Stir-Fry

I haven't made stir-fry in awhile. I don't know why, but I haven't really been in the mood. However, with school starting next week, we will probably be stir-frying more for several reasons:
1. It's fast.
2. It can be done entirely from pantry and freezer items.
3. A monkey can do it, even while reading her Bus. Orgs. Textbook.

To stir fry, I usually use three ingredients:
-Costco stir fry vegetables (also available at the grocery store, but I like having a 10lb bag of veggies in the freezer).
-Tofu or shrimp (depending on what is on hand. I also buy the shrimp at costco. Costco does not yet sell giant bags of frozen, sliced tofu, but when they do, I will do a dance.)
-Stir fry sauce/marinade. I've already written an ode to the yellow curry sauce at Trader Joe's, but I'm also a fan of any kind of sweet and sour sauce, or soy sauce mixture. Mark will just use straight up soy sauce, but I find it extremely salty. I like to peruse the stir-fry aisle at my local hippie mart or mega mart to find new mixtures.

I use the following equipment:
-a Wok
-a cutting board, if I'm using tofu; a colander if I'm using shrimp.

We finally broke down and bought a wok last fall. We got the smallest, cheapest wok we could find that fit my strict requirements:
1. Either not too heavy or had an additional handle. (That is one long handle and one small handle perpendicular on the opposite side of the wok.)
2. Nonstick coating.
3. Made of thick enough metal that the first time I left the stove on too long, it wouldn't burn.
My dream wok was something like this.
We wound up getting something more like this. (I think ours was $20 at an outlet.)
At least it came with a lot of extra bamboo pieces for steaming or something. I don't use them - anyone know how to use any of them? Because I can't put my frozen vegetables on that bamboo rack. I sometimes use the spoon. And the chopsticks, but only to see if my cakes are done in the center.

I do recommend a wok. You can get a cheap one that will still be better for stir frying than the average frying pan. This is mostly because frying pans do not fit enough food, and you can't push all the vegetables up on the side while you cook the shrimp or tofu at the end of the meal.

I don't actually know how to use a wok. I'm sure there are real methods of using them, but I stick with my hamburger helper approach. (1 Pound of Hamburger + 1 Pan = 1 Happy Family)

Comments

It wasn't until this weekend I was told that people were commenting on this blog. It is very exciting to me because I really thought that only Mark and Andy read this. Cool.
I've now enabled email notification, so now I will know when people comment and actually respond.
But for now - responses to some earlier comments.
Catherine - here is a recipe for Amish Friendship Bread Starter. If you make any, I'll take a cup of starter off your hands at some point.
Taylor - try grilled pineapple kebabs with shrimp (I'll be posting a recipe for Cilantro Glazed Pineapple Shrimp sometime soon, I was hoping Fitness Magazine would have it online already, but alas, no) or you can freeze the remaining pineapple and then use it to make pina coladas. Or you can do what I would do, and eat the entire thing.
Scrappy Mom - I cooked the potatoes au gratin in the crock-pot for about 6-8 hours on low, but they were a bit burned - my crock pot cooks very hot though, but my guess is 6 hours would still have been enough.

Aprons

I sometimes wonder if I, like all the other ironic bakers out there -and by that, I mean women who take to the kitchen and bake cupcakes fully aware that they are possibly reinforcing decades-old ideals about women in the kitchen baking cupcakes - should be wearing a kitschy retro apron.
It makes the ironic baking experience even more ironic.
Pretty much only real chefs and ironic bakers wear aprons at all. I guess some guys who barbeque have their "Kiss the Chef" aprons. My boyfriend wanted to get his sister an apron last Christmas. I told him to not be fooled by the fact that I wear an apron, as I am not indicative of the rest of the cooks and wanna-be cooks out there. I wear an apron because I'm messy. And because I'm usually too lazy to get out a dishtowel to wipe my hands, and I only have one pair of jeans.
Nonetheless, I don't have $32 to spend on a cute apron that nips in at the waist and will make me look skiny. Mine is a barbeque apron built for men, but on sale for $7 because it was bright blue with a girlie fish on the pocket. The only downside is that it doesn't have an adjustable neckstrap like my old apron. (Which I think is buried under laundry at my parents house.)
I do think sometimes about getting a new apron. But would I go with the polka dots? Or perhaps a "beyond a reasonable trout" apron for the lawyer in me? Both are ironic, but in different ways. (BRT is ironic because lawyers do not have time to cook.)

Honey Rum Beans

So I tried to make my own honey-rum beans tonight.
Into the slow cooker went:
1 can Kidney Beans
Capt'n Morgan's Rum
Honey
Cinnamon
Brown Sugar
1 tsp Cornstarch

I sorta guessed at the amount. The beans, a couple splashes of rum, some squeezes of honey, a few shakes of cinnamon, tablespoon or so of brown sugar, and then the cornstarch all go into the slow cooker.

Haven't eaten the whole batch, but I sampled and then had to be pulled away from the slowcooker.

Cooking with Rum

Having just gotten back from a week in the Carribbean, I'm eager to try some new recipes that will hopefully mimic stuff I got to eat while I was there. Caribbean cooking is great because they use rum in everything. My three favorites were rum cornbread, honey rum beans, and rum cake. I'll be working on the cornbread first.
I found this recipe via Recipe Zaar for Rum Laced Caribbean Cornbread. I'll be trying it while I'm still out of school and reporting back.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons rum or 1 1/2 teaspoons rum extract
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flaked coconut
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Equipment:
8 Inch Square Pan, greased
Oven at 400 degrees
Procedure:

1. Combine butter, milk, eggs, and rum in a bowl. Whisk until combined.
   
2. Add remaining ingredients, stir until moist.
   
3. Spread in pan.
   
4. Bake 40-45 minutes.
   

Simple Pleasures

I went to the farmer's market today. There is one in Hyattsville where I work that is open on Thursday afternoons.
I signed up for the newsletter. Because the cheerful guy telling me to sign up told me, "if you got our newsletter, you'd know that today we'd have PEACHES!" I told him I don't like peaches, but I signed up anyway. Then he said it, "we have berries." Berries...
I stopped by the vegetable stand first. I needed food for dinner. I bought green beans and redskin potatoes. Then I saw the berries. A little too expensive, but way too delicious looking to resist. I took a half pint of berries.
Then, on my way out, I stopped and bought a mini-bag of fresh donuts. If you've never seen a donut maker, they're awesome. The donut maker squeezed out four donuts into boiling oil and then they travel through and get flipped and then drain and then they fall. It's awesome. And they were delicious.
When I got home, I washed the berries. Then I ate about half of them before my better nature got to me and I decided to save some for Mark, and also to use them to top the cheesecake.
But one of the simple pleasures in life is standing barefoot in the kitchen, eating a perfect raspberry, fuzzy and totally ripe.
Often we think of food as fuel, or as the enemy. We sometimes stop thinking of it as what it is - simply delicious.

Amish Friendship Bread

Amish Friendship Bread is delicious. It is also the worst chain letter ever. You are supposed to give a ziploc bag of starter to somebody else. I'm not sure how to make starter. Once you get the starter, you will eventually create four cups of starter - three to give away. The problem is if you don't have three friends, or when you show up at a friend's house with a bag of goo and they look at you. So if you are in that situation, keep reading.
So once you get the starter from somebody, you follow the steps below.
Day 1 -6/9 - Do nothing
Day 2 - 6/10- Mush the bag
Day 3 - 6/11- Mush the bag
Day 4 - 6/12 - Mush the bag
Day 5 - 6/13 - Mush the bag
Day 6 - 6/14 - Add 1 cup each flour, sugar, milk. Mush the bag
Day 7 - 6/15 - Mush the bag
Day 8 - 6/16 - Mush the bag
Day 9 - 6/17 - Mush the bag
Day 10 - 6/18 - Follow directions below

Pour the entire contents into a non-metallic bowl.
Add 1.5 cups each flour, sugar, milk.
Measure out 4 separate batters of 1 cup each into 4 one-gallon ziplock bags

For the remaining batter:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Add:
3 eggs
1 cup oil
.5 cup milk
1 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamom
.5 tsp vanilla
1.5 tsp baking powder
.5 tsp baking soda
.5 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 5.1oz box of instant vanilla pudding

Grease a pan. Mix .5cup sugar and 1.5 tsp cinnamon. Dust pan with half the mixture. Pour the batter into the pan and dust with remaining mixture.
Bake 1 hour, cool 10 minutes.

What to do with the extra batter:
If you have four ziploc bags of batter, follow the steps again. If you know you won't give them away, put two cups in each bag and only use two bags.
Then - use the two sets of starter and follow the remaining directions, without adding the 1.5 cups of flour, sugar, and milk.

I also tried substituting the oil with applesauce and used sugar/fat free pudding. It came out tasting more like applesauce cake, and might be great with a little nutmeg and allspice.