Stir Fried Veg – It’s all in the prep

This is a recipe that we ate when we visited Thailand and like a lot of good recipes it was forgotten along the way. I have to organise my Thai cooking class for this coming weekend and trawling through my recipes I came upon this little gem.

This is a very easy wacked on the heat dish of veggies, oyster sauce, soya sauce and cashews. The cashews are fried in a little oil, then tossed in chilli flakes which gives a nice little kick, and then stirred into the dish at the end. The list of vegetables in the recipe is of course variable

Tonights ensemble was a red pepper, a red onion (there weren’t any spring onions) some broccoli, mushrooms and the the last little green cabbage from the garden.

It’s totally delicious, nutritious and once everything is chopped and ready to go, pretty much an instant dinner. Here’s the original recipe

Stir Fried Vegetables with Cashew Nuts

75g cashew nuts

3-4tbs peanut/vegetable/sunflower oil

Half tsp dried chilli flakes(optional)

75mls vegetable or chicken stock

1 tsp cornflour

150g mushroom, thinly sliced

4-5 spring onions, white part thinly slice and green chopped

3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1 small head broccoli, stem sliced thinly and rest broken into small florets

1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced thinly

Large handful  chinese cabbage or green cabbage, sliced into 1cm ribbons

Handful mange tout peas

2tbs oyster sauce

2 tbs soya sauce

Heat  2tbs oil in a wok or frying pan, over a moderate heat. Add the cashews and stir until they begin to brown. Remove, toss in the chilli flakes if you’re using them and put aside.

Mix the cornflour with enough vegetable/chicken stock to make smooth paste and put aside

Add 1tbs oil to the `wok/frying pan and add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring over a high heat, until they begin to brown then season with a little salt and put aside.

Heat the remaining  oil and add the broccoli, peppers,mange tout, the whites of the spring onions, the garlic and then the cabbage in that order. Keep the heat high, you should be able to hear everything sizzling away. Add the vegetable/chicken stock and cook for a minute or two then stir in the oyster sauce, soya sauce and cornflour paste

and cook until the sauce coats the vegetables.

Finally stir in the mushrooms and onion greens and toss everything together with the roasted cashews.