I think they were missing the best part. Still, they ate it. With the sauce, it was fantastically delicious! It goes great over steamed rice, so start that going first and the timing (25 minutes) will be about perfect with the prep work and all.

Peanut Sauce (make this first)

3/4 cup peanut butter (I used chunky)
3/4 hot water
6 Tbs rice vinegar
3 Tbs soy sauce
3 Tbs molasses

Everything else:

1 lb firm tofu, cut in 1″ cubes
1 Tbs or less oil (more later)
1 lb broccoli, cut in pieces, trimmed, stems sliced on the diagonal
2 Tbs oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 Tbs minced ginger
2 Tbs minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt (or less)
2 green onions, sliced

Prepare everything so it’s ready to go. Start the rice first. Then do all your chopping and mincing up first. Make the peanut sauce and set it aside.

Heat 1 Tbs oil in a large deep skillet (or wok I guess) over medium high heat. Stir fry the tofu until lightly browned. Remove to a bowl.

Heat the other 2 Tbs oil. Add the onion and stir-fry a few minutes.

Add the broccoli, ginger, garlic, and salt. Stir fry 5 minutes or so, until the broccoli is crisp-tender and bright green. Stir in the tofu and cook another minute. Pour the peanut sauce over it and heat through, just another minute or two. Serve over rice, topped with sliced green onions.

The variations:

The original recipe called for simmering the tofu for 10 minutes. I thought it would be better fried a bit until lightly browned, like I do when I make tofu curry.

For the sauce: the original recipe called for using cider vinegar or rice vinegar. Also, honey or molasses. I love molasses and I think they add a richer flavor. It also called for adding cayenne pepper to taste, which I left out because of my kids. Given that they ate it sauce-less I wish I’d added it!

The original recipe called for serving chopped toasted peanuts on top, along with sliced green onions. I used chunky peanut butter so skipped the peanuts on top.

This was really flavorful, very quick and easy to throw together.