Quote:
Originally Posted by Gusteau
I love aephialum's suggestion of stir fry, so easy and tasty! Pasta is always a great option.
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Agreed to both. The beauty of stir fry and pasta is that they're basic and easy, but can provide a lot of variety, both as to what goes into them protein- and vegetable-wise, and what goes on or with them sauce-wise. If you can have at your disposal four or five easy pasta sauces that you like, then you'bve just given yourself a whole lot more option. Aside from marinara, one of my favorites is a balsamic brown butter sauce -- very easy and quick. Then there's pesto. Carbonara's quick and easy too, especially if you go with a baconless version of it. (I'd hate to do that, but sometimes you do what you have to.) You get the idea.
Likewise for stir fry, there are endless sauce possibilities. A few tricks: Make sure your meat/protein and vegetables have been blotted and are as dry as possible before cooking them; otherwise, you get steamed food instead of stir fried. Use an oil that can take high temperature without getting smokey -- peanut oil is a good choice unless there are allergy issues. Extra virgin olive oil and sesame oil are typically not good choices.
Always cook your protein first (unless it's something like shrimp that cooks really fast), then remove it from the wok, clean the wok quickly, then do your vegestables, starting with the ones that take longest to cook, like carrots. As the vegetables are finishing up, add the protein back in and then whatever sauce you want. If you can keep ginger and garlic on hand, add a little of each to the oil before putting the protein in, and then again before putting the vegetables in.