Stir fries

[rainbowgardener]

Those of you that have seen my posts for awhile, know that a veggie stir fry is one of my go-to dishes for using my garden veggies. I make them a lot (also soups, stews, chilis, curries, casseroles). But they are never exactly the same twice. It depends on what veggies are in my garden/ at the farmer's market, and it depends on the spice palette.

So here's some rough guidelines I developed for myself:

Ethiopian style: cumin, turmeric, coriander

Indian/ curry style: curry powder, cumin, mustard, turmeric, coriander, cayenne, cardamom, ginger, cloves

Asian style: bean sprouts, water chestnuts, soy sauce, ginger, mustard, lemon grass, mint, thai basil, garlic, coconut milk

Latin style: beans, chili powder, cayenne, cumin, cilantro, oregano, cinnamon, cloves, chipotles, jalapenos

Italian style: basil, oregano, marjoram, thyme, sage, bay leaf, garlic, tomato

Not that you would necessarily use every one specified in one style in one dish, but that's a general palette to draw from.

With that much, I can cook without a recipe....

Sometimes I serve them over rice, noodles, couscous, quinoa, cornbread (especially chili), etc and sometimes I just serve it plain.

[thanrose]

That's a great starting point for versatility in cooking. Thanks, rainbowgardener!

While I definitely use some of those seasonings, a few on your list are reminding me of stuff I used to toss together. I like to use honey, lemon, lime, pineapple juice, and several different kinds of vinegar. Some nuts and seeds or their butters can add an umami tweak. More complex sauces like Worcestershire, mustards, or perhaps a barbecue sauce when used as tiny accents are sometimes good in vegetable meals.

If I'm adding a spice blend (I seldom buy them...), I'd probably augment the overall curry or five-spice or masala with one of the accents within.

And last for now, my doc wants me to avoid high glycemic simple carbs, so I often toss my mélange over either shredded squash or great northern beans.

[digitS']

I have come back and looked at this 4 times!

This is a great cooking resource.

So, I've copied it and put it in my recipe drawer .

Busy right now but these are QUICK tips and if the hand strays in the cabinet reaching for ingredients, well - here's the creative fix! Because, after all, I did want that "other spice" instead of what some cookbook says I should be reaching for .

Steve

[rainbowgardener]

glad people like it! Obviously, it is just a place to start from and variations could be endless. But it helps me to have a grounding in what things go together and how to produce something that while not necessarily "authentic" at least has some recognizable style.

[thanrose]

Another two items that I use often enough as accents are grated horseradish and capers. Not together. If you cook horseradish it loses the bite which is its major charm, so blended with butter or yogurt or some cheeses and added at the end it works. Capers can be used in delicate lemony sauces, but do best in robust tomato based Mediterranean cooking. Ratatouille, bouillabaisse, putanesca.

Oh, different kinds of olives, although the only type I keep around at all times are Kalamata olives. Minced in savory sauces.

I'll also use cocoa or dark chocolate as a mole with tomatoes and peppers, onions, garlic, either in chili or just as a quasi Mexican vegetable mélange.

One very simple vegetable dish I had at the Bubble Room on Sanibel (FL) was their fresh green beans, sauced lightly with butter after steaming with rosemary and white pepper. Can't recall if I recognized the beans, but they were long and straight and likely local.

Consistency in regional style often works, but sometimes the accents can be more multicultural, so to speak. Peanuts actually originated in Africa, but they are common in southern US, north east Africa, south east Asia. Hungarian paprika can really pump up Tex-Mex, and good mustard can make all the difference in food from everywhere. Seriously, try prepared mustard in mashed potatoes. My brother uses a prepared Chinese restaurant style mustard in his coleslaw.

I don't follow any cooks, although I loved James Beard's cookbooks, and then Paul Prudhomme's. Prudhomme had exquisite flavor profiles on any of his dishes I tried. I never make anything exactly like the recipe, but his seasoning arrays were just spot on for the saturated fullness. You don't have to like spice, or Cajun, or blackened, or seafood to appreciate his balance.

Years ago I read that all good Jewish recipes start with, "Peel an onion." I've taken that to heart and always have onions, garlic, maybe shallots on hand.

My sister roasts a variety of vegetables in largish chunks, just with olive oil. She does harder stuff first, like quartered onions and chunks of carrot, but will add broccoli or sweet potato or zucchini later, whatever she likes in the market. While I like that fine as is, if I made it there would be an herbed pesto drizzled over it.

[imafan26]

I usually start with oil, butter, and garlic for the base of a lot of stir fries.

Latin, French, and Caribbean cuisines use a meripoix as a flavor base
Onions, celery, carrots, garlic
sofrito: tomato, onion, celery, garlic, pork fat, annato, bell pepper, chile pepper, oregano cilantro

Thai basic: lemon grass, thai pepper, basil (sweet or anise), cilantro (including roots), kaffir lime leaves, coconut milk, galangal or ginger, fish sauce, palm sugar rice

Indian: cardamom,cloves, cassia bark (chinese cinnamon), black pepper, cumin, nutmeg, mace, mustard seeds, fenugreek, turmeric, and saffron

Chinese: The real secret is to stir fry each vegetable separately until they are crisp tender and set each aside after frying. I fry my vegetables usually in canola oil and minced garlic. I find olive oil has too strong a flavor and it burns easily in the high heat of the wok.
Marinate the meat cut into bite sized thin strips in 2Tb shoyu, 2Tbs sugar, 1Tbscornstarch and 1Tbs sherry. The small thin pieces of meat will cook in minutes and the marinade will tenderize even tougher cuts if they are cut thin enough against the grain. It is a quick marinade 10-30 minutes. After all the individual components have been separately cooked, then everything is combined and stir fried for another minute and final seasoning are added.

[rainbowgardener]

Great tips, imafan.

I have lately been using smoked paprika in a lot of things. It gives more depth of flavor.

[imafan26]

It is amazing the difference in taste it makes when everything is cooked separately. The individual flavors come out and some of the vegetables don't end up steamed and limp because they cooked faster than others. The flavors don't get as muddled.

I like smoked paprika too. I like Old Bay as well as it has a nice balance of flavors and is good with a lot of dishes.

[digitS']

This is the opposite of cooking everything separately :

Stir-fries are probably close to the top of our menu, maybe right behind breakfast cereal. Another important column has our soups. When the season is winding down and cooling off, but there are still tons of veggies coming into the kitchen, I will fire up the oven and start making casseroles.

What occurred to me a couple of years ago was that I was often using the same ingredients in all three: stir-fry, soup or casserole. The starch for the stir-fry ended up under the other ingredients instead of mixed in. The quantity of broth varied a good deal with soup having lots compared to the other two.

Seasonings added more distinctive flavors but they could be consistent, one column to another. The garden veggies choices are somewhat limited so these lists above simply suggest seasoning choice to the nth degree! Here is a word I just learned: multiformity. My autocorrect has it underlined with red. That just means that I'm one up on the autocorrect again .

Steve

[ElizabethB]

Thanks for the topic RBG and thanks to all of you for your variations.

I am not a fan of blended seasonings primarily because I can not control the salt and many have MSG. I have tried many mixes. Old Bay, Tony Chacherie's, Zatteran's on and on. Mostly I do not like the taste. There is one exception. Benoit's. When you live in south Louisiana there always seems to be a family connection. Benoit is a cousin of my BIL. He is a pharmacist. Someone in his family had cardiovascular issues and had to be on a no salt diet. Benoit developed this seasoning mix. It is excellent! No salt - I can add my own and no MSG. Benoit started selling his seasoning mix to hospitals. The demand for more was so great that he now sells in local supermarkets and on line. An excellent general purpose seasoning mix.

My version of stir fry is more pan grilled. My typical seasoning is simple - sea salt, fresh ground pepper, olive oil and a squeeze of lemon cooked in a HOT skillet. The veggies have a nice char and some crunch. Depending on the veggies and what they are being served with I also like smoked paprika, curry, fresh ginger (I keep fresh ginger in the freezer). I keep coriander, cumin, chili powder, celery seed, turmeric, saffron and chili powder in the pantry. Last night I did a quick leek stir fry with butter and saffron.

I have granulated garlic and onion powder on hand but prefer to use the real deal. Roasted garlic in the refrigerator. LOVE that stuff.

For an intense flavor reconstituted dried mushrooms are great with stir fry/pan grilled veggies.

I am not much for following a recipe. When I decide to try something new I search on line then pick and choose ingredients and techniques from multiple recipes.

I love to cook and I always appreciate all of your wonderful suggestions.

The older I get the more I eliminate processed foods.

My next project is to learn to bake bread. Since my culinary skills are savory cooking I am anxious to try baking. I don't have a fancy KitchenAid mixer or a bread machine so I will have to do it the old fashioned way - by hand.

Wish me luck on that one. If you have bread recipes - preferably whole grain - please send them to me or start a bread making thread. I am really clueless on this one.

[rainbowgardener]

It is amazing the difference in taste it makes when everything is cooked separately. The individual flavors come out and some of the vegetables don't end up steamed and limp because they cooked faster than others. The flavors don't get as muddled.

I like smoked paprika too. I like Old Bay as well as it has a nice balance of flavors and is good with a lot of dishes.

Stir fries are everything cooked together. The technique of stir fry is to add your vegetables one at a time, starting with the ones that need the most cooking. It is easy, because while one thing is cooking, I am chopping the next one. The things that need the least cooking are added last at the very end. So everything comes out cooked right - tender crisp is what you are aiming for. Nothing would be steamed because no water is used. Using oil means things come out crisp.

[applestar]

You are all so organized! Maybe my style is closer to ElizabethB's, though I have seen how she has some well-tried set recipes --- I think of something I want to make or make with, find a couple of recipes I like and then use them as reference while I make it according to however my mood strikes me and most of the time with ingredients I already have.

DH is usually suspicious of the things I make -- sometimes will refuse to eat on basis of some ingredient or other, but occasionally will practically lick the plate clean. Older DD is very particular and conservative about her foods but will sometimes surprise me by cleaning out the pot. Younger DD is more adventurous and will at least try and share my creations. I always tell the family -- enjoy it because I may never be able to make the same thing in the same way again.


I'm loving this thread because all these tips you posted will inspire new ingredients and techniques to my repertoire. I will be referencing your ideas to make more one-of-a-kind concoctions to bedazzle (or befuddle) my family with!

[ElizabethB]

Applestar,

You are a woman after my own heart. With few exceptions recipes are suggestions. When I post a recipe that is just how I made the dish the previous day. I will never make it exactly the same again.

On the very rare occasion that I make Beef Wellington (once a year maybe) I do follow Gordon Ramsay's recipe. A 2 part video on You Tube. But not really because I have never used chestnuts.

If I get recipes for bread I will follow those precisely. I know that baking is much different than savory cooking and requires a lot of precision.

[Gary350]

I love to cook. I have been trying to learn how to cook good India food. I have a India cook book but videos, Taste of India, are my best instructions on YouTube.

I will try this. Indian/ curry style: curry powder, cumin, mustard, turmeric, coriander, cayenne, cardamom, ginger, cloves

I love hot spicy food. I would eat at the local India restaurant every day it lunch was not $12 and dinner $18.