Stir-Fry

[kerravonsen]

I felt like rambling about my favourite easy-to-prepare meal for one person: my one-pan stir-fry. It isn't so much a recipe as a template, where things can be substituted. It makes enough for 2-3 meals for one person. Not because I always want to cook in bulk, but basically because predefined packet sizes lead towards that amount of food. This is NOT a "from scratch" stir-fry. Doing that is just not worthwhile for a single person. This has a number of short-cuts in it.

If you say "it is a waste of money to buy pre-prepared food", consider that in a single-person household,

• it is more wasteful to buy a half cabbage and throw half of it away
• the motivation to cook healthy food is much lower, so anything which helps that is good
• I'm creating jobs!

If you say "it is lazy to buy pre-prepared food", then I invite you stop being a hypocrite, quit your job, take up farming, and harvest your own damn cabbages.

Equipment:

• A large deep-sided pan. With a lid. Normal depth of pan ensures you will spill food over the side.
• A large spatula. (If the pan is non-stick, don't forget the spatula needs to be non-stick-safe)
• A large bowl from which to eat the stir-fry. Not a measly cereal bowl, but a deep bowl of the kind in which Asian food is served. Or a plate, I suppose.
• A fork or spoon or chopsticks with which to eat your meal.
  • Or all of the above.

Ingredients Template:

• 400-500g meat
• 200-300g packet of coleslaw mix (not coleslaw, just the vegetables, mainly shredded cabbage)
• other vegetables
• 1 pouch of pre-cooked rice (I use brown rice, but other types are fine)
• Soy sauce
• other sauces
• herbs/spices
• garnishes (if you want to go the effort)
• preferred cooking oil (I use olive oil)

Options for Meat:

I usually go for one of these:

• Beef, pre-cut in stir-fry strips
  • Diced should work too, but I haven't tried it
• Kangaroo, pre-cut in stir-fry strips (yes, I'm in Australia, we eat Kangaroo)
• Chicken breast chunks
• Large (425g) tin of Tuna
• Pre-cooked chicken left over from the previous demolishment of a chicken from an earlier meal. Chopped, if need be.

I haven't tried other meats, but that doesn't mean things like diced pork or lamb wouldn't work. Tofu is another option, but I have zero information about cooking with that. You're on your own there.

Options for Vegetables:

These are by no means exclusive, just suggestions.

Can-eat-raw vegetables:

• the coleslaw mix (obviously)
• shredded carrot
• Snow Peas (aka Mange Tout)
• Sugar-snap peas
• Kale
• Capsicum
• Cashews, peanuts, almonds (good with chicken)

Some people like eating mushrooms raw, so they could be on that list. I don't.

Other vegetables:

• Onions
• Mushrooms
  • I tend not to use these with fish, though.
• Corn
• Peas
• Green beans
• Broccoli

Corn, peas, green beans, and onions are good from frozen, too.

Garnishes:

• Bean sprouts
• Parsley
• Spring Onion
• Chives
• Wood Sorrel/Oxalis leaves (good with fish)

Options for Herbs/Spices/Sauces:

Again, these are just suggestions.

Good to add to cooking meat:

• Garlic
• Ginger
• Chilli
• Worcestershire Sauce (good with red meat)
• Plum sauce (with red meat)
• Black Bean sauce (red meat)

Add later:

• Any herbs you like
• Dill is good with fish
• As is lemongrass
• Tarragon is good with mushrooms

Add after cooking:

• MORE soy sauce?
• Lemon Juice (good with fish)
• Vinegar (good with fish)

Cooking Template:

1. Splash the pan with oil.
2. If you are cooking raw meat, put that in first, along with any flavourings which do well being added while the meat is cooking.
   • If you are cooking red meat, brown it, but don't cook it all the way through, or it will get tough.
   • Chicken is more forgiving in that regard
   • I have no advice about cooking pork
3. If you are cooking onions, put that in next.
4. If you are using frozen vegetables, that goes in next.
5. If you are using pre-cooked/tinnned meat, that goes in next.
6. Put in any remaining flavourings.
7. If you are using mushrooms, put them in. Lower the heat, put the lid on, and let it steam for a bit. Unless you like your mushrooms hardly-cooked, in which case, put them in at the next step.
8. Now the can-eat-raw vegetables. This includes the coleslaw mix. Lower the heat, put the lid on, and let it steam for a bit. But not too much. These vegetables are easy to overcook.
9. Stir everything up again. Increase the heat a bit.
10. Add the pre-cooked rice. Splash on a generous amount of soy sauce, so that the rice will end up tinted brown.
11. Use the spatula to turn everything upside-down, so that most of the rice is on the bottom of the pan, so that it can heat up quickly.
12. Serve in a bowl. Add optional garnishes/sauces.

I hope that's been helpful for at least some of you.

Comments

[kerravonsen]

Oh, they do sell half-cabbages. But for one person, even a half-cabbage is a lot.

[watervole]

Have you ever made sauerkraut? We make it when we have cabbages off the allotment. (Kimchi too)

[kerravonsen]

I don't think I've even eaten sauerkraut (or kimchi).

[watervole]

I rather like it. A Czech friend (Vera Jezkova) of mine used to talk about making sauerkraut every year, and I decided to try.

Then I was watching some Korean TV on Netflix and the characters kept eating kimchi in various forms.

Kimchi is essentially spicy sauerkraut with extra veg in addition to cabbage.

They both go nicely with a number of foods.

[watervole]

And they both keep well once made as long as you seal the jar.