I just bought a rice cooker and a wok! Now I need some recipies.

[CanuckAmok]

I want to do more healthy stir-fry dishes.

I don't eat red meat, but poultry and seafood is fair game (no pun intended).

Anyone have any good recipie suggestions? I'll be using brown rice...

[Doctor_J]

1. epicurious.com

they have everything there, searchable

[Blue-Jay]

8. epididymis.com

More your style.

:D

[democracyindanger]

2. Fried rice

Duh. :evilgrin:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. Start the rice cooking, then take any veggies and protein source

Chop them into bite-size pieces
First fry onions or scallions in a small amount of oil
Add protein source and brown. Dredge the protein source in cornstarch before frying if you want a thicker sauce.
Add sauces of choice (soy sauce +sake or commercial sauce)
Add hard vegetables first, then soft vegetables, then leafy vegetables
As each type of veggie reaches the "done" stage, push it onto the "shelf" of the wok.

When everything is done, serve over rice.

This is the template for any stir-fry.

[Benfea]

10. I prefer my fried rice recipe:

I just toss together rice with leftover stir-fry, and in the process I add either soy sauce or ketchup depending on how I'm feeling.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. Yes, but where do you get the stir-fry in the first place?

:-)

[Benfea]

22. Either made the previous night or from carry out.

Where else does leftover stir fry come from?

[graywarrior]

4. Buy Hipchicks Guide to Macrobiotics

Author is one of my best friends. Extremely funny book with great recipes.

[fudge stripe cookays]

7. I've been looking for that!

I heard your friend on the radio when I was driving around in Wisconsin in November and it sounded like a great book.

The last time I was at the bookstore here, I looked, and they were out of it. Must be a good sign for your friend! Her recipes sounded awesome. You can tell her I said so!

:hi:
fsc

[graywarrior]

11. Here is her website

Jessica Porter: Zen Comic, actress, author, hypnotherapist, friend.

http://www.hipchicksmacrobiotics.com/

[fudge stripe cookays]

17. Cool, thanks

Graywarrior!

I definitely need to get motivated and quit being such a slug. I'm sure this would help with my MS too. That's why I took such an interest when I heard her back then.

fsc

[applegrove]

13. Also - once you have rice - beat then fry up an egg, frozen peas, garlic,

salt & pepper and a bunch of green onions at the end once the rice is all mixed in and warm.

[Benfea]

5. I only use my rice cooker to make white rice.

Although, I'm half Japanese, so I eat a lot of white rice and very little rice that isn't regular white rice.

There is one exception. When I make sushi rice for home made inarizushi, I slip in some sliced carrots and sliced shiitake mushrooms before cooking. Inarizushi is amazingly easy to make. You buy the pre-made inarizushi wrappers (available at nearly any Asian supermarket), make sushi rice, and stuff the sushi rice in the wrappers. It's very easy, but somewhat time-consuming, so it's a great recipe to make with kids, and kids love the salty-sweet taste.

Sushi rice is slightly more involved than just cooking it. After it cooks, you need to mix it with seasoned rice vineagar (you can find seasoned vineagar for sushi even in normal stores these days), and fold it and fan it at the same time.

As for the wok… I hate to break it to you, but most American stoves simply aren't hot enough to use a wok properly. If you are making small quantities of things, the cast iron skillet you already have is actually a little better for stir fry. The reason is that the heavy skillet "stores" a lot of heat, so it doesn't cool down as much when you add ingredients. With a wok, remember to add dry ingredients to the middle, add liquids around the edges, and use a folding motion to stir. (I hate the special wok spatulas that come with woks, they always bend on me, so I just use regular spatulas.)

Anyway, here's a recipe for you. You can honestly make it in any kind of pot, but you can use this as an excuse to use your wok. Unfortunately, I can't tell you proper amounts as I always go by taste and I'm absolutely terrible at guessing amounts.

Ingredients:

• Around 4 (one per person) boneless, skinless chicken breast or thigh, cut into chicken tenders-sized strips
  
• Around a half a hand of fresh ginger cut into very thin medallions. The individual pieces should be thin enough to be almost transluscent (around 1/16")
  
• Soy sauce
  
• Brown sugar
  
• Rice wine (remember, never use a wine for cooking you wouldn't drink)

Garnish ingredients:

• A couple of stalks of green onions cut into very thin pieces (cut into either circles or strips, your preference)
  
• Roasted and lightly crushed sesame seeds

Get the wok (or pot or whatever) good and hot. Sear the chicken enough to get some color on the outside, but don't worry about cooking the inside. Remove the chicken and stick it in a plate to be added back later.

Toss in the ginger, brown sugar, soy sauce and rice wine. Add lots of sugar, as we're looking for a sort of candied ginger effect here. Add just enough soy sauce to balance out the sweetness, but don't go crazy with the soy sauce. The rice wine is just there to add depth. If you get too much salty-sweet going on, you can thin the sauce out with more rice wine. Cook the sauce for a really long time, until the sauce thickens up to the point where it's a bit thinner than a runny pancake syrup.

Add the chicken back in. There's a real danger with over cooking the chicken in this recipe, so the instant it's up to temperature and there's no more pink on the inside, turn the heat off and plate it. Once it's on the plates, add the garnishes.

This dish isn't very filling, so serve it with lots of sides: rice, instant miso soup, lots of whatever kind of Asian pickles you like (takuan, kimchee, whatever), or any Asian side you happen to like. As with most east Asian meals, the more sides the better. A side that compliments this very well is a Japanese cucumber salad:

• Fresh cucumbers sliced into very thin disks.
  
• Good quality salt (sea salt if you have it, but table salt will do)
  
• Bonito flakes

Bonito flakes require some explanation if you don't already know what it is. You can find it in most Asian supermarkets because Japanese use a lot of it. Bonito flakes are to tuna what bacon is to pork. It's tuna that has been salted and smoked, then cut into pieces that are literally thinner than paper. It is commonly used as a base for a soup stock, or as a flavor-adding garnish as we will be doing here.

Simply toss the sliced cucumbers with salt to taste, and let it sit on the counter or in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or so. The cucumbers will change in texture and translucency. Just before serving, toss in a small amount of the bonito flakes. If you have any roasted, lightly crushed sesame seeds left over from the chicken, toss them in here too.

Itadakimasu!

[Benfea]

6. Mabotofu (or however you spell it)

Again, I apologize for the lack of proper amounts. You'll have to guess for yourself. :P

Ingredients

• Chinese spicy bean paste (any variety will do, you can find it in most Asian supermarkets)
  
• Tofu. Lots and lots of tofu. Cut into smallish (less than 1") cubes. I prefer firm for this recipe, but my mom prefers soft. Use whatever you like, just make sure it's fresh. You can often find fresher, cheaper tofu at Asian markets.
  
• Whatever veggies you like (I usually go with mushrooms, carrots and green onions), but try to find a nice color contrast.
  
• Any kind of ground meat (I usually use ground turkey or beef).
  
• Soy sauce
  
• Ginger and garlic (preferrably fresh, but whatever)
  
• (Optional) Hondashi (Japanese instant tuna-seaweed broth). You can substitute chicken broth or instant chicken broth or even leave it out.

The thing to remember about tofu is that it has no flavor of its own, but it really soaks up the flavor of whatever you cook it in. I prefer to use strong flavors, then really get the flavor into the tofu with time and heat.

Start by browning the ground meat. After it's browned, add ginger, garlic, the bean paste (this dish is meant to be pretty spicy, but be careful as that Chinese bean paste is usually powerful juju!), soy sauce, and if you opted for it, the hondashi or whatever broth.

As soon as it's all good and mixed up, add your tofu. Cook the tofu for a while to get the flavors in there. Stir fairly regularly.

When adding the vegetables, think about the final desired textures when deciding what order to add them in. When it comes to vegetables in Chinese dishes, always remember the old Chinese joke: "Don't cook the vegetables, just threaten them!" I like my shiitake mushrooms a bit mooshy in this dish, so I add them first. I like my green onions really crisp, so I add them right at the end. I also like lots and lots of green onions in this dish, but that's my own preference.

This dish should cook fairly quickly (good if you're busy), it's really spicy, and all the tofu makes it darned healthy.

[democracyindanger]

14. nikudofu

meat
tofu
bottle of sukiyaki sauce

A part of my childhood was destroyed when I asked my mom for the recipe, and that's what she told me.

[Benfea]

18. Bottled sukiyaki sauce?

Uhm, sukiyaki sauce is just soy sauce, hondashi, aji-mirin, and brown sugar. If you cook any amount of Japanese stuff, all of that should be lying around in your kitchen.

Of course, my little brother uses bottled gyoza sauce (and that's just soy sauce and vineagar). The heathen.

[democracyindanger]

19. It may be a case

of my mother understanding my limitations...

[Ramsey]

9. For the wok

This is really yummy and quite easy. Make some plain white rice in your new cooker for the side.

SPICY SICHUAN-STYLE SHRIMP

1 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh ginger
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped garlic
2 tablespoon finely chopped scallions
1 lb raw shrimp, shelled and deveined
For the sauce:
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 teaspoons chili bean sauce
2 teaspoons Chinese black vinegar or cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
Cilantro sprigs, to garnish (optional)

1. Heat a wok over high heat. Add the oil, and when it is very hot and slightly smoking, add the ginger, garlic, and scallions.
2. Stir-fry for 20 seconds, then add the shrimp. Stir-fry the shrimp for about 1 minutes.
3. Add the sauce ingredients and continue to stir-fry for another 3 minutes over a high heat. Serve at once.

[applegrove]

12. Get some chinese lettuce. And chop it into big pieces and throw it in

- at the end. Yummy.

Hoisin Sauce & Chinese 5 Spices as flavours.

[Floogeldy]

15. Grilled chicken, Teriyaki glaze, mixed veggies, rice, ice cream . . .

. . . cinnamon rolls, chocolate, lard.

;)

[NMMNG]

20. I love veggie stir fry over brown rice

Here's what I throw in, but you can substitute to suit your taste:

Carrots
Red, yellow and green peppers
Onions
Snow pea pods
Broccoli



Slice all veggies to bite-sized. Use a few tablespoons of oil for stir-fry. Start carrots first as they take the longest to cook, then add broccoli, then peppers, onions and snow pea pods. When veggies are nearly cooked pour in any variety of Stir-Fry Sauce (commercial or home made) and finish cooking. Serve over brown rice.

[AtomicKitten]

21. become one with bok choy - an aweome vegetable to stir fry

[rucky]

23. Here's my all-purpose stirfry sauce:

i usually just eyeball it, but here's how I think the proportions end up:

3 pts soy sauce
2 pts rice vinegar
1 pt orange marmalade
1 pt chili sauce (the one with the rooster on the bottle)
1 pt sesame oil

Add it in the last 1-2 minutes of cooking. It's good with pretty much any combination of meat/veggies you want to stirfry.