
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp high smoke point oil
- 1 cup dark roast peanut butter
- 1 tbsp tamarind paste
- quarter cup kecap manis
- juice of one lime
- 2 tbsp black vinegar
- 1 tbsp arrowroot flour or other thickener
- 1 heaped tablespoon (vegan) chicken stock powder
- 2 tsp MSG
- 4 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tin coconut cream
- 1 tsp vegan shrimp paste
- 1 tsp tumeric
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- half tsp cumin
- half tsp cumin
- half tsp coriander seed
- quarter tsp cloves
- quarter tsp cinnamon
- quarter tsp cardamom
- tbsp chilli flakes (or 2 fresh green chillis)
- 1 small stick lemongrass (frozen ok)
- 2 onions
- 6 pieces garlic
- 2 carrots
- half head broccoli
- quarter head cauliflower
- 1 capsicum
- 1 zucchini
- half bag of bean sprouts
- 1 head of bok choy
- half small bunch of coriander
- half small bunch of spring onions
- About a cup of snow peas
- 200g bag tofu puffs
- 1 kg bag of Hokkien Noodles
Method
- The first step is to make sure you have the best quality ingredients you can get. As with all food the quality of the produce directly dictates the quality of the meal. You must also choose only the best long life ingredients like ABC brand Kecap Manis (Sweet Soy Sauce).
- The first step is to make your sauce. In a medium to large steep sided bowl combine the following : 1 cup dark roast peanut butter, 1 healthy tbsp tamarind paste, Half cup of kecap manis, Juice of one lime, 4 tbsp black vinegar, 1 tbsp arrowroot flour or other thickener, 1 heaped tablespoon chicken stock powder, 2 tsp msg, 4 tbsp maple syrup. Half roughly mix this through, then slowly mix in a bit at a time about 1 cup of water. You want it to be just thin enough to easily stir through the noodles, remembering that the arrowroot (or other thickener) will help thicken it up again. Adjust it until you think it can be easily mixed into the noodles. Remembering it's easier to combine a little water at a time than all at once.
- Secondly I then prep my aromatics in a small bowl. 1Tsp vegan shrimp paste (hard to get, try Asian grocery store, they often have specialty products. Ok to skip), 1 tsp tumeric, 1 tsp smoked paprika, Half tsp cumin, Half tsp coriander seed, Quarter tsp cloves, Quarter tsp cinnamon, Quarter tsp cardamom, 6 pieces of Garlic, microplaned (fine chopped also ok), 1 small stick (frozen ok) lemongrass fine diced, 1 Tbsp Chilli flakes. If you're not going to prepare the meal straight away then do the garlic this as the last step before cooking, as the oils in the garlic degrade over time and will quickly lose their depth. If you're going to cook straight away it's fine to sit there for half an hour while you cut the vegetables.
- Next I peel and cut 2 carrots into nice bite sized fingers. Usually I quarter them then cut them into lengths about an inch and a half long. Or whatever looks good to you. Carrots take a long time to cook, so it is important to pre boil them until they're just barely fork tender. I do this while I'm chopping the other vegetables and check them every couple minutes until they're done. Once you've got them just fork soft you can fish them out of the boiling water with a utensil and add them to the 'medium density' bowl we will prepare in step 6. Optionally, shock them in some cold water (with ice in it) to stop them cooking and lock in their colour and nutrients. Then add them to the medium density bowl in step 6.
- Next up in a medium bowl chop into bite sized florets our high density food items. For example : Half a head of broccoli, A quarter head of Cauliflower. One of the common observations about Eastern vs Western culinary traditions, is that in the West you cut the food on the plate, but in the East the food often comes pre cut to bite sized pieces. This is very important in Stir Fry. You want the florets to be just small enough that you can eat them in one bite. But no smaller! The smaller they are the harder it is to taste them. The flavours of the vegetables will get overwhelmed by the sauce and it is important to have balance in a meal.
- Next up we want to cut into a bowl our 'medium density' items. These don't need long to cook, and are better with a little texture in them anyway. Typically in this bowl I like to have chopped up into bite sized pieces : 1 Zucchini, 1 and 1 half onion, 1 capsicum. Set aside half an onion for later, for when we want to flavour our oil. I would again advise large bite sized chunks. Especially the Onion, resist the urge to break it into small pieces or all its flavour will leach into the sauce. Even just quarters is fine. It will break apart by itself when it's cooked.
- Now we want to prepare our 'low density' quick cooking items. Typically in this bowl I will combine : (rinsed) half a bag of bean sprouts, half a small bunch of (finely chopped) coriander, half a small bunch of (finely chopped) spring onion, 1 cup snow peas (de stringed and break the ends off), 1 head bok choy (loosely chopped). A fun habit when cutting up the vegetables (as detailed in steps 4 through 7) is that I'll personally double these quantity's in my prep (so for example I'll cut up a whole head of broccoli, but put half into tonights dinner and half into tomorrows dinner), so at the end of prep i'll have 2 sets of 3 bowls). That way the next night I can make another stir fry with a different sauce and different set of aromatics (say a beautiful extra spicy pad gra pao with coconut rice or something). Otherwise there would be too many vegetables for even 6 servings (given standard australian supermarket packaging, where you can only buy 2 heads of bok choy, not 1, and standard bunches of herbs are too big for one meal, etc)
- I will also quickly cut the Tofu Puffs into slices so they soak up more sauce and put them back into the bag for easy use. And start half a medium pot of water boiling for the noodles (this will come in handy later).
- Now we need to quickly extra fine dice the remaining half an onion. Preheat the pan, put in 2-3 tbsp of high smoke point oil, let it preheat. And dump the onion in the oil and give it a quick stir. I generally manage to clean my chopping board before it burns too, then give it another quick stir. Note : I personally use a thin 34cm copped based sautee pan for this dish, because I don't have a Wok big enough to do it in one batch, nor a wok burner hot enough, nor the patience do it in small batches, so I've adjusted the recipe to suit my current situation. But I'm looking forward to one day getting a proper wok burner because the quicker you cook it the more flavour you lock in, and you can get the famous 'breath of the wok' flavour too with proper wok technique, but that is outside the scope of this recipe. If you are using a similar pan to me, be very mindful of heat management, it's better to add a couple tablespoons of water to a pan to stop your ingredients from burning (especially your aromatics! the emptier the pan the quicker the temperature fluctuates) than it is to burn your family's dinner.
- Next add in your bowl of aromatics, aggressively stirring and making sure it doesn't stick, and also very heavily monitoring the heat, I usually turn it down a little during this bit so that the heat doesn't suddenly jump up. You want to bring them up just hot enough that you unlock the flavours from their oils, but not so hot that you burn them. I usually have my kettle sitting next to me in case things start to stick and get too hot. Evaporation is a great way to get some heat out of there. How do you think your Air conditioner works. Just don't drop the temperature too much. It's a fine balance. Heavier based pans have good steady heat control, and change temperature more slowly, I use a fairly thin copper based pan so it's something I have to be really mindful of. That's why I'm really emphasising it.
- Once your aromatics are... aromatic... Add in your heavy density bowl, the broccoli and cauli. Stir until the Broccoli starts to show a bright, vibrant green colour. When you can just barely stick a fork in them, it's time to throw in the next bowl.Remember the broccoli doesn't have to be perfectly cooked right now, it will continue to cook with the other stuff. You want it to have some texture when you're done. And you want it to retain it's freshness.
- Next throw in the bowl with the 'medium density' stuff. And mix thoroughly. There should now be enough stuff in the pan that you're at risk of 'drowning' it. You want the heat all the way up to get it back up to temperature ASAP. What you're looking for here is that the onion goes a little bit translucent. It's started to sweat but it still has a little bite. When you see this, Turn the boiling water off, put the noodles in it, and proceed to the next step.(this timing works for the noodles I use, as they have a little bite to them, you may need to adjust this timing for what noodles you have available, I find fridge fresh noodles at main chain supermarkets overcook very easily, I usually get my noodles at asian grocers who have a better texture and a bit more bite)
- Next I put in my tin of Coconut Cream and stir for about 30 seconds, just sweat it down a little, then I add in the sauce, and stir for another 30 seconds to mix it in a little, make sure we get all our vegetables nice and covered in sauce. Now you want to throw in your bowl of fresh vegetables and give it half a stir. But not very thoroughly. You don't want these to be in the pot too long because they'll overcook, you just want to barely heat them through, and you want them to have a bit of crispness and freshness to them to offset the richness of the sauce. As soon as you've done this. Quick as you can drain your noodles. And turn off the heat and mix them in. It's ok if they hold onto a few tablespoons of water because there's enough residual heat that water will evaporate quickly, and it will contain starch from the noodles which will help further thicken the sauce.
- Serve and enjoy with people you care about. Cooking is a meditative act. It is done for nourishment of the body, and to nourish our hearts by caring and providing tasty sustenance for the people around us. =)
Product used in recipe
- ABC - ABC SWEET SOY SAUCE 275ml