Quick Beef Stir Fry

My love of stir -fry began really early on. I knew that I loved the way the vegetables were cut, how colorful they were all sautéing together in a large frying pan. I knew that I couldn’t get enough of the slightly sweet sauce soaked into fluffy white rice. But what I didn’t know was that it was my mother’s busy weeknight secret weapon. After a long day of work, school, and dance classes, I’d stand in the kitchen and marvel at how quickly my mom made this miraculous meal come together. No doubt she was dead tired, but she made it look effortless. I literally remember thinking to myself, “I’ll definitely make this all the time once I’m a grown up.” Fast forward twenty or so years and I’ve kept my childhood promise to myself. I make quick stir-fries all the time.

There’s such beauty and finesse in making something so fulfilling in such a short time. The finished product is so casually impressive (if that even makes any sense), and it’s perfect for anyone who’s busy, tired, or pressed for time. It’s done quickly, it’s super filling, and there’s only one pot to wash. And it’s so adaptable! Chicken, steak, sans meat, whatever, no biggie. There’s no limit to the combination of vegetables you can use- or not use. If you absolutely hate peppers, just substitute them for whatever fresh or frozen veggie you have hanging around. Stir-fry is one of the simplest staple meals to conquer. Get into it.

What You’ll Need:

Vegetable or canola oil
A tablespoon of minced garlic
One medium to large onion
A medium to large green pepper
Two large, skinned carrots
A regular sized package of button mushrooms
Fresh ginger root
About a pound of finely cut steak (leaner cuts are best for this recipe)
Dash of red pepper flakes (optional)
Chopped green onion for garnish

For the Sauce:
1/2 cup of soy sauce (I use the low sodium version)
1/8 cup of rice wine vinegar (regular white can work in a pinch)
1 ½ tablespoons of honey
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
½ teaspoon of ground ginger or a teaspoon of fresh
A splash of fish sauce (optional)
2 tablespoons of cornstarch
 

What To Do:

Take a minute to prepare your ingredients. Rinse fresh produce, and pull any frozen produce out the freezer to have nearby. Peel and slice the carrots and onion, peel and mince the fresh ginger, chop your mushrooms, slice your green pepper. Whisk together your soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, honey, additional garlic and ginger, optional fish sauce, and cornstarch in a small mixing bowl. Set aside for later.

Heat about three tablespoons of oil in your sauté pan or wok on medium high heat. It may seem like a lot of oil for a stir-fry, but there’s a lot of vegetables to get through. Add your minced garlic and ginger, and let them heat up a bit, for about a minute at most, pushing them around in the pan. Make sure to not let them burn, they’re the basic flavor profile of your entire dish.

Season your steak lightly with salt and pepper, and to the pan. For my thin cut, I let it brown for about two minutes on each side, so that it’s still slightly pink in the middle. It’ll get more time in the pan later. Remove from the pan and sit aside to rest.

Now time for the vegetables. Add the carrots to the pan first, as they take the longest to cook. Give them about two minutes in there alone, then add the green peppers. After about a minute, add the onions. A minute later, the frozen edamame, and another minute later, the chopped mushrooms.

Slice your steak in about a two-inch width. Throw it in the pan with the veggies, which should be just about finished cooking. We’re almost done! Pour the sauce over your veggies and give everything a good stir to make sure everything gets coated. Give it about two minutes in the pan, and you’re done! Serve over fluffy white rice.

Tips:

Before anything goes onto the heat, have your ingredients pre-washed and cut. For a perfect stir-fry where none of the vegetables are overcooked and the meat stays tender, you’ll need everything prepared and ready to toss in as you go along.

A wok is ideal for making a stir-fry, but if you don’t have one, don’t worry! My mother never had a wok, and neither do I. Just make sure you use a somewhat shallow sauté or frying pan that’s wide enough to fit your ingredients- because everything will be cooked in that one pan.

Remember that stir-fries are the most subjective and adaptable meals on the planet. Fresh ginger is great, but if you only have ground, it’ll still turn out great. Adjust your ingredients to fit your family’s needs- I left out spice to accommodate for a toddler, but feel free to dial up the heat with red pepper flakes if you can handle it!

Leisurely Sunday Morning Waffles

Sunday mornings at my house are special, and probably my favorite time of the week. There’s no rush to get up and go anywhere, and the mood is very casual. The three of us lounge in bed and watch television for about an hour before breakfast, which I love. I hate feeling rushed, especially when it’s time to cook. Keeping with the casual Sunday morning feel, breakfast is typically just as leisurely. There’s often mimosas involved, which makes the cooking (and eating), significantly more enjoyable than lets say, on your average weeknight.

Because our Sundays are so relaxed, it gives me the opportunity to make more involved meals. When boyfriend brought home a long awaited waffle iron, I was ready. I knew it would work perfectly for our Sunday mornings. So then came the issue of finding the perfect waffle recipe. We eat a lot of pancakes, so I’ve got those down pat, but waffles are a little different. The batter needs to be a little denser, but not so dense that it makes a thick, heavy waffle. You want them to be light and fluffy, but still hold up well to the syrup, whipped cream, and berries you’ll obviously top them with. It’s a conundrum. After trying about four different recipes, and tweaking them here and there, I think I’ve found the answer to the perfect waffle. I made them for my Easter brunch, and everyone loved them. Go ahead, try them on your next leisurely Sunday morning!

---

What You’ll Need:

A waffle iron (well, duh)
Nonstick cooking spray
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoons of sugar
2 beaten egg yolks
2 beaten egg whites
½ cup vegetable oil
1 ¼ cup milk
A tablespoon of vanilla extract

What to Do:

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. You’ll want to place your waffles in there while you finish making the rest. Also, preheat the waffle iron, you’ll want it nice and hot when you start pouring your batter.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, sugar). Sit aside.

In another small bowl, beat your egg whites until they’re stiff. You can use a hand mixer, which is way easier, but in the event that you don’t have one, (like me) a hand whisk works just as well. You’ll have to put some man strength into your whisking, but it’ll all be over quickly.  In another bowl, add the milk and two yolks, and beat together (nothing special here, just like you’re preparing scrambled eggs).

Pour the yolk and milk mixture into your dry ingredients. Add the vanilla and oil, and mix, but leave some lumps. Totally smooth waffle batter is a no go. Now, add your stiff egg whites, and fold them kindly into the batter. This step ensures that the waffles are light and airy.

Spray the waffle iron with nonstick spray, and pour the batter. For a single waffle iron, I pour about a third a cup of the batter into the iron.

Tips:

• Sift those dry ingredients! It’s a step that’s tempting to skip, but so necessary for truly light and fluffy waffles. Sifting the ingredients before mixing them together is a must do.
   
• A few of the recipes I’ve tried in the past substitute melted butter for the vegetable oil. It’s a personal preference of which you’d like to try, I find that vegetable oil yields the same result with less fat. 

Simple 30 Minute Pasta

View fullsize

We’ve added another baby boy to our family. His name is George, and he’s a five-month-old, sixty-pound Bordeaux mastiff. He’s big, he’s playful, and he’s sweet. Also, he’s nearly impossible to control, so we’ve signed up for puppy training classes. The class is once a week at seven in the evening, which is a pretty annoying commitment given the time of day. It’s around the time we typically eat dinner, which is an issue in itself. If boyfriend doesn’t eat around the same time every day, he turns into a diva. Demanding, aggressive, on edge. His hunger really gets the best of him.

So one evening, about an hour before puppy class, I notice the diva emerging. He’s walking around the kitchen restlessly, snapping at the dogs, opening and closing cabinets. My first mind tells me “don’t cook anything, he’ll be fine until after class”. But I see him angrily chewing on a handful of dry cereal, and come to my senses. I roll my eyes, put on a pot of boiling water, chop some veggies, and in about thirty minutes we have a big, steaming bowl of pasta. Twenty minutes later, we’re in the car on the way to puppy class. The diva has disappeared, and my loving boyfriend is back. Further annoyance diverted.

A quick pasta dish is always my go to for situations like this. Most pasta takes about eight minutes to reach al dente, and throwing together a quick pasta sauce takes only a few more. You can add whatever you have on hand to the pasta, making it unique and great for using up random veggies that might be floating around your fridge. In this case I had shrimp, a can of diced tomatoes, asparagus, and parmesan. Boom.

---

What You’ll Need:

A package of fettuccine
About a pound of medium  to large shrimp, peeled and deveined
A bunch of asparagus, trimmed
One large onion
Can of diced tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste

For the sauce:

Couple of cloves of minced garlic
Couple tablespoons of flour
A cup of milk (have a little more on hand in case the sauce gets a bit thick toward the end)
½ cup of shredded or shaved parmesan
Dried oregano
Dried basil
Salt & pepper
Couple tablespoons of olive oil or butter
 

What To Do:

Put a large stockpot of water on over high heat, and sprinkle liberally with salt. Cooking your pasta in salty water is the key to well-seasoned pasta, and the basis of a well-balanced dish. Allow pot to come to a rolling boil.

While you’re waiting for the pot to come to a boil, prepare your vegetables. Clean, trim, and chop your asparagus into about inch long pieces. Take special care to remove the tough stalks of the asparagus, or roughly the bottom two inches of the vegetable.  Throw the chopped asparagus into a deep skillet with about a tablespoon of olive oil. You can salt and pepper them in the pan as they cook over medium heat. Seasoning in the pan always makes me feel like a real chef, so I imagine it will do the same for you.

View fullsize

After your asparagus get going, go ahead and dice your onion. Remove the asparagus from the pan once they’re easily pierced with a fork, or cooked to your liking. I typically let them go for about eight minutes, so they’re tender, and a beautiful bright green. Set them aside.

Toss your diced onion into the same pan once the asparagus have been removed. Let them cook down until softened. Your pasta water should’ve come to a boil by now, so go ahead and dump your pasta in, and add another tablespoon of olive oil to the water, to keep the pasta from sticking. From here I employ my standard alfredo sauce recipe, but leave the onions in the pan for good measure. They flavor the sauce nicely.

View fullsize

Add your drained tomatoes to the skillet, right into the simmering sauce, followed by your shrimp (which you can lightly season with salt and pepper before adding). Let the shrimp go for about three minutes, then add the asparagus. Give it another three or so minutes then add your pasta, right into the skillet (another surefire way to feel like a real chef). Toss the pasta around with the sauce, getting everything well combined. Let the entire skillet go for about another five minutes. Voila! Serve in big bowls with a sprinkling of flat leaf parsley and a little shaved parmesan.

View fullsize

Extra Tips:

• Buy your shrimp peeled and deveined. There’s nothing worse than being in a rush and realizing you have to prepare your shrimp. Your grocer will do if for you if you ask.
   
• Despite how lengthy the recipe might look, this dish goes really quickly. Be careful to pay close attention to how long your shrimp cooks in the dish. They cook very quickly, and can go from perfectly cooked to tough little shrimp nuggets if you aren’t careful.
   
• Use a really deep skillet, so you can fit everything in together at the end. If you don’t have a very deep skillet, you can drain the pasta, return it to its pot, pour the sauce over it, and mix it there. Same deal.