Sauce

15 Minute Thai Peanut Stirfry

It is finally warming up here (a whole 51 degrees today), and I’m losing my compulsion to cook comfort food.  Tonight I wanted a quick and easy meal that wasn’t too heavy.  The result from a forage in the freezer and cupboards turned up the following:

  • 1/3 pound rice noodle sticks  (I got mine from Trader Joe’s but the Asian section of most grocery stores should have them). 
  • Grilled chicken breast (1 large breast or about 1  to 1.5 cups cut up) grilled or if frozen, thawed.
  • 1/2 a pound of  blanched or thawed stirfry vegetables (again, you can cut your own, or cheat — I had a nice frozen mix with broccoli, carrots, red pepper, water chestnuts, mushrooms and celery. 
  • 1 tbsp olive or sesame oil
  • 1/2 -3/4 cup peanut sauce (watch the ingredients as they sometimes have trace amounts of gluten)  Mine — from the foo foo store brand section of my local grocery was gluten free and had both fairly low fat and sodium content.)

I was rather hungry and impatient and threw this whole thing together in less than 10 minutes, the longest part is boiling the water.  Cook the noodles al dente (6-8 minutes probably depending the size of the noodles).  While they are cooking, thaw the chicken and vegetables, and start the oil heating in a wok or the largest fry pan you have.  When the oil is very hot, fry up the vegetables and chicken to heat them through and finish the cooking process, 2-4 minutes (longer if they’re raw). Add 2/3 of the peanut sauce and stir fry another minute. Drain the noodles and toss them in the wok, mixing up everything, add the rest of the sauce, and stir. 

Turn off the heat and enjoy. 

Serves two

Bolognese Sauce

I have to say my sauce rarely comes out the same way twice, since I don’t measure things exactly but just toss in what looks right or I have on hand.  Thus the amounts below are approximate – go with your own taste, you’ll be happier. Add whatever you want, zucchini, spinach, green peppers, etc.  Once you’ve got your basic onion, garlic, meat and tomatoes in, it’s pretty hard to mess up a tomato sauce like this.  I used it to make lasagna, but it stands well on its own as well. 

Ingredients:

  •  1.5 pounds of ground meat, beef, turkey, pork or a meatloaf mix of beef and pork.
  • 2 28 oz. cans of crushed tomatoes (I used Contadina with Italian herbs, so I used less spice than usual)
  • 1 large yellow onion or two medium ones, chopped
  • 6-8 cloves garlic, diced and pressed
  • 1-2 tsp. of sugar, if desired.
  • ¾ c. red wine
  • ½ a red pepper, chopped
  • 1 small carrot grated
  • 8 oz. mushrooms, chopped
  • 1 tbsp. dried Oregano (or fresh if you can get it) 
  • 1.5 tbsp. dried basil (although use fresh if you can get, you can reduce it down with the other vegetables). 
  • 1 tsp. crush red pepper flakes
  • 2 tsps. Italian herbs
  • Olive oil

Empty the tomatoes into a large pot, and put on low heat. Brown the meat, drain and add to the tomatoes.  Heat 1-2 tbsp. of olive oil in the pan and cook the peppers, onions, garlic, and cook until soft and almost translucent.  Add more oil as needed.  Add the mushroom and carrot, and continue cooking until the mushrooms are soft and reduced.  Add to the tomato mixture, along with half the red wine. Mix in spices, salt and pepper to taste and sugar, if desired.  Cook on low heat for a half hour, and begin to adjust taste to preference with more wine and spices.  Simmer at least 2 hours, and the sauce is better if it heats at a low temperature for several hours.