This is a really simple recipe - I wasn't in the mood for a big food production tonight, especially since my gal's a manager and usually doesn't make it home before 6:30. Stir fry seemed like a good way to go.

Ingredients:

• 8oz (1 pkg) Morningstar Farms® Meal Starters Steak Strips


• 15oz (1 can) Season® Oriental Stir Fry Vegetables

or

• 2cups total water chestnut, baby corn, bean sprouts and bamboo shoots


• 1cup whole small baby bella mushrooms (I hate straw mushrooms!)


• 4 medium size hearts of palm


• 1tbsp House of Tsang® Wok Oil


• 1tsp House of Tsang® Mongolian Fire Oil
  
• 1tsp soy sauce


• 1tsp toasted sesame seeds

Preparation:
Thaw steak strips in lukewarm water 15min. Season wok with wok oil, heat to medium high, and add steak strips. Once the steam settles down, add in the mushrooms. Cook until mushrooms reach sauteed state and a nice crust forms on the "steak." Add in stir fry vegetables and stir constantly until evenly heated. Finally, season with fire oil and soy sauce, garnish with sesame seeds and hearts of palm, and enjoy! (Makes 2 hearty servings)

( Pictures )

so I had an idea to create a sort of thai curry soup what wasn't so heavy with the coconut milk, but had some of the similar flavors



( the recipe and another pic behind the cut )

I have a strong fondness for stews and braises, so it isn't surprising that although I adore stir fries, some of my favorite Chinese dishes are the homey stews that are eaten in the winter.

Red-cooked dishes have dark soy sauce in them, along with spices, and the soy sauce gives the finished meats and vegetables a rich reddish brown color. Some versions of red-cooked dishes include chile bean paste or rock sugar as further flavor enhancers depending on what region the recipe originated in.

This version has cubes of pork, bamboo shoots, taro roots and sweet potato in it and the sauce is flavored with a typical Chinese ingredient: rock sugar, which is a mixture of water, refined and unrefined sugars and honey, boiled down and crystallized into hunks of yellow "rocks." Crushed up, it adds a delicate, floral sweetness to red cooked dishes, as well as a thick gloss to the finished sauce.

One can substitute white potatoes for the taro roots, and one can use a combination of raw sugar and honey for the rock sugar, if one needs to.

Pictures, descriptions of the ingredients and how to use them and where to get them, and the recipe of course are here.