An Old Standby

I love vegetables.  I have eaten an entire can of green beans for a meal before.  True story.  But I can't bring myself to serve a can of green beans to Brandon for dinner, so I went to an old stand by: vegetarian stir-fry.  I've been making stir-fry for years and I'm sure it's not a totally foreign dish to anyone, but we love it at our house.  No matter how much you try, it always makes a ton of food, which is ok because Brandon loves the leftovers. Sometimes I cook chicken with it, often I leave it out, because it's so damn tasty you don't need the chicken.  Another great thing about my vegetarian stir fry is that it's soooo low in calories and fat that I can eat till I'm stuffed and not feel too guilty about it. 

I have two types of woks, electric and non-electric.  The electric wok is a really nice piece of equipment to have because it comes with a temperature dial so you can control how how the pan gets.  It also came with some other tools such as grates that hang on the side and sit in the bottom which are great for steaming.  I don't use this (I haven't even moved it from my parents' house yet) because it's really big and bulky.  My non-electric or standard wok I do use more frequently, but mostly I just use my 7 1/2 quart saute pan.  It has tall sides which is essential for keeping all of that food in the pan.  It's easier to clean than my wok, and I can reach it (my wok is on top of the refrigerator... don't joke).

The key to cooking stir fry evenly, and getting all of the veggies done at about the same time, is to try to get all the veggies cut to about the same size.  Carrots will take longer than the broccoli, so if they're cut thin enough, they should take about the same amount of time.  If you've never thought about it, I suggest opening your can of water chestnuts and aiming to cut the veggies no thicker than the circumference of a sliced water chestnut.  

Here's what generally goes into mine:

1 green bell pepper, julienned (cut into matchstick size pieces)

1 red bell pepper, julienned

3 carrots, julienned

1 head of broccoli, cut into florets

1 white onion, julienned

1 5-oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained

1 5-oz can bamboo shoots, drained

1 8-oz can baby corn, drained and cut into bite-sized pieces

Heat a little bit of vegetable oil in a wok (or large saute pan) until very hot.  Toss the fresh veggies in.  If their is any water on the vegetables, the oil will spatter so be very careful of this. Try to stir the veggies as little as possible.  This will allow them to get the "fry" part down.   It will take between 8-12 minutes to cook the veggies to a nice crisp-tender.  The best way to see if they're done is to taste.  About 2 minutes before they're perfect, add the canned veggies and cook until heated through.  As for sauce, our go-to is House of Tsang Classic Stir Fry Sauce, but Brandon just told me that he wanted to try some different kinds of sauces so we'll be venturing outside of our comfort zone, which is always exciting in the kitchen.  I don't add any sauce to the whole thing, I add a little on my own plate.  That way I can control how much is on my serving.  I serve this dish with white jasmine rice.

If anyone has any recommendations for a different stir-fry sauce, let me know.  I especially like spicy black bean sauces.