So is next week risotto, or is it a very specific dish with an out of season fish?

Sorry, I misposted. Risotto is in the hole. Salmon is on deck.

Made stir fry last night too.

Ingredients:


I used the pre-cut stir fry veggies because I'm lazy and because they were on sale at the grocery store ($1.99). No regrets. I forgot to buy ginger so instead just used ground ginger that I had at home.

Marinated the chicken with soy sauce, salt, lemon pepper, chinese five spice, and ground ginger. Then let it sit on the fridge for 45 minutes while I walked the dog and got other things done. Browned the chicken on the wok for a couple of minutes and set aside.



Then got the garlic and shallots on the wok for a minute before adding the stir cut veggies. Added salt, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sesame seed oil. Chicken went on top after a couple of minutes, and finally added the cooked noodles and mixed everything.





The result, served with a Moscow mule to add to the ginger flavor.



Overall pretty good, though the flavors were a little rich. Next time I'll probably dial down on the soy and oyster sauces. Oh, and on the oil too.

BONUS: Having leftovers for lunch at work. I think it tastes better than last night!

Looks good, El_Timon! I agree, leftovers are one of the best things about stir-fry, almost always better the next day. Thanks for getting us back on track

Damn, possibly found this thread too late. I make stir fries 2-3 times a week so I'll see if I've got time in the next few days.

Regarding ginger, I've been 'cheating' recently and using this stuff in curries and stir fries :

It adds quite a lot of sweetness, which I like, and also gives a good kick of ginger.

I dunno what the group thinks about multiple submissions but it's on topic and everyone's food looked so good so far, so giddy up!

Frying firm tofu


Drained on paper bag, cooked ginger and veggies, added tofu back and OYSTER SAUCE which is so delicious with ginger and just to make sure I didn't make a vegetarian dish by accident.

That is gorgeous! I like tofu, but didn't expect it to be winning the thread so far. Wow. Got a finished plate? What side did you pair it with?

No side, just a simple one pan dinner, but my wife asked the same question, "where's the carbs?" She doesn't know about macros generally so there's no use engaging this line of discussion. So the finished plate looked like a bowl of the dish above. Don't want to press my luck with the iPhone camera.


I paired it with a local microbrew IPA, not too bitter, with some citrusy grapefruit type flavors.

chicken thighs >>>>> chicken breast for stir fry

really looking forward to a korean-style one I can steal

Made stir fry tonight but forgot to take pictures until I had everything back in the pan to earn through before serving. Marinated chicken breast in soy sauce, rice vinegar, sriracha, ginger, brown sugar and sesame oil for 2 hours. Fried that first over high heat and set aside. Then came red pepper, onions, mushrooms. Set those aside with the chicken while I did a quick steam then stir fry on some broccoli. I made a light sauce with the same ingredients as the marinade and combined everything back in the pan before serving over white rice. I make a lot of this and eat it for lunch several days after. Pan is barely big enough after adding everything back in.

Mise en place


My sister gave me this wok for Christmas so this thread gave me a reason to use it. First time with a wok and first time making stir fry. It's non stick and the mondo transition edges make flipping stuff easy. Giant handle helped too.



Finished product.


Definitely learned a lot this time. Mainly how much can fit in my wok. Ended up final mixing in my stock pot. Noodles set up after being cooled and sitting in the strainer for like 20 minutes. Was tough to get the veg to mix in with the solid ball of noodles. Added some water and it loosened them up. Less noodles next time. More sauce/water can be added at the end.

Oiling the noodles after cooking them will prevent them from sticking and clumping when adding to the stir fry.

Have really enjoyed hearing about all the different ingredients people using in their stir frys, with the different selection of meats (chicken, pork)/tofu, veggies (tomatoes, prepackaged stir fry mix (cool!)), spices (star anise, cardamon, caraway, marjoram) and other aromatics (lemon, parsley, chives). Also, those were neat tips about the tempeh and ginger jam. Have also enjoyed reading about the detailed cooking techniques has been cool too

So far there's been tofu, pork and chicken - my stir fry's beef. Something I like to do with cooking is try to find copycat recipes of food they serve at restaurants and fast food places, so I can make a cheaper (and sometimes healthier) version at home. And so for a while, have been trying to make Shanghai Noodles and Black Pepper Beef like they have at the mall, at Manchu Wok It's not exactly haute cuisine, but it sure is tasty

Goal: to try and make a cheaper, healthier copycat version of Manchu Wok's Shanghai Noodles with Black Pepper Beef

The Challenge: haven't made a ton of stir fries before, and the ones I've made haven't turned out so great - the beef turned out tough, and the noodles didn't taste so great

The Problem: oftentimes have been hungry and disorganized when making stir frys, and didn't marinate the meat or measure out ingredients

Solution: try to find a recipe and stick to it

There were so many recipes that came up for "shanghai noodles" and "beef stir fry" - after checking a whole bunch of different sites, I wound up going with one from Serious Eats, with a bit of Pioneer Woman thrown in:

Stir-Fried Beef with Snap Peas - Serious Eats
Beef with Peppers - Pioneer Woman

Decided to take the time to marinate the meat after reading this other article over at Serious Eats: How to Marinate Meat for Stir Fries


Ingredients

Am not much of an expert steak chef The recipe calls for flank steak, but No Frills only had T-Bone Grade AA ... think that's the US equivalent to ... Select? Which is a huge improvement to the mechanically tenderized hip steak I was buying before - wow, was that ever a tough cut of meat! loll



Tried keeping the veggies simple, to keep the recipe simple - so maybe I should have chosen a simpler recipe than the one at Serious Eats, because J. Kenji Lopez-Alt uses more ingredients than some people



Marinating the Meat

So this time I tried measuring out all the ingredients, and with so many, this took some time. Was a little worried at first that maybe there wasn't enough to coat the steak, but there was just enough without making it too soupy



Cooking

Two peppers and an onion wound up making a lot of little strips ...



... while one 1/2-inch T-bone steak from No Frills unfortunately did not



Final Dish

With noodles added




So the steak turned out *fantastic*!! yum yum Really tender and flavourful. Wish I could say the same about the noodles, but had the same experience as the other noodle dish - mine felt like the sauce turned out too rich/strong, like maybe there was too much soy sauce or something?

So the steak and veggies were the star of the dish for me - will have to keep searching for a better noodle sauce recipe ... and hopefully for one that has less ingredients? But marinating the steak seemed like it was worth the extra time and effort - the steak was a thousand times better than the last time I tried making a stir fry and bought that tenderized hip steak and didn't marinate it further with a cornstarch marinade. So that was a fun thing to find out, because now maybe making a similar marinade for steak fajitas might make my those better too?

Fun trying out a new recipe, and learning something new about marinating steak

Firstly, sorry that my pics didn't come out too well.
In short, I used a Flank steak instead of chicken. I marinated it in soy sauce+garlic powder+Kosher salt+cracked black pepper, for about 2 hours. Then sliced it very thin.
Also prepped a medley of veggies: broccoli, broccoli stalk was julienned, red & yellow pepper, carrots, onions, garlic, ginger, snow peas, green onions)


Veggies and steak were thrown in separately. Both on high heat in the wok. The steak was cut very thin, so didn't really have time to take a pic in the wok; just had to brown it, flip it and take it out super quick.
Pic of just veggies in wok:


Everything was married together in some Grapeseed oil, garlic, ginger, diced onions, soy sauce, a little siracha.

Last but not least, I placed some udon noodles in the mix.

Final result (pic sucks, sorry):

I'm digging the steak stir fry recipes!

here's my tip for you: rice has about 25 min left when you dump it in the boiling water. The way i've cooked rice for the past years is:

boil water (add salt), add the rice. cook rice for 15-ish minutes, stir occasionally. By 15-ish mins a large % of the water has been absorbed. Turn heat off, move the pan away from the heat and stick a lid on it. Leave for 5-10 mins then fluff with a fork.

Nice color with the pepper and broccoli. Looks good!

I only have tried tofu once so far(just grilled it and served with soy sauce/vegetables) and it was inedible.
does it become much better in a stir fry like this? or can i forget it if I don't like tofu "plain"?
i prefer:
-wash rice, drain and let it absorb the remaining water for a few minutes
-boil up with around 1.5x water(100g rice/150ml water)
-put on a lid and let it simmer on very low heat for 15 mins(don't touch or remove lid)
-remove from heat(still keep lid on) and let set for another 5-10 mins

Either way works for milled long grain white rice. not all rice is the same. Sometimes the correct ratio of liquid to rice will be 3:1 and cook time around an hour. We get to play with arborio rice soon enough.

i just follow the directions on the uncle bens box, but leave out the butter

I like both the steak stir frys just posted.

The rice in mine turned out fine. I just followed the instructions on the box which was 2 to 1 on the water, boil, then add rice when the boil stops after turning to the lowest burner setting for the rest of the time (45 min total)

Cashy,

Tofu is a pretty blank slate, you really have to hammer it with seasoning to get it flavorful. The frying dries it out and changes the texture so I like to first cook it by deep frying in oil or dry frying in a nonstick pan on medium heat (that's my favorite but it takes about 20 minutes). Once it's a little drier it will have more chew, and it will take sauce on like a sponge.

Another crucial tip for tofu is to freeze it and then defrost it. This changes the texture entirely and it's almost a different ingredient.

Bode-ist,

nice job that broccoli looks perfectly cooked.

TrustySam,

Wow! Looks so flavorful.

Rice discussion,

For perfect rice every time I like to boil in lots of water like pasta for about 8-9 minutes, taste for desired/ just past al dente texture, drain, cover, then allow to steam on its residual heat and continue to drain for about 5 -10 minutes.

This works with any kind of rice in any quantity. You just have to pay attention. Brown and larger grains will have to boil longer before steaming.

had a busy week and was out of town for most of it. I'll get in on the action next week.


bacon-wrapped salmon with spicy maple glaze and certain side ingredients seems really specific. how would you feel about broadening it to just salmon?

the other people who have nominated dishes went with "stir fry" and "risotto", not "spicy wok-fried tofu ginger stir fry" and "saffron risotto with lobster", which I think is friendlier and will generate more activity.

I'm not trying to be antagonistic, just trying to see how everyone feels about it.



ETA: stir frys look nice!

^ agree with above.
have barely had time to breathe this week, not gonna end up making the stir fry (the beef i had left over that i was planning to use went bad too )

i think "bacon-wrapped salmon" would be fine but also adding a bunch of necessary side ingredients is just too much and makes it too hard to get a little creative