Lessons

With my new day job, I’ve been trying to make a good impression at work by tackling big projects and putting in all types of hours. 10 AM – 6 PM is just not enough, so I’ll work until the late night. Hell, I’ve even put in a few weekends and a couple 37-straight-hours. Because of this, I’ve only been in the kitchen to use the microwave lately. So yesterday I got out of work early. This means I get to do some cooking. Since I haven’t done some real grocery shopping in a while, what can we do with the few things we find in the fridge? Stir fry! Not to mention, I’m back on a health kick that I was on last year but fell off of when I was in China where eating is an event. About a month ago, I picked up a 5-quart Saucier. It’s a Calphalon, and it’s their professional line. Normally I’d make stir fry in my Calphalon pan, but I gotta break this thing in some time.

The first thing I did was to prepare a little sauce. I threw in a little corn starch, salt, crushed red pepper, white pepper, and a few more things. I whisked everything with a few tablespoons of water and put it aside.





I sliced up the large mushrooms I had. I like mushrooms. I reeeeally like mushrooms. I don’t slice them too thin like I used to, because they sort of melt away. I also leave them thick, because they act as sponges and absorb the flavors around them.





Next, I cut up some green onions.
Okay… a lot of green onions. Then I took my last white onion, and I sliced that, but I sliced it very thin. I like the texture of a thinly sliced onion.




I diagonally sliced two stalks of celery. I do this thin, because I’m not a big fan of the flavor, but not too thin because of the presentation and color it adds. I also like the crunchy texture.





I took my last three-quarters-of-a-red-pepper, and sliced that in thin strips.






I had four chicken breasts, and I sliced those thinly as well, since I feel it works best for stir fry. Now I’m ready to get down.

I took out my new pot , put the heat on high, added about two tablespoons of Canola oil, and let it heat up. Once the oil was hot, I added the chicken.




As the chicken hit the hot oil, I heard the sound that’s so familiar but so inviting: sizzling! I stir fry it a bit, and now it’s time for the veggies. Since the chicken was frozen, there’s too much liquid for my tastes, so I dumped everything into a strainer, and replaced the chicken back into the pot with some more oil. Ah, the sizzling again. In went the red pepper and celery. More sizzling! Now the white onions. Mmmm, the aroma. Now the green onions! And whoa… no more sizzling. There is a lot in the pot. And I STILL have the mushrooms to add. Well, I can’t stop now. I stir fry it until the green onions are “tame” and settling down into the pot. Now the mushrooms. Uh oh. It’s almost to the brim. Luckily I decided to use this pot instead of the pan! Again, too late. What can I do? So I added some more water to my sauce that has been sitting there, some more spice to compensate, and then I add it to the food. I stir fry it a bit, and I let it sit to thicken and cover everything. Not this time. There’re just too many things in the pot. Don’t forget, the large mushrooms that are sliced thick are absorbing everything. I give it another minute, and the sauce is still thin with no thickening at all. I guess this is as good as it’s gonna get.

Normally, I can take my pan, tip it over, and serve it onto a dish. Not this time. I picked everything out of the pot with tongs, and served the food into bowls. At first, my wife used the word “nasty.” Wow. I sort of agreed. It’s not that the flavor was so bad, it’s just that when you think you’re getting stir fry, and you get something that’s almost soupy… you just know it’s wrong. The more we ate, the more we got used to it. The texture is not there, so I actually added peanuts to get SOME crunchiness. It helped, but it felt more like someone-threw-in-some-peanuts-to-get-crunchiness.
Well, lesson learned: either make more sauce to compensate for everything you’re throwing in, or better yet, do not throw everything in. I guess I was just trying to make room for groceries. As the expression goes – do not quit your 37-straight-hours day job. And now I have soggy leftovers from last night.