Chinese Stir-Fry

My first Chinese stir-fry!  I used a recipe from Good Housekeeping Vegetarian Cookbook as my guide.

It was easy, as long as I took some prep time before-hand to press and cube the tofu, wash and chop the veggies, soak & cut up some dried shiitake mushrooms, and rinse & drain some canned veggies.  I doubled the amount of sauce because we had company to celebrate the new year.

Sauce:
1 cup cool water
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
Whisk together in a bowl and set aside.

Sautee about 3 cloves garlic and 2 Tbsp. minced ginger in oil (I used peanut oil.)

Add veggies and tofu.  Stir.  Pour in sauce.  Stir.  Add nuts (I used peanuts and cashews.)  Stir.  The mixture can cook on medium heat about 8 minutes (I didn't cover it), and can stay warm on low heat.  The recipe said to add the sauce at the end and boil the mixture for one minute.  In my haste, I didn't read that part, but it turned out fine, and the sauce thickened. Serve with rice or grain of choice.  Offer crushed red pepper, Asian chili paste (Sriracha sauce), sesame seeds, and extra soy sauce as condiments.

The instructions were more detailed about when to add which veggies.  I had already steamed some chopped carrots, so they didn't need much cooking.  Broccoli and red bell pepper made it nice and bright.  Lotus root (renkon) made it pretty.  It's the round sliced veggie with holes in it.  Renkon tastes like potato.

For choosy eaters, they can help you make their custom-made stir-fry first, before the big batch.  It was really no trouble and fun to see what they chose.