Stir-Fry

This recipe boasts a Japanese marinade and a slightly sweet glaze. Like many other Asian stir-fries, it goes well over steamed brown rice.

This recipe will eliminate all doubt that good-for-you tofu can be tasty, too!

This basic stir-fry recipe gives you many options. You can choose between the Asian and Italian flavorings (see Italian Stir-Fry on page 147), and you can vary the meat by replacing the chicken with round steak, pork chops or tenderloin, firm-fleshed fish, bay scallops, or tofu. Save even more time by using precut vegetables or frozen mixed vegetables (no need to thaw before cooking). Even if you make only half this recipe, you’ll probably want to make the entire amount of sauce.

Snow peas paired with either chicken or shrimp is a classic Asian combination. When you can’t decide which you’d prefer, try this recipe, which gives you both.

Stir-fry is a perfect work-night dish. You cook every ingredient from start to finish in the same pan and make the sauce in the pan as well. This all happens in a matter of minutes, when you have all of your ingredients prepared ahead of time, because you are working with high heat. There aren’t many home stoves that have the BTUs of a real wok in a Chinese kitchen, so use a heavy-bottomed skillet like cast iron or a stainless steel pan with a clad bottom, and get it very hot before you start. Gather your ingredients and wait until the pan is almost smoking before you begin cooking. High heat = high flavor and less need for fat. It’s the original nonstick cooking technique.

This is called a “stew-fry” because both cooking techniques are employed. There’s a little bit of stir-frying, and the flavor profile is decidedly Asian, but enough liquid is added in the form of low-fat chicken broth that not a lot of oil is required, keeping things nice and light.

Chinese food has always been a favorite of mine—and apparently of just about everyone else in America. Even in the smallest towns, there is almost always a Chinese restaurant. The balance of sweet/sour/spicy flavors—and the fact that it’s already cut up into easy-to-eat bite-size pieces—might be part of it. Making restaurant-style Chinese food healthy means getting rid of the sugar first, and then the fat. Using a large nonstick pan over high heat reduces the fat. A good low-fat, sugar-free Asian stir-fry sauce does the rest.

There are plenty of Asian stir-fry dishes that contain shrimp. Shrimp with Garlic Sauce and Creaky Shrimp were always my favorites. Don’t ask what “creaky” means—I still don’t know. I do know that Six Happiness Chinese Restaurant in my neighborhood in New York City was happy to deliver it within fifteen minutes, guaranteed every time. They also delivered a cardboard container—full of sugar and fat at about 800 calories a pop. This is a wholesome 600-fewer-calorie version of that “creaky” stuff: luscious shrimp, asparagus, a simple sauce, and basil.

Make your own take-out. When you MYOTO, you control the salt, fat, and quality of ingredients. This dish is not only healthful, but you also don’t have to make any decisions like whether you want chicken or pork. This recipe has got everything in it but the kitchen sink.

Here’s a low-carb-lover’s delight! Have two servings —it’s good for you!

I was in an Albertson’s grocery store in Park City, Utah, and picked up a sack of chipotle-coated raw cashews and started eating them while I was still shopping. WOW—were they ever good! I read the ingredients for the coating and used it to make a Western-style chicken and vegetable stir-fry.

The French are crazy about seasonal vegetables, and particularly, I am happy to say, about fennel. A flavoring that is mentioned in the Mishnah around 200 C.E., fennel is used in both sweet and savory preparations. This particular dish was served as an accompaniment to fish with beurre-blanc sauce at a Bat Mitzvah that I attended in Geneva. I especially like its intense, sharp flavor.

This is a quick stir-fry, and could be served with most Indian meals.

South Asians love their quail, which is generally brought home by hunters. I know that when the men in our family returned from their winter shoots, what I most looked forward to eating were not the larger creatures, the deer and the geese, but the smaller ones, the duck, partridge, and quail. Here is a quick, stir-fried (bhuna implies stirring and browning) version of a dish I had in Lahore, Pakistan. This recipe may be easily doubled. Use a very large frying pan if you do so. When eating quail—and you have to use your fingers—it is hard to think of any other food, even though rice, vegetables, other meats, and legumes are nearly always part of the meal.

A karhai is an Indian wok (many anthropologists believe that the utensil actually originated in India), and this is a stir-fried dish. I like dark meat and prefer chicken thighs here, but lovers of white meat may use boned and skinned chicken breasts. Serve it with rice or Indian (or Middle Eastern) flatbreads. You could serve the Mushroom and Pea Curry on the side. You could also have this cold, even take it on a picnic.

I like to use bird’s-eye chilies here, but any fresh hot green chilies will do. Use only as much of the larger chilies as you think you can handle. I often make this when I am in a hurry, as it cooks fast. You could serve this with any rice dish. I like it with the Tomato Pullao. This is also great to take on picnics or serve at a summer lunch: fill pita bread pockets with this, spoon in a little Fresh Green Chutney, and eat!

A dish from the southeastern state of Tamil Nadu, this quick stir-fry has all the wonderful spices used in the cooking of the Chettiyars, a trading community—lots of black pepper, fennel seeds, mustard seeds, cinnamon, and the split pea, urad dal. (Yellow split peas may be substituted for the urad dal. They will be used here in a very southern way, as a seasoning.) This dish has a 30-minute marinating period, but it cooks in about 7 minutes. It is a good idea to have all the spices measured out and ready, as the stir-frying is done quickly. I like this chicken with Basmati Rice with Lentils and a green vegetable.

Here is a quick stir-fry that you might serve with Plain Jasmine Rice and Corn with Aromatic Seasonings.