Tis the Season to be Thankful

"So a turkey walked into a bar...."

Alright, so that joke doesn't have a punch line, but hey, it is the season for over-eating and gorging until you explode. I myself spent the last few days at my Granny's house helping her prepare the large family meal that my family enjoys. This of course has meant that I haven't had internet access for the last several days, making me increasingly lazy about posting. (Although if you were staying updated on my blog during Thanksgiving, shame on you!)

This also means that I have been a slacker with my favorite rice dishes. So as a multipart posting today, I shall give the recipe to one of my favorite uses of rice, stir fry.

Spicy Veggie Stir Fry on Rice

Tools:

Wok (or a good skillet)

Plastic Spatula

Cutting Board

Knife

Ingredients:

1 cup of carrots, cut into inch wide pieces

1/2 cup of unsalted and shelled peanuts

1 large onion, chopped into 1 inch pieces

1 cup of celery, same size as carrots

1 cup of bean sprouts

1 cup of mushrooms

3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped up

1 tbsp chopped ginger

oil (I like sesame for this, but corn oil works just as well)

1/2 cup of chili sauce (my favorite is Huy Fong Tuong OT Sriracha Chili Sauce, which you can get in most major supermarkets. I eat this on a LOT of things.)

3-4 cups of cooked rice

Soy Sauce as a condiment.

Time to play with knives!

The trick with stir-fry is having everything precut before you even start, which means you get to play with a knife. I know, you were always told to not play with knives, but you will probably be safe by now. Cut up everything that you'll be adding to the stir fry, all about the same size. Consistency in size will help you get everything cooked all the way through correctly. Chop everything up and keep in separate containers until you are ready to use.

Put the wok onto the burner, add enough oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pan (we are frying after all) and put onto the burner set to high. Be careful now! This will go really fast, in under a few minutes once you start (3 minutes MAX!). Once the pan is hot (be careful to not burn the oil), start the madness!

(If the oil is smoking, pull the pan off the burner before you catch the oil on fire, which is BAD. If you wait too long you could set the house on fire, which is bad unless you were looking to die in a house fire. Ah well, to each their own I guess.)

Then we will go the fast order of operations in adding things. Toss in the garlic and ginger, followed by the peanuts. Stir around with the spatula while counting to ten, then add the carrots and count to ten again, stirring the entire time. Add in the onion and celery, count to fifteen, and throw the 'shrooms and sprouts in. KEEP STIRRING THE ENTIRE TIME!!! The pan is hot and if the food stops it could burn to the pan.

Stir on obscenely high for another minute, then add the sauce to the pan. Pull the pan off the heat and continue stirring the sauce around the pan, using the residual heat to heat the sauce. Serve over the white rice with some soy sauce to taste.

Alright, and now for my rant on soy sauce. Don't buy CRAP, aka, something made in American factories from a chemical concoction to taste like soy sauce. The La Chow company is the devil, don't get it from them! If the soy sauce has more than 3-4 ingredients, then don't get it! The sauce is water + soy beans + maybe a preservative or natural flavoring, that is it!

Well now that you know my most simple stir fry recipe, I can go and eat some more turkey! Hmmm...leftovers. Oh, and if you have leftover turkey, throw in a cup after you toss the carrots in. But then it wouldn't be vegetarian....oh well.

Until next time, bien camino!