Kitchen Sink Sir Fry! Or is it?
I participate in a local CSA, Community Supported Agriculture, and depending on the season will have a significant surplus of yummy organic veggies, and pastured meats. I am all about EASY & LEFTOVERS! If I have to find a recipe, that’s time I could have spent cooking real food. So here’s what I do when I need to use stuff up, or its on sale at the grocery store: Get out my favorite pot, (Ya know what I mean, that go-to pot that you know holds enough to feed your family for tonight & tomorrow if you fill ‘er right up to the top!) Pick out my meat, (or skip this step if you are a vegetarian), I use about 4-6 oz of meat per person, but the beauty of mixing it in is it always seems like more. 😉 Then I pull all my veggies out of the fridge, go to the pantry and grab some onions & garlic – cuz that’s how every recipe starts, am I right?! Then I look at what meat and what vegetables I have gathered and ask myself, “Will this combo be good as Asian, Indian, or Italian?” I get bored, so this is how I shake things up! For instance if the only meat I have is hot sausage, I’m turning this pot into an Italian dream by adding basil, oregano, a little thyme. If I’m a little sore from a tough workout, and chicken is in the house, we’re having curry! I add a can of coconut milk, and tons of organic curry powder. Viola! Steak, pork, or chicken are all great for an Asian Kitchen Sink Stir Fry. I add some Braggs Liquid Aminos, or coconut aminos, ginger, red pepper flakes, and thicken it with arrowroot powder if its too liquid. This is by no means tradition cuisine! One of my sons is a foodie & is mortified that I call any of this “stir fry.” It tastes delicious, so I don’t care!!!!! If you do, feel free to only include what you feel is appropriate to your pallet. No judgement here.
First I brown off the meat in the appropriate oil, sesame for Asian, coconut for curry, and olive for Italian. (I do not brown them over high heat to protect the oil.) Once cooked, move meat to a glass or ceramic bowl & cover to keep warm.
If you eat carbs & grains, this would be a good time to get your rice started. If doing Italian you could make a nice gluten-free pasta to go with it. With the curry you can put it over rice or add diced sweet potatoes to the pot.
Start slicing and dicing your veggies while your meat is cooking starting with what needs to go in your pan first. Longer cooking veggies go first such as onions, celery, carrots, kohlrabi, eventually ending with your more tender veggies like green onions and your fresh herbs. In a perfect world once you get 1 thing prepped, and thrown in, by the time its cooked down a bit the next item will be ready to add in, and so on, and so on.
Once the veggies are almost done add the meat back in the pan and finish cooking.
ENJOY! You can have left-overs for a fast breakfast, lunch, or dinner the next day. I will sometimes add a couple scrambled eggs to my Asian left-overs (No rice), and it tastes like egg foo young without the gravy. I am getting so hungry writing this! Be bold, be adventurous & get lots of colors into you. A Kitchen Sink Stir Fry can check every single color box in one meal!!! 😀