Originally posted by Jess- November 17, 2015
Hello everyone, Jess here.
Tonight was a tough night to pull off dinner at the Anderson household. Karate classes, library story times and errands dominated the day. On days like this, I often resort to the slow cooker, which can be a lifesaver for a tasty home cooked meal with little effort. But what about the wok? This high-heat pan is capable of getting a fresh and delicious dinner on the table in a matter of minutes, which is exactly what I needed to happen tonight.
Before heading out for errands, I cooked up some brown rice in my electric pressure cooker. This little machine is as easy as adding water, rice, and pushing a button. When I returned, I had beautifully cooked brown rice ready to go.
Next, I started prepping my ingredients, which you want to do ahead of time when working with a wok. Trying to prep ingredients during the stir-fry process will likely leave you with burnt goodies. (When it comes to high-heat cooking, the wok is fast and furious!) A generous handful of spinach, 2 carrots from the root cellar (diced), and about 1 cup of shredded cabbage awaited the wok. I made a simple soy sauce mixture with a tablespoon each of fish and soy sauce, along with a teaspoon of maple syrup, just because. I set aside a Springdell egg for even more of a protein boost in tonight’s rice, and some cashews as my family goes bonkers for cashews in rice.
Shaving off even more time from the cooking process, I started with leftover chicken from Sunday Dinner. As you may have seen with our 5-chapter chicken saga earlier this year, the Springdell chicken is a gift that keeps on giving! Today I cubed some of the remaining meat and set is aside for use in tonight’s rice dish. I minced a couple of cloves of garlic and pulled out about 1 tablespoon of chopped scallions from the freezer.
The ingredients are prepped, the wok goes on, we’ll have dinner in just a few minutes now! Into the medium-high heat wok went about 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, and as soon as that was hot, in went the garlic and scallions. (If you like scallions, feel free to toss them in closer to the end of the stir-fry process, I put them in early as if they are identified as scallions by my kids, they won’t get eaten). I tossed in the cashews at this stage as well.
Next I added the cabbage, spinach and carrots. When the cabbage was tender and the spinach wilted, I added the sauce, rice, and cooked chicken, stirring until combined.
I began pushing things aside to make room to stir-fry the egg before it was incorporated into the rest of the dish.
That’s all there was to it, wok to table in single-digit minutes!
Feel free to make your own adaptations depending on what veggies you’ve been hoarding for the winter onslaught. Please be sure to share with us your creation! Until next time, sweet and savory dreams!