"Summer is the season for stir-fry." Matt said to me at dinner last
week. It was on our third evening in a row of eating garden fresh
stir-fry. "There are so many kinds of fresh vegetables available."
And he is totally right. Stir-frying is such a grand way to make use of
whatever kind of veggies is ready for picking. So far we've been
trying like mad to keep up with out abundance of leafy greens. I like
to roll the leaves up into a tube and then cut across the tube so you
get nice long shreds of greens. We've also got peas, both snowpeas and
standard "eatin' peas," as Matt calls them. We look forward to being
able to add our own carrots, peppers, and onions in the mix, too! But,
they're not ready yet.
I would also argue that summer is the season for stir-frying because I
find it doesn't heat up the house for nearly as long as something in the
oven or on a long simmer on the stove top.
I've always been partial to the stir-fry for two reasons. One, I really enjoy making and experimenting with different sauces--
spicy orange,
osaka,
curry-ginger, peanut-hoisin, the
phenomenal chickpea toss,
spicy garlic, spicy peanut, etc. And two, when I was just starting out in the world of cooking I found it very hard to screw up sauces which appealed to my lack of cooking confidence. And by adding vegetables to a hot pan and then dressing them with a sauce you had a nice, warm, nourishing meal. Sauces were the first "recipes" that I ever really attempted to make. I guess you could say that sauces and stir-fry launched my cooking life.
Now that the veggies are coming from the garden out back I am even more partial.
Thanks for the "reminder" I keep racking my brain for ways to NOT turn the oven on. We've been having temps into the 100's this week and the thought of turning an oven on to 350* or higher makes my skin crawl. TIME FOR STIR FRY!
ReplyDeleteIts been just so hot....too hot for June here. We're usually get these 100+ days in mid to late July! I'm almost afraid to see what those normally peak heat days are going to be like! And we've already got wildfires everywhere. The only positive to that is that it makes the moon orange.
DeleteI hope you enjoy your stir-fry!
You are so right!! This is my summertime cooking mantra, too - stir fry or grill :) I love snow peas with a light coconut sauce. So good. Wishing you some rain and cooler temps on the horizon. We are struggling with the same here.
ReplyDelete-Jaime
Snow peas and coconut sound like a match made in heaven...and I happen to have both in my kitchen! Excellent. Thanks for the idea.
DeleteIt is a delightful overcast and 71 degrees today. Feels like perfection after the week and half of 90-105. I am thrilled. And I hear prediction for rain this weekend. While I have loads to do in the garden and yard I wouldn't mind a bit if it just rained all weekend. We need it.
I hope you are safe from the fires I know you've got burning down there as well. I hope you have a cool, rainy weekend, too!