Shrimp stir fry...homemade sauce.

The rice cooker:

 

I first became introduced to the rice cooker while living in Thailand with the Dewits.  It was amazing to me that just about every Thai home had a rice cooker; like it was mandatory.  I had never even seen one nor had I used one.  Given how easy it was to use; the rice cooker was one of my first purchases as a married lady. 

 

I really appreciate that you can set the rice cooker to cook and then you can just leave it warming.  It is literally a set it and forget it appliance.  I put my rice on hours before I need it; just to get it out of the way.

 

 

The Sauce:

I have been known to buy a pre made sauce for stir fry; usually when there is a sale.  However buying key ingredients to have on hand to make different renditions of a sauce is a very cost effective and creative way to go about it.

 

For this specific sauce I decided to add orange zest, flesh of the whole orange, grated ginger, garlic, saracha, hoisin, coconut milk, soya sauce, peanut butter and water. 

I used the immersion blender to make a smooth sauce.

 

The assembly:

I had pre-cut all of my veggies; mushrooms, red pepper, green onion, broccoli, carrot, celery and onions.

I sautéed to shrimp slightly; and set them aside.

With my wok very hot I started to sautee the veggies.  I had strategically placed the carrots, onions and celery on top of my veggie bowl as they take longer.

I added a bit of sauce to this.

Once I felt they were par-cooked I added the rest of the veggies and additional sauce.

 

Once this was almost cooked I added the shrimp back in and put the lid on to cook the shrimp all the way through.

 

 

 

At this point I called Jeff and Aubrey to the table; and gave Aubrey her cooled bowl of stir fry and rice.  From the kitchen I hear, "Mom look what I did; I love soya sauce"...I ran into the dining room and there she was with her "soya sauce soup".  No harm done!

We had a good laugh over it!  I re-bowled up her dish and we ended up using her "soup" as our communal sauce bowl!  Serves me right for having my industrial sized soya sauce container on the table!

 

Well the stir fry ended up being a hit; I was given a "great job hun!". 

We think this was the first time Aubrey ate shrimp and enjoyed it.  I definitely encourage parents to have their kids try things a few times.  In cooking school they encouraged us to try something three times before deciding we don't like it; you may not have had it cooked properly or may enjoy a variation of a specific ingredient.  We discovered tonight that Aubrey does not like cooked mushrooms even though she LOVES them raw; as long as she gave it a try we're fine with that.