I love that ****

I just try to limit the boxed foods as much as possible. My issue with convenience foods isnt necessarily with the food itself but the companies that make them. I do like me some quick shells and cheese, hamburger helper or zatarains when i dont feel like cleaning 3-4 pans.

on the menu tonight... stir fry beef with veggies. zomg red meat two nights in a row!? god bless america!

I want to do this tonight as well so it's funny you mentioned this except I am going to use either deer or moose for it.
I want to start experimenting more with this type of food but really haven't done much at all so far with it. How essential is a Wok? I have a nice large skillet I was going to use but not sure how important a Wok would be. I want to get a Wok (an electric one) but just haven't yet.
Sauce? I am guessing soy is important here but not sure if I should be mixing other stuff in there with the soy sauce or not. Also, assuming cook meat first using a bit of oil, add veggies with sauce for awhile until veggies cooked but still crisp?
Am I on the right track or ?

Well it depends.....
the main point of a wok is to get insanely hot with a bit of oil in the bottom. You really arent supposed to use it for like saute'ing or anything...

that being said 90% of all stovetops dont even get hot enough to even get the same kind of texture you'd get at a typical chinese place. they have special burners for woks and they cook things for just a few seconds. With a normal stovetop its going to take a bit longer and its not going to taste like that typical chinese food meat texture.

So to ansawer your question... it really doesnt matter about the wok imo. Ive done stirfry in woks and have done them in normal pans without really any difference.

As for a sauce...Im trying to figure out a better one myself right now but i usually just use siracha, soy sauce and either honey or maple syrup actually. Maybe some ginger and scallions if they're on hand. If you're using soy sauce dont use salt.

But yeah bascially how i go about it is I get all my ingredients together and then individually pan fry everything in hot oil in the wok to get them a little crispy and cooked. Once everythings been fried I'll dump everything in the wok and add my sauce and toss is kinda like wings. just keep an eye on your meat so it doenst overcook.

one thing...coat your meat in cornstarch and salt/pepper before frying...and make sure everything is bone dry...dont want to start a fire.

I think thats confusing enough lol.
you should post a pic of the finished product later Fish. I'll try and remember to do the same.

When I stirfry, I make a sauce with S+P, ~teaspoon of cornstarch mixed with water, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, red pepper, some brown sugar or honey, and hoisin or oyster sauce. I marinate the meat in this mixture while I prep veggies.

Then I cook the meat and veggies and throw the marinade in the wok at the end with everything to thicken up into a gravy.

I used the wrong kind of oil for my "insanely hot" wok. My stovetop might not get hot enough to stirfry like the pros, but it is hot enough to start a pretty substantial fire.

its not my place to say you're doing anything wrong (and im sure you're doing it safely...but for the beneft for others) be careful with using marinades as sauces. If its not brought up to 140deg. it can get you sick...

and easy way to tell this is if your sauce doesnt thicken up then its not hot enough. cornstarch has to be in boiling liquid to work as a thickener...same with flour.

your sauce sounds good though. Might try that one tonight.

LOL, I had to look up "siracha". I am such a noob. How hot is that stuff?
I will try to take pictures but Fishette always looks at me like I have lost my mind when I start taking pictures of my food. That and I am not into the whole presentation thing. I dump it on a plain old plate, dig in and eat. I will try to be a bit more civilized tonight.

it depends on what your definition of "hot" is. I'll put straight siracha on a lot of things and I dont think its "too" hot.

lol for along time i just called it "cocksauce" because of the rooster on the side.

It all depends on how much you use, sriracha can get very hot very fast. You just have to experiment to find what is right for you.

LOL, Cocksauce.

My dilemma is that I like "Hot" and Fishette has a very low tolerance for hot and spicy. I know I have seen this stuff at the local grocery store and will see if they still have it and pick some up tonight.

since you're cooking everything seperate anyways this makes it really easy to cook to order. Just throw half your stuff in when its time to sauce and make the sauce itself not spicy. Then after hers is done put your meat and veg in with the rest of the sauce and just add the siracha and toss it a bit.

you know what i mean?

I do this all the time because my wife doesnt like the spicy foods.
I do even more complicated balancing acts when i want seafood since she hates that too.

In that case i like to add the sriracha as a condiment. Squirt in a little bit, stir, taste, add a little more, stir, taste, etc...

Ya, that all makes sense. Thank You All!

very good point.

I push all the meat and stuff up the sides of the wok and put the marinade in the middle of the pan and let it get thick and bubbly before mixing everything together. I suppose I never consciously realized this could be potentially dangerous, but I will consider it from now on.

At the beginning I always made a separate bowl with all the marinade ingredients because I like extra gravy and I always made big batches of veggies/meat. But then I got lazy and just made lots of marinade

the only reason its on the forefront of my mind is because my wife is pregnant. God i was cooking her steak for like 40 minutes last night to get that damn thing cooked well done. ...or...overcooked as i call it.

Re the sriracha (rooster sauce to me), it's not very hot if you're used to spicy. So much so that you start to taste the vinegar. That's why I sometimes use other hot stuff in addition to it -- otherwise I'll wind up drinking a mouthful of vinegar just to get stuff spicy enough.

On another note, I often use fresh lemon juice to brighten up a soup, especially one with heavy flavors like lentil. Lately I've been experimenting with adding maybe a teaspoon or two of balsamic vinegar to my lentil soup. It works really well, and seems to make the whole soup taste a bit more aromatic. Kind of like lemon, but while lemon's flavor is deliciously pure and does seem to complement other tastes very well, it's not terribly complex in the way it does it. Balsamic is adding a wider variety of new flavor notes to the soup, and it's not bad at all.