Category Archives: Eating

Chomp it up.

Eating

Wok on the wild side

OK, so I don’t really have a wok. But the Cook’s Illustrated people say woks aren’t suited to American stoves anyway. I do, however, have a large skillet and a yearning for a good stir-fry. I’ve tried to make stir-fries before, and they’ve come out either flavorless or undercooked or overcooked or a combination of all three. Then I found the Cook’s Illustrated “formula” for stir-frying. And now my stir-fry problems are solved.

We had Sweet and Sour Tofu and Veggies last night for dinner. The result was tasty, although I could have cut the tofu into smaller pieces. I used broccoli, onions, a red bell pepper and carrots for the veggies, and I added some pineapple chunks at the end. I should’ve added the pineapple earlier so it could cook a bit.

This following “formula” looks pretty involved, but most of the work is in the preparation. Make sure you have everything ready and within reach before you put the pan on the heat.

Basic Stir-Fry
from Cook’s Illustrated

  • 3/4 pound protein (such as flank steak; port tenderloin; boneless, skinless chicken breasts; peeled and deveined shrimp; or extra-firm tofu), cut into small, even pieces
  • 2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
  • 2 teaspoons dry sherry
  • 3 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press
  • 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
  • 3 scallions, white parts only, minced
  • 5 teaspoons peanut or vegetable oil
  • 1 1/2 pounds prepared vegetables, cut into small pieces and divided into batches based on cooking times (see below)
  • 1 recipe stir-fry sauce (a few options follow)

    Toss the protein with the soy sauce and sherry in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, combine the garlic, ginger, scallions and 2 teaspoons of oil.

    Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a 12-inch skillet over high heat just until smoking. Add the protein and cook, stirring occasionally and breaking up clumps until lightly browned, 1 to 4 minutes. Transfer protein to a clean bowl.

    Add another teaspoon of oil to the skillet and return to high heat until shimmering. Add the first batch of vegetables (whatever needs to cook the longest) and cook 1 to 5 minutes.

    Add the remaining teaspoon of oil and the faster-cooking vegetables, and cook until the vegetables are crisp-tender, 30 seconds to 1 minute.

    Clear the center of the pan and add the garlic mixture. Cook, mashing the garlic mixture with the back of a spatula, until fragrant, about 45 seconds. Stir the garlic mixture into the vegetables. Return the protein to the pan and toss to combine.

    Whisk the sauce to recombine, then add it to the pan and bring to a simmer. Off the heat, toss until the protein and vegetables are well-coated with the sauce. Serve immediately.

    • And here’s their handy-dandy cook-times chart:

    Long-Cooking Vegetables (1 to 5 minutes): carrots, onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, asparagus, bok choy, eggplant.

    Short-Cooking Vegetables (30 seconds to 1 minute): cabbage, celery, chard, fennel, tender greens, scallions, tomatoes, snow peas.

    Very Tough Vegetables (3 to 6 minutes; require water during cooking): broccoli, green beans, cauliflower. For these veggies, you’ll need to add half a cup of water to the pan when you add the veggies and cover them to steam. Leave them covered for about 2 minutes, then take off the lid and let the water dissipate before moving on to the “long-cooking vegetables.”

    And finally, here’s the sauce recipe I used last night. It can be made up to two days in advance.

    Sweet-and-Sour Sauce

  • 6 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 6 tablespoons orange juice (I used pineapple in last night’s recipe)
  • 6 tablespoons sugar
  • 3 tablespoons ketchup
  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl.

    • There are seven more sauces in “The Best Light Recipe” cookbook: Hot-and-Sour Sauce, Garlic Sauce, Oyster Sauce, Coconut-Curry Sauce, Lemon Sauce, Spicy Orange Sauce and Ginger Sauce. I’ll share more if we try and enjoy them.

    Eating

    A banner day

    We had Coconut-Curry Chicken for dinner tonight, and Poppy (the girl who won’t try any new foods) tried it. And she liked it! She asked for seconds and then thirds. Granted, she had a total of maybe an eighth of a teaspoon of the sauce and no avocado. But still! It didn’t look like her usual “chickens,” and she tried it anyway!

    You should try it, too. It’s delicious.

    Eating

    A potato in every pot

    One of Rockford’s favorite stories to tell is the sad tale of the first time I tried to make potato soup. Until today, it was the only time I’d tried to make potato soup. It was that bad.

    We’d just moved to Missouri. Rockford was a graduate student, and I hadn’t yet found a job. Thus, we were very, very broke. It was dinnertime. I surveyed the larder and decided that we had what we needed for potato soup, and that was about it. I’d never made potato soup before, but I figured, “How hard can it be?” I didn’t write down the recipe (for obvious reasons), but here’s a rough approximation of the how-to:

    Peppery Potato Soup
    3 cups water
    2 potatoes, peeled and diced
    3 tablespoons salt
    4 cups black pepper

    Toss everything in a pot. Bring to a boil. Simmer about 45 minutes. Serve with lots of water. Wish you had enough money to order a pizza instead. Do not attempt potato soup again for five years.

    I’ve wised up a little in the last five years, and our budget has expanded enough to allow us to purchase onions and bullion cubes! And thanks to the magic of the Internet, I’m able to Google “baked potato soup” on a whim and come up with recipes like this:

    Creamy Potato Soup with Chives
    2 tablespoons unsalted butter
    1 medium onion
    2 tablespoons dry sherry or white wine
    2 large russet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice (about 4 cups)
    2 cups low-sodium chicken broth or low-fat vegetable broth
    1 teaspoon table salt
    ground white pepper
    1 to 1 1/2 cups milk
    2 teaspoons minced fresh chives
    shredded Cheddar cheese
    bacon bits

    Heat butter or oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté until golden, about 5 minutes. Add sherry and potato; stir-cook until sherry evaporates, about 30 seconds.

    Add stock, salt and pepper to taste to saucepan; bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer; cover and cook until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

    Ladle potato mixture into blender. Add 1 cup milk; blend until very smooth. Return soup to saucepan; cook over low heat until warmed through. If soup is too thick, stir in additional milk to thin consistency. Adjust seasonings. (Soup can be refrigerated for 3 days and reheated just before serving.)

    Ladle soup into individual bowls. Garnish with minced chives, cheese and bacon and serve immediately.

    from Cook’s Illustrated

    It’s really, really good. Maybe now Rockford will stop telling the Pepper Soup story. Or at the very least, maybe he’ll give it a happy ending.