The stir fry

One of my earliest food memories with my dad is the stirfry. We had this electric wok that produced the most wonderful stirfrys. Our authentic tastes for ethnic flavours have evolved from the days of China Lily Soya sauce but I do love the huge part nostalgia plays in cooking.

My inspiration for dinner last night was a bag of baby bok choy. I love getting fresh veggies and meat into one yummy dish.  Stir fry does take a little prep work but hopefully this will help simplify the process.

I had Jeff portion a whole pork loin from Costco into chops but he left me stirfry meat from the ends of the loin. This is a great deal! 

I put the pork in a bowl and simultaneously marinated the pork and separatly created the sauce for the stirfry.

Kikimon soya sauce, oyster sauce, ginger, sesame oil, orange juice, and orange zest. At this point I just put plastic wrap over the marinated meat and put it in the fridge. As for the sauce; to the first ingredients I filled the container with water and added 1 heaping tablespoon of cornstarch and the same amount of peanut butter.  I had this in a container that could be shook. Boy did Aubrey have fun with this! I wish I had gotten a picture!

I got my rice cooker on; I always find that I forget about getting the rice cooked in time and it keeps great on warm

In the rice cooker so I just set this and forget it. Sometimes our rice is ready hours in advance; it almost tastes better as it sits.

  Now for the veggies! This can be soley chosen by preferences but whatever you do choose; chop and put it with veggies that cook for the same time. I put carrots, onions, celery and mushrooms in one bowl since that is what I will start with. In a separate bowl I put bok chop and peppers. I cut the stem of the bok choy thin and kept the leaf in larger chunks.

All of this prep can be done way ahead of time. Cooking Time is about 30 minutes from start to finish.

Anytime I make stirfry I cook the meat 75 % of the way through and then remove it from the wok.

Next I cook the veggies that take the longest; once they get some char on them I add a little bit of water and put the lid on to steam them.

Once those veggies are tender but still have a bite to them I add in my other veggies and give it a big stir.

Then I add the sauce that I made.

Once the sauce is the consistency I want I then add the meat back in.

And at this point I was working one handed; someone wanted to see what was smelling so good!

I turn the temperature down to a simmer and put the lid for about two minutes.

At this point it is ready to serve over the rice; I served this with peanuts!

I highly reccommend buying some really good base sauces and making your own stir fry sauces. It's a huge savings and you can continue to create different flavour profiles by adding a little of this and a lot of that! 

It's the same thing we do with our salad dressings. We almost always make our own dressings so we can tailor make them to our liking.

Aubrey helped me make a salad with our homemade poppy seed dressing! Roasted chicken, strawberries, and thinly sliced red onions on a bed of kale brocolli slaw.

I sat down to eat my lunch and Aubrey got her own fork out of the drawer, sat up beside me and reminded me that sharing is fun!!! 

I love sharing my lunch with this girl!