Exploration 1: A Second Attempt

Thai Vegetable Stir Fry

Saturday night, I figured I would give a more Asian-ie recipe, compared to the Ramen Noodles, a try. Mostly, because I wanted to start to figure out how to use some of the ingredients in my "Asian cupboard."

After searching the web, I found one that seemed both tasty as it was simple to throw together. As a reminder, I'm a beginner at cooking vegetables as an entree and also in using the unique flavors such as fish sauce and oyster sauce.

Things didn't start on a good note when, while mixing together the sauce, I became aware that I lacked ginger and lime. I searched the cabinet for anything I could substitute in, but in regard to ginger - the only thing I could think of was lemongrass. I didn't have that either. My sister is a Southern girl and the spice cabinet is very much a reflection of that: steak seasoning, garlic powder, cumin, Cajun seasoning, dill weed, pepper, salt, the list continues.

Fish sauce - let me say right now, if you've never used it, it's one of those things that smells a lot worse than it taste. Well, unless you enjoy the fishy aroma of...well, fish. I don't mind it because I love Asian cuisine and when I lived in Oklahoma had a strong group of friends who were Thai and Vietnamese, so the smell brought back fond memories of informal gatherings.

It does add a wonderful flavor, however.

And yes, I do understand the fish sauce disqualifies this as being a true vegetarian dish. As a kind reminder, I am not cutting fish from my diet so I'm okay with this. Even if I wasn't...I'm easing into it. I'm not brave enough to cut out meat cold turkey.

Upon tasting the sauce, the ginger and lime were noticeably missed. I used some vinegar to cut the flavor and threw in some sugar. It made it bearable but I was careful not to over do it. For as salty as it was tasting, the directions indicated that the saltiness becomes less noticeable when the vegetables are added. This was true.

Rice - About ten years ago, when I came to live with a different sister and her daughter, I landed a job at a Japanese Restaurant. One night we cooked dinner at home and I made some rice. I burnt the rice. My niece, who was seven at the time, was greatly concerned that I was working an Asian restaurant and couldn't cook rice.

Through the guidance of my Asian friends, I mastered it - use a rice cooker! ha ha. Well, I suppose that is one method if you are feeding an army. I, however, don't need that much rice. It's fairly simple.

1. Wash your rice. You'd be surprised how many people don't do this. The water should be mostly clear and not so milky.
2. Equal parts rice and water (i.e. 1 Cup Rice, 1 Cup COLD water)
3. Place pot on stove to HIGH
4. As soon as the first good bubbles of boil appear, turn your stove to medium-low to low and cover your rice.
5. Set timer to 20 minutes. DO NOT REMOVE COVER UNTIL THE 20 MINUTES EXPIRE. Once while I was in Hawaii with a younger sister I caught her peeking at the rice. We got into a minor fight about it while we enjoyed a crunchy dinner. lol
6. When the timer goes off, move pot to a cool spot - rice is ready to go.

There was this old Japanese lady who tried to teach me to measure the water according to where the water level is on the back of your hand, but that was a little too professional for me. I never mastered it.

Frying up the vegetables was pretty simple and basic - onions first to allow them time to sugar up. (Onions require more cooking time and taste sweeter the more they cook. Garlic less cooking time. It tastes more bitter if overcooked.)

Once the sauce was added, it looked great. I still had no idea what it would have tasted like. Regardless, I promised to devour it good or bad. I mean, after all, it was still food.

Fortunately, it didn't taste half bad. Once this blog gets going - I will post the recipe so you can give it a go at home. But because I didn't execute it correctly (the ginger and lime were missed and I could see how they would add to the overall experience) I will give it a go again when I have all the ingredients and then post the recipe.

I don't know how much vegetables I used as I just started chopping shit up. But I did use a cup of rice and the sauce was about a cup and a half. Despite worries about not being filled, I was very much so and even had left overs for lunch the next day.

So a moderately successful attempt. I thinking next time, I'll try using the curry powder I bought. And I would encourage you to be careful with the fish sauce, I must have splashed it on something because the next morning, everything was cleaned up, but in the corner of the kitchen I was using it still very much smelt like fish.

Sunday turned into a house cleaning day. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from.