greg cooks

nourishing the body

stir fry

Tofu and eggplant stir fry

If I may say so, this stir fry was absolutely fantastic! I love the slender Asian eggplant and it was perfect paired with tofu.

Here you can see my pan cubed tofu. I first threw in chopped garlic and ginger into the pan. That was followed by the tofu which I seasoned with a little soy sauce and some of that wonderful chili flakes in oil. You can see what half a teaspoon of it does to color this dish.

I stir fried the tofu on high heat until it was browned on all sides. This was removed from the pan and set aside.

Into the pan, still with the flavored oil from frying the tofu, I added more chopped garlic and ginger, onions and that delicious Asian eggplant.

The eggplant was fried until it began to get tender. The tofu was added back to the dish and it was seasoned with some sesame oil and soy sauce. One last thing I added was a teaspoon of Szechuan black bean and garlic paste. Oh, what a flavor! I was pleased with how the sauce clung to the food and not the pan! I definitely have to make this again.

Chicken and vegetable stir fry

Another stir fry with chicken breast this time. I flavored it with garlic chili paste and used carrots, bean sprouts and napa cabbage. Perfect over a bowl of sticky Korean rice!

Quick vegetable stir fry

Hang on to your hats because I’m going to be posting some stir fries over the next couple of days. The are so easy to prepare and with just a few simple ingredients you have a quick and delicious meal. Let’s start off with a simple vegetarian stir fry.

I used bok choy, carrots, celery, onions and bean sprouts for this dish. Many times I flavor my stir fries with some red chili flakes in oil from the Asian market. I like the brands from Szechuan. I start with a hot pan and add some oil. I drop in a bit of the chili in oil or sometimes a garlic chili paste along with some chopped garlic and chopped ginger. These vegetables all cook pretty much the same so I tossed them all in together.

I can even toss them! When the vegetables were just starting to wilt I splashed in some soy sauce and rice vinegar for seasoning and that’s all! Simple and tasty.

Soba stir fry

Can you stand more soba noodles? I can. This time I put them into a stir fry dish. I cooked up some carrots, cauliflower and red, yellow and orange peppers with some garlic and ginger. I quickly boiled the noodles and added it to the stir fry pan. The whole dish was seasoned with soy sauce, a bit of garlic chili sauce and sesame oil.

New Year’s Stir Fry

On New Year’s Day I wanted to use black-eyed peas. There is a tradition in the South that black-eyed peas should be eaten on New Year’s Day for good luck. Instead of the typical peas cooked in a soup or with ham or something, I decided to make a mixed grain and legume base for a vegetarian stir fry. I first just tossed together some Thai brown rice, kamut, spelt, wheat berries, mung beans and black-eyed peas in a bowl and soaked them in water for a couple of hours. I then put everything into my rice cooker and put it on the brown rice setting. An hour and a half later I had this wonderfully healthy grain/legume mixture.

For the stir fry I used baby bok choi and cauliflower. I first steamed them for a few minutes just to start getting them tender and make the stir fry easier. I fried these up with garlic, ginger and red chilis in oil. Near the end it was seasoned with soy, sesame oil and thickened with just a bit of corn starch. It was oh so tasty.