All Things in Moderation

My wife and I are fans of Cooks Illustrated. We bought a boxed set of the first ten years of bound volumes after getting back from our honeymoon back in 2003. Since then, we’ve added most of the individual volumes. I’ve always found their approach appealing as it strikes me as the way a scientist would go at a problem. Cooking as chemistry rather than art. It’s a good grounding in cooking. I’ve learned to indulge my creative side too.

One criticism of CI is that the recipes can be ridiculously involved. We have some vegetarian friends and so I make a vegetarian friendly stuffing for Thanksgiving. The vegetarian stock in CI is over the top. Two pounds of veggies and an hour of cooking to produce one quart of stock. REALLY??? I’ve simplified it a bit and double the amount of stock that I get out of it.

One of our favorite books is The Simple Recipe, from the same folks. The idea is to take the ridiculously complicated recipes and simplify them for every day cooking. It still takes time, but works for a weeknight meal. When it comes to throwing together a balanced meal, my most serious failing is in not making a side dish to balance out the meal. It’s too easy to just serve the main course with a starch. One pot meals have a nice way of handling this problem. Veggies included!

This brings me to my recipe of the week: stir fry. Everything is in one pan, so there’s no need to do anything on the side. Get some rice going, chop up some meat and veggies (or use a bag of frozen veggies), and you’re good to go. This does not, however, mean throw everything into a pan. Different veggies take different cooking times. Plus, if you crowd the pan, those veggies are going to throw off enough liquid to drown your meal. What I really like about the Quick Recipe approach is that it’s broken up so that everything has a chance to cook, not too much, and you throw it all together in the end. The meat marinates while you get everything else ready.

Here’s the general approach.

Step 1. Cut up ¾ of a pound of meat (or tofu) into bite sized pieces and combine with 2 teaspoons each of soy sauce and sherry. Not being English, I don’t often have sherry on hand, so I use white wine (if I don’t have it on hand, I’ll run over to Unwined).

Step 2. Combine a tablespoon of minced ginger, another of minced garlic, some chopped green onions (white parts), and a couple teaspoons of oil. Peanut oil is really good for stir fries as it has a high smoke point. Safflower and sunflower oils are a good alternative.

Step 3. Chop up 1 ½ pounds of veggies. They’ll need to be separated by how they cook. Spinach is going to get added in at the last moment. Carrots and onions go in early.

Step 4. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a 12” nonstick skillet (another thing I love about this method—no wok) until smoking. Add the marinated protein and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned. It’ll probably take 2 – 3 minutes. Less for shrimp (unless you’re a fan of chewing polyurethane). Transfer to a clean bowl.

Step 5. Cook the veggies. Add a bit more oil to the pan and heat until shimmering (not smoking!). Add the slower cooking veggies to the pan and cook until nearly done (tender, but a bit crisp). Move the veggies to the side, add a bit more oil, and add the quick cooking veggies.

Step 6. Clear out the center of the pan and toss in the garlic/ginger mixture. Cook for about a minute, mashing a bit, and then stir all the veggies together. Add the protein back in and stir to combine. Toss in ½ cup of sauce and serve over rice.

It’s time for me to add a note regarding sauces. This should be step 2.5. But hey, there’s some decent sauces that you can buy in the supermarket. This is, after all, supposed to be a weeknight meal. Their sauces are pretty easy to put together. One common theme is cornstarch as a thickener. In case you’re obsessive like me, here’s a few of my favorites.

Garlic Sauce

3 T. dry sherry

3 T. chicken broth

2 T. soy sauce

½ t. sesame oil

1.5 t. minced garlic

1 t. cornstarch

½ t. sugar

Hot and Sour Sauce

3 T. rice wine vinegar*

2 T. chicken broth

2 T. dry sherry

1 T. soy sauce

1 T. chili paste

1 t. sesame oil

1 t. sugar

1 t. cornstarch

*You can sub other vinegars, but cut it back as the rice wine vinegar is pretty low in acidity

Lemon Sauce

Zest and juice from one large lemon

2 T. chicken broth

2 T. dry sherry

1 T. soy sauce

2 t. sugar

1 t. cornstarch

½ t. black pepper

I’ll throw in a couple of my favorites. The basic template is adaptable to whatever you’ve got in the crisper. Okie and I chatted recently. She had a few ingredients available, but was lacking in inspiration. That had me going stir fry!

One of my favorites is beef and broccoli. I didn’t realize until well into my 40s that broccoli stalks were something you should enjoy. I figured you cut off the florets and discarded the rest. Here’s a recipe that I hope might convince you likewise.

Beef & Broccoli in Garlic Sauce

¾ pound thinly sliced flank steak

1 ½ pounds broccoli—florets broken into bite sized pieces; stalks peeled and cut into ¼” thick pieces

¼ cup of coarsely chopped walnuts

Garlic sauce (see above)

All the other stuff I mentioned above

1. Combine the beef with soy and sherry

2. Combine garlic, ginger, scallinos and oil (see above)

3. Toast the walnuts in that same 12” skillet you’ll be using. Set aside.

4. Add 2 t. oil to the skillet, heat until smoking, and toss in the beef. Cook, stirring occasionally, until well browned and transfer to a clean bowl.

5. Add another 2 t. of oil to the skillet and heat until shimmering. Add the broccoli, ½ cup of water, and cover. Cook until the broccoli turns bright green , 1 – 2 minutes. Uncover and cook, stirring, until the water evaporates and the broccoli is ready, About another 2 – 4  minutes.

6. Clear the center of the pan, add the garlic/ginger mixture and cook for about a minute. Stir it all together, add the beef and combine with the sauce. Toss the walnuts on top and dig in!

Shrimp and Peppers in Garlic Sauce

You may notice a theme, as I love the Garlic Sauce

1 pound of large shrimp

2 med. red bell peppers, diced

1 cup of scallion whites, coarsely diced

1 ½ cups of scallion greens, chopped

Garlic sauce

Other stuff as noted above

Note: If you don’t feel like spending awhile chopping scallions, use a medium white or yellow onion for the whites and some spinach for the greens.

Pretty much, you follow the same protocol. Marinate the shrimp and prep the other stuff. Cook the shrimp in smoking oil until browned. I’d say shrimp require a bit more attention Don’t worry if they’re undercooked, because they’ll continue to cook while set aside and go back on heat later. Cook the onions/white parts, toss in the bell peppers, and then add the green parts (or greens). Make some space, cook the ginger/garlic mix, throw everything together and eat!

May you all have a Memorable weekend. I’m taking my sons to visit their great aunt’s grave in Arlington National Cemetery and then we’re going to watch Rolling Thunder going over the Memorial Bridge.

BB

Filed under: 2012, Bites and Pieces, recipes | 18 Comments »