survival cooking 101: Stir fry

Have ya'll been practicing making real rice? Good! Well, here's a tip on what to serve with it; food that is commonly (in the U.S.) associated with rice.

There really isn't that much of a mystery to stir fry. Rumor has it that stir-fry started as a way of cooking food that takes less fuel. Excellent for summer cooking, as you don't have to slave over a hot stove. However, a heavily sauced stir fry can be wonderfully hearty in the winter, too. Meat and vegetables are cut into bite-sized peices that enable them to be cooked thoroughly for a shorter space of time. Of course...this can mean a lot of labor at the cutting board if you are cutting meat or carrots slender-thin.

Aside from the cutting, prep is rather quick and easy. After getting the rice started cooking, that's when I start the cutting (unless I have two lbs of partially frozen steak to cut razor-thin...that is time consuming). I like to have everything, including the sauce, sitting on a dish or in bowls next to the pan before I start cooking. Then about ten minutes before the rice is at its earliest "done" point, I put a small amount of fat in the pan and heat it up. Most purists use peanut or canola oil; we use olive. Okay, occasionally we use butter. Just remember that with olive oil or butter, you will need lower temps, or it will scorch. A medium to medium high heat should work with most oils.

Purists also want to use a wok. I don't have a wok. I just use my trusty cast-iron skillet on the stove top.

With meat, the time that you cook it depends upon whether its raw or already cooked. Generally, raw meat is browned (or even thoroughly cooked and then removed to be added back later) before the vegetables are added. Previously cooked meat can be used, though, and it is generally added last...just enough to heat it up. Last night, we used leftover turkey to make spicy orange turkey (with onions and green peppers), and the turkey was added at the same time as the sauce.

The biggest question in stir-fry is how do you like certain veggies cooked? The key to cooking the veggies perfectly is throwing them in at the time that allows certain vegetables to get cooked longer. Onions, carrots, broccoli, and other hardy vegetables that you want thoroughly cooked will certainly be added first (if you like these veggies crispier, don't cook them quite so long). Delicate vegetables, such as mushrooms or green onions, are barely given any time in the pan at all. When making fried rice, I add the green onions in at the same time as the rice.

At the last, add whatever sauce you want. You don't have to have your food smothered in gravy if you don't want...a little bit of soy sauce, just for flavor, can be good enough for flavor. I do, though, recommend stocking up on sauce packets or bottled sauces in your food storage, though. If you have nothing more than your home veggie garden, rice, and ramen noodles stored up, a variety of flavorings (spicey one night, sweet and sour the next, and then savory the next) can help alleviate boredom. And yes...I do keep the huge bottles of soy sauce. Call my boys crazy, but they sometimes top off a rice-based meal with nothing more than rice and soy sauce (even if we had Chicken Ala King...kids are weird).

The nice thing about stir fry is that you don't have to follow a specific recipe to get a good meal. There are times when I've simply cut up some odd veggies and stir-fried in a little bit of butter or olive oil with salt and pepper with no sauce at all. Zucchini and onions are one of our favorite combos. Mr. Picky eater (the middle child) is happy with nothing more than broccoli lightly cooked....while a picky eater, he likes the idea of eating crunchy little trees. Did I mention my kids were weird?

Bon Appetite!