The Hip Hostess

So often we think of salads when trying to come up with summer dinner ideas, but salads aren’t the only entrees that don’t require use of the oven.  Stir-frying is a great option for a quick, summer meal.  Turning on a burner won’t heat up your kitchen, especially since you can cook a stir-fry in a matter of minutes.  Even a stir-fry involving meat cooks quickly – about 10 minutes of stove time.  Summer vegetables, such as green beans, snow peas, bok choy, cabbage, broccoli, bell peppers, zucchini, scallions, carrots and mushrooms are all great stir-fry ingredients.

The general method for making any good stir-fry is simple: Prepare all of your ingredients in advance since the cooking goes so quickly (cut your meat into very thin pieces and cut your vegetables bite-size); heat oil in a wok or skillet over medium-high; add garlic and ginger to the oil for about 30 seconds before adding any meat or veggies to season the oil; cook the meat in a single layer (no more than about 1 cup of meat at a time) until about 80% cooked, remove from pan and set aside; cook vegetables according to density (thicker vegetables, such as carrots, first since they require the most cooking time, lighter vegetables like bok choy last); add meat to cooked vegetables and add ingredients for sauce into a well in the center of the wok, letting sauce thicken for a few seconds before mixing with the rest of the cooked ingredients; season to taste and serve immediately.

Using a rice cooker is a quick and cool way to prepare rice to serve along with your stir-fry.  As for sauces, there are so many possibilities.  For a simple stir-fry, I like to use a good toasted sesame oil, garlic and ginger (fresh grated or pureed ginger that comes in squeeze tube) for the seasoning.  Sometimes I add a little tamari (wheat-free soy sauce), vegetable or chicken stock, crushed red pepper flakes for an added kick, or cornstarch if I am after a thicker sauce.  There are so many good stir-fry recipes around – give one a try while the temp is still rising so you can keep your cool while cooking.