This is one of my go-to recipes.
A no-frills stir fry is a super satisfying and quick to make recipe for any day of the week. It’s also a good opportunity to practice your chopping skills, and it’s fun to cook over high, high heat and listen to as the different ingredients crackle in the pan.
Plus this makes enough to have as leftovers, always something I look for in a receipe.
I give you, my no-frills veggie stir fry!
Ingredients:
Serves 3
6 tablespoons of a high-heat cooking oil like peanut or sesame oil
1 container of extra firm tofu
One bunch of green onions, sliced
One medium red onion, halved and sliced
3 medium carrots, ringed or julienned
Four cloves of garlic, minced
1 inch nub of ginger, grated
1 cup of rice + 2 cups of water
Two eggs
First, the rice.
No, the tofu!!
Take the tofu out of the container and place it in a shallow bowl. Then, weight it down with a stack of something – I usually use several small appetizer plates. Wait for about five to ten minutes as the tofu releases liquid and then cut into cubes.
Pressing out the liquid makes it so that the tofu won’t splatter so much when you put it into the hot pan (oil and water no likey each other).
Now go ahead and put your rice on. Either combine the rice and water in a saucepan, bring to a boil, then turn down to a soft simmer and wait until the water is absorbed, or let a rice cooker do the work for you.
Ok, back to tofu-town.
Take out a large pan and put it over high heat. After about four minutes, pour 3 tablespoons of oil into the pan, tilt the pan around so that the oil covers the entire surface of the pan, and then add the tofu so that the cubes form a single layer on the pan – no tofu stacks!
One of the cooking lessons my dad taught me was to let things in the pan just sit there for a while so that actually can cook. This is exactly what you want to do with the tofu: resist the urge to stir it constantly, and, instead, let is just sit there for 2-3 minutes at a time. Then stir it with a wooden or plastic spatula so that a different set of sides can get their tan on.
Take the tofu out and set aside once most of the tofu has toasty-brown sides. It usually gets there in about 10 minutes.
Put another 3 tablespoons of oil in the hot pan and then add the onions and carrots. Again, let it just sit there for about 2 minutes and let it cook. Then stir the mix around and let sit for another 2 minutes.
Generally speaking, stir fries are the best when the vegetables come out crunchy and slightly charred, which happens when cook the veggies over high heat for a short period of time. Cooking it too long results in veggies that are floppy and sloppy – but probably still decently yummy, so no pressure!
After about 6 minutes, taste-test the veggies. If they seem underdone, keep them on for a bit longer.
If they’re how you want them to be, then add the tofu back in and mix the contents of the pan so that everything is evenly distributed. Then, with your spatula, make a small, bare circle in the center of the pan and pour the garlic and ginger mix in there. Pour a tablespoon of oil over the ginger and garlic and then mix it in evenly with the rest of the veggies and stir fry.
You’re pretty much done!!!
One thing I do like to do with this recipe is add a fried egg over the top. So, after I’ve mixed in the garlic and ginger, I pour the stir fry into a big serving bowl and then use the pan to fry an egg.
I like to crack an egg into a small bowl, pour about a tablespoon of oil into the hot pan, then gently pour the egg just over the surface of the pan to protect the yolk from splitting. Let it sit there for 2-3 minutes, then, for over-easy eggs, gently get your spatula under the egg and carefully flip it over. Wait for about 30 seconds, and then you’re good to go with a egg whose yolk is slightly runny.
The finished product, then, is a bed of cooked rice, plus the amazing stir fry you just made, plus an over-easy egg on top. Plus some soy sauce and/or hot chili sauce.
Good times, good times! I hope you enjoy, let me know in the comments how making this recipe goes!
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