two-second advice: learn to cook. remember that it is okay to mess up; this is the learning process. You are not wasting food by mispreparing it, you're just using it in a different manner.
meal examples follow.
My standard lunches: 1) Spinach, sliced plum, hard-boiled egg, newman's own basalmic vinegar dressing all mixed together in a salad, and a roll or bagel
2) Some interesting salad from the salad bar at whole foods, a roll or bagel, a container of slice cantaloupe.
3) Tasty soup, sliced plum, roll or bagel (not mixed together, because ew.) Today's soup was a coconut-milk sweet potato and cabbage concoction prepared by the Other last night, and it was hecka tasty.
4) Burrito; always with some black beans simmered with onions and spices, always with cheese, usually with some of (fresh spinach or lettuce, fresh tomato, roasted sweet potato, roasted other veggies (beets and parsnips - surprisingly tasty), salsa, sauteed onion. Sometimes fish, because I eat fish. Wrapped in a big old mission tortilla.
If I'm home, I can make a sandwich, which starts with good (read: locally baked, substantive, doesn't come sliced) bread, and continues with cheese, and some of (avacado, tomato, spinach, sauteed onions, soy protein pretending to be something it isn't, whatever else appeals to me - apples can be surprisingly good. This doesn't work so well in the office, as it requires last-minute assembly.
Dinners will often consist of some of the above. Other things I eat for dinner:
Pasta - red sauce, white sauce, spinach-based sauce, I like them all. I've been trying to cut down for calorie-reduction reasons, but that doesn't need to stop you...
asian-inspired stir-fried random: cook some rice. Here's how I do it: put in a 2-quart pan: 1 cup rice (long-grain, white) 2 cups water bring to boil cover and reduce heat to very low cook for 15 minutes. DON'T PEEK. remove cover, see if the rice is ready. If it is too tough, put the cover back on. If it is too wet, leave the cover off. In either case, leave the heat low and cook it a bit more. If it is perfect, take the lid off and turn the heat off.
chop some onions fingernail-sized. Fry them in a very hot pan (wok) until they smell good, or to taste. Remove them from the pan and put them in a large bowl. chop some veggies bite-size. broccoli and cabbage work well. fry them in a very hot pan until they are soft enough to eat. remove from pan and put in the same large bowl. repeat the process with other veggies if you care to. thaw out and steam some frozen dumplings or gyoza, if you care to.
Make the sauce: in a small cup, put: 4 TB of fairly-clear liquid (water, broth, sake, beer.. red wine would be too strong I think, but white might work. I've only ever done water broth sake and OJ.) 2 TB cornstarch. stir well.
then add: 1 TB soy sauce. spice to taste - I like to use some hoisin sauce, some bean paste with garlic, and whatever else appeals.
put all the veggies and/or gyoza back in the pan. heat it up a bit, until the sizzle starts back up. Pour the sauce over and stir madly. Serve over the rice.
I'm particularly interested in your instructions for stir-frying; your description is delightfully detailed. I've seen various people do this, and tried to take mental notes, but my own efforts are pretty hit-or-miss. I seem to go wrong mostly with regard to the oils and liquids and flavorings, usually because I've added too much of something, or added it to soon and it has burned.
I'm interested to see that you cook each group of vegetables individually, not all together, but then put them all back in for a brief stint with the sauce -- I don't think I've seen anyone do it quite that way before. Is there a particular reason you use that sequence? It certainly seems like it would be easier to control the results. Also, is there a preferred oil you use when frying the vegetables?
Traditional stir-frying is all about quick high heat. Everything follows from that. I separate different types of veggies so that each can cook for as long as it needs, without absorbing heat from the others, and without cooling the pan down too much. This matters the most for delicate veggies like snow peas, green beans, etc.. - things you basically just want to heat up. It also helps with the not burning, but that's strictly a side-benefit.
As for oil.. first, it is crucial to use ENOUGH oil. Most decent stir-fry pans are stick-proof or close to it, but you still need oil for proper cooking - an oily bubbly surface will cook something differently than a flat surface. For what type of oil, you want something that will go to high temperatures without burning. Peanut oil has an extremely high burn point and a pleasant flavor, but most canola/vegetable oils are fine, and often much less expensive. I just use veggie oil. Typically flavorful oils (olive, sesame, anything that has a really interesting smell) will burn faster, as the stuff which is not oil lowers the burn point.
Since I don't remember whether I mentioned this before and don't feel like loading the page.. The first step to stir frying anything is heating up the oil - you put the oil in the pan and turn the heat on high, and wait for it to get hot. Hotter is better, but if you can drop a small scrap of vegetable matter in the pan and have it start sizzling without any kind of delay, it is hot enough. Just don't burn the oil, that tastes icky.
meal examples follow.
My standard lunches:
1) Spinach, sliced plum, hard-boiled egg, newman's own basalmic vinegar dressing all mixed together in a salad, and a roll or bagel
2) Some interesting salad from the salad bar at whole foods, a roll or bagel, a container of slice cantaloupe.
3) Tasty soup, sliced plum, roll or bagel (not mixed together, because ew.) Today's soup was a coconut-milk sweet potato and cabbage concoction prepared by the Other last night, and it was hecka tasty.
4) Burrito; always with some black beans simmered with onions and spices, always with cheese, usually with some of (fresh spinach or lettuce, fresh tomato, roasted sweet potato, roasted other veggies (beets and parsnips - surprisingly tasty), salsa, sauteed onion. Sometimes fish, because I eat fish. Wrapped in a big old mission tortilla.
If I'm home, I can make a sandwich, which starts with good (read: locally baked, substantive, doesn't come sliced) bread, and continues with cheese, and some of (avacado, tomato, spinach, sauteed onions, soy protein pretending to be something it isn't, whatever else appeals to me - apples can be surprisingly good. This doesn't work so well in the office, as it requires last-minute assembly.
Dinners will often consist of some of the above. Other things I eat for dinner:
Pasta - red sauce, white sauce, spinach-based sauce, I like them all. I've been trying to cut down for calorie-reduction reasons, but that doesn't need to stop you...
asian-inspired stir-fried random:
cook some rice. Here's how I do it:
put in a 2-quart pan:
1 cup rice (long-grain, white)
2 cups water
bring to boil
cover and reduce heat to very low
cook for 15 minutes. DON'T PEEK.
remove cover, see if the rice is ready. If it is too tough, put the cover back on. If it is too wet, leave the cover off. In either case, leave the heat low and cook it a bit more. If it is perfect, take the lid off and turn the heat off.
chop some onions fingernail-sized. Fry them in a very hot pan (wok) until they smell good, or to taste. Remove them from the pan and put them in a large bowl.
chop some veggies bite-size. broccoli and cabbage work well.
fry them in a very hot pan until they are soft enough to eat. remove from pan and put in the same large bowl.
repeat the process with other veggies if you care to.
thaw out and steam some frozen dumplings or gyoza, if you care to.
Make the sauce:
in a small cup, put:
4 TB of fairly-clear liquid (water, broth, sake, beer.. red wine would be too strong I think, but white might work. I've only ever done water broth sake and OJ.)
2 TB cornstarch.
stir well.
then add:
1 TB soy sauce.
spice to taste - I like to use some hoisin sauce, some bean paste with garlic, and whatever else appeals.
put all the veggies and/or gyoza back in the pan. heat it up a bit, until the sizzle starts back up. Pour the sauce over and stir madly. Serve over the rice.
Reply
I'm particularly interested in your instructions for stir-frying; your description is delightfully detailed. I've seen various people do this, and tried to take mental notes, but my own efforts are pretty hit-or-miss. I seem to go wrong mostly with regard to the oils and liquids and flavorings, usually because I've added too much of something, or added it to soon and it has burned.
I'm interested to see that you cook each group of vegetables individually, not all together, but then put them all back in for a brief stint with the sauce -- I don't think I've seen anyone do it quite that way before. Is there a particular reason you use that sequence? It certainly seems like it would be easier to control the results. Also, is there a preferred oil you use when frying the vegetables?
Thanks!
Reply
As for oil.. first, it is crucial to use ENOUGH oil. Most decent stir-fry pans are stick-proof or close to it, but you still need oil for proper cooking - an oily bubbly surface will cook something differently than a flat surface. For what type of oil, you want something that will go to high temperatures without burning. Peanut oil has an extremely high burn point and a pleasant flavor, but most canola/vegetable oils are fine, and often much less expensive. I just use veggie oil. Typically flavorful oils (olive, sesame, anything that has a really interesting smell) will burn faster, as the stuff which is not oil lowers the burn point.
Since I don't remember whether I mentioned this before and don't feel like loading the page.. The first step to stir frying anything is heating up the oil - you put the oil in the pan and turn the heat on high, and wait for it to get hot. Hotter is better, but if you can drop a small scrap of vegetable matter in the pan and have it start sizzling without any kind of delay, it is hot enough. Just don't burn the oil, that tastes icky.
Hope this helps.
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http://www.joegrossberg.com/archives/002047.html
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