Missus Fun’s Curry Stir Fry Vegetables

Fung Junior male is accusing me!  Mom, can you make your stir fry veggies more interesting?  I say, what do you mean?  I grew up eating my stir fry vegetables that way and I have been cooking that way for more than twenty years.

As you have seen in one of my earlier posts, the Chinese way of preparing a stir fry vegetable dish is actually very simple.  However, my son is right, I have three full shelves of spices in my kitchen and I only use them occasionally for recipes – yes the rare occasions when I cook with a recipe.

For those people who know me well, I never will shy away from a challenge.  So here you are, I have created a stir fry vegetable dish with some of the spices that I use for cooking curry dishes – the result, a simple and quick curry vegetable stir fry which I am sure you will all love to try.

Vegetables that I used: two medium size onion, four stalks of celery, one red bell pepper and one 8 oz packet of brown mushrooms.  Cut them to small pieces or slices in the shape and way you like.

Other ingredients:  some chopped cilantro, a few gloves of garlic.

Spices and condiments: two table spoons of cooking oil; two table spoons of cooking wine; about half a teaspoon of each cumin, ground cayenne pepper, paprika and turmeric;
about two teaspoons of mustard seeds; a tablespoon of corn starch and optional half a cup of light cream; salt and pepper to taste.

I first dry roast the mustard seed on the heated pan for just about a minute or so, then I add the oil and the cumin, cayenne, paprika and turmeric.  Stir fry these spices for just about another minute, then add the cilantro and garlic.  Make sure you turn your ventilation fan to full strength now!  

Yes, it will be very aromatic but that’s what spices are for.  Next you will add all the vegetables and stir fry them for about 4 to 5 minutes, pour the cooking wine on.  Whilst the cooking wine starts to evaporate, prepare your corn starch and light cream mixture, stir it well and pour it on.  You can use just water to mix the corn starch if you are thinking of calories.  You have to adjust the thickness of the sauce though as water will not be as thick as light cream, use more corn starch if necessary.  Continue to stir fry the vegetables until you have reached the tenderness that you want and add salt and pepper to taste.  As a family, we like our vegetables to be crisper.  So once the sauce mixture begins to form thick and smooth, I will turn off the fire and spoon out the dish to serve.

The dish met with huge success with both Junior and Senior and I am satisfied that I could meet a challenge when it arose.  However, Junior will expect Missus Fung to fall back to her old way of cooking stir fry veggies as the above mentioned dish, though quite simple in nature; still causes more than double the time to cook and prepare than a regular stir fry.  Yes, life is tough, young man, and let’s face it like a man!