New Year, New Knife Skills!
By Andrew Zimmern
New Year’s Resolutions DON’T WORK! You know what does work? Patience and PRACTICE. A few minutes at the cutting board every day builds a life skill with real rewards. With practice, cooking stops feeling like a chore and starts feeling easier, calmer, even enjoyable. Meals come together faster, and dinner doesn’t feel like a pain point anymore. Take this stir fry for example, learn how to proficiently slice, chop, dice and julienne and you can have this delicious, healthy meal on the table in a flash. You could add shrimp, chicken, or tofu to this, or keep it a strictly vegetable stir fry, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
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My Shun Dual Core Kiritsuke does almost everything I need. It’s balanced, versatile, and lets me stay in rhythm instead of switching tools.
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Easy Vegetable Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 3 teaspoons sesame oil
- 3 teaspoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 3 tablespoons Chinese rice wine (or sake)
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/2 medium head cabbage, thinly sliced (julienne)
- 2 carrots, sliced
- 2 bell peppers, 1 sliced, 1 diced
- 1 bunch cilantro, big stems removed
- 1 bunch scallions, white parts cut into 1 inch pieces, green parts thinly sliced for garnish
- White rice, for serving
Instructions
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the chicken broth, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, sugar, cornstarch and Chinese rice wine. Set aside.
Preheat a wok or large heavy skillet over very high heat and add the oil. When the oil ripples, add the cabbage and the carrots, and cook, tossing until the vegetables are crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Add the bell peppers and cook, tossing for another minute. Add the cilantro and scallions whites, toss and cook for another 30 seconds. Add the liquid seasonings and cook, stirring until the sauce thickens, about 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and serve with white rice, garnish with the thinly sliced scallion greens.
