Quick Dinner: Stir Fry

Stir fry is a great application for a quick dinner, it took me about 30 minutes to prepare.  You're able to get a bunch of vegetables into one meal, and often can use up vegetables you have leftover from other recipes.  Most of the time you invest in making a stir fry is in preparing those vegetables so doing that in advance (like on the weekend) is a great way to make this a truly quick dinner when you get home late from work.

The key to making a stir fry come together quickly and without stress is having everything you need prepared before you start cooking.  The French phrase mise en place means putting in place, and thats is the technique we'll utilize here.  As you prepare each ingredient place it in a little pile on your cutting board or in a bowl so it will be ready when you start cooking.  First combine the soy sauce, sriracha, and brown sugar in a bowl, stirring occasionally throughout the cooking process to make sure the sugar dissolves   Chop the bok choy, slice the mushrooms, grate the carrot, ginger, and garlic.  Slice the green onions and reserve some of the dark green pieces for later on in the preparation.  

Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet or wok on medium-high heat.  Once the oil is hot, add the garlic, ginger, and green onions and sauté them for a minute to create your flavor base.  After a minute add the mushrooms and carrots to the pan and sauté until the mushrooms are cooked through, about seven minutes.  The mushrooms will take the longest to cook through, once they have add the chopped bok choy and allow it to wilt.

After the bok choy has wilted, add the sauce udon noodles to the pan.  Typically these come fully cooked, I like to heat them in the microwave before adding them to the pan so they don't stick together.  Let the sauce and noodle cook with the vegetables together for three or four minutes until the sauce thickens.  Before serving add the reserved dark green onions.

Feel free to add any vegetables you like.  I didn't grow up in a meat and potatoes type of family, so I don't mind this vegetarian dinner.  If you do want to add chicken, pork, or steak (which I think would be particularly good with this sauce and vegetable combination) cook it in the beginning of the preparation and remove it from the pan until the end so it doesn't overcook.

Stir Fry

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup of soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons of sriracha 
• 3 baby bok choy
• 1 lb. white button mushrooms
• 1 medium carrot
• 4 green onions, some dark green reserved
• 1 inch of fresh ginger, grated
• 2 large cloves of garlic
• 1 14 oz. package of udon noodles

Instructions

1. Combine soy sauce, brown sugar, and sriracha in a small bowl, stirring occasionally to ensure the sugar is dissolved
2. Chop bok choy and green onions, slice mushrooms, grate carrots, ginger, and garlic. 
3. Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat
4. Sauté garlic, ginger, and green onions for one minute
5. Add mushroom and carrots, cook for seven minutes, or until mushrooms are cooked through
6. Add bok choy and cook until wilted
7. Next add the sauce and udon noodles, cook for 3-4 minutes until the sauce has thickened.
8. Add reserved green onion tops and serve