bok choy – Ahuva’s Blog

Tuna Stir Fry

tuna stir fry- shallots, bok choy, mushrooms We used to eat a lot of fish. I’m not sure what changed, but that has not been the case lately. If we’re eating meat, it tends to be chicken, although we’ve had a lot of beef since Thanksgiving. Perhaps it was the winter weather, or maybe because the grocery store is on the wrong side of the road for me on my way home (and I don’t like that fish market very much), or because my husband no longer stops for fish on HIS way home – I don’t know. But I realized that I missed it and I did NOT want to be eating so much beef.

tuna stir-fry- add the thai peanut sauce When I did the grocery shopping this weekend I picked up some scrod and some tuna. My husband used to bring home sashimi-quality tuna from the fish market he passed on his way home. He would season it with a bit of oil, lemon and salt & pepper, and then sear it quickly. Fantastic. I knew the tuna I got at the grocery store was not that quality, so I spent a little time thinking on what to do with it.

tuna stir fry- add the zuchcinni noodles The scrod was an easy decision. My husband baked it with lemon juice and a little salt, and we had fish sandwiches made with the fresh bread I’d bought. I haven’t been baking much bread lately. I’ll need to get a few loaves in before it’s Passover and we’re eating matzah. Matzah is fine, but it is NOT bread. 🙂

I thought that I would take the tuna steak and slice it the way restaurants serve tuna – in strips, as opposed to one whole unit. My husband is not as enamored of raw tuna as I am, so I knew I had to cook it. I’m trying to get us back to a diet with a lot of vegetables – have to get ready for spring and all of those outfits that do NOT hide winter accumulation. tuna stir fry - add the tuna I also know that I have a tendency to throw LOTS of ingredients into the wok, so I wanted to rein in that temptation as well.

I decided on a Thai peanut sauce (a bottle I picked up at the Asian market). I knew that the sauce was fairly light and not over-powering. The ingredients for the stir fry would be bok choy, shallots, mushrooms and the tuna. I think the shallots have a lighter flavor than onions. We’d serve it with zucchini noodles (I cheated on that too and bought it fresh at the store). The beauty of cooking the tuna, and the limited number of ingredients, was the speed with which it cooked. I’d been doing chores and errands all day, and didn’t really feel like spending a lot of time cooking.

I thought it came out very well. It had a decent balance of color, no one flavor was overwhelming, and it was healthy. Zucchini noodles and riced cauliflower are great assistance in trying to be healthier in my food choices but still have something that feels like carbs!
tuna stir fry- ready to eat

Fighting Fatigue with Food

It’s been a long week. Work has been super crazy busy. It’s going well, for the most part, but it’s high visibility, high stress, multi-person, multi-goal, multi-everything project. There are 3 of us working to build what needs to do and be everything for everyone. *grin* Now that’s really the kind of challenge I enjoy. But it does leave me tired at the end of the day, when finally sometime well after dark the end of the day comes.

My schedule is comparatively open earlier in the day, which is when I delude myself that I will cook something interesting for dinner. I went shopping at the Asian Food Market near the office the other day during my lunch break and picked up some very interesting items. Unfortunately by the time I made it home that night there was no way I was interested in concocting a meal. It was microwave leftovers time. Last night I again logged out much later than I’d hoped. I was tired, it was late, it was Shabbat. I really wanted to do something nice for dinner but as usual I was TIRED.

I poured myself a glass of wine, sat down with my iPad to read a little, had 2 cats on my lap, and relaxed. Half a glass of wine, one short story and a lot of petting later, I decided I had enough energy to make us dinner instead of having something delivered or finding more leftovers.

This will be a pictorial post – step by step of the ingredients I added. I have to say that it was amazingly tasty and we both loved it and it’s all gone now. 🙂 The vegetables at the Asian Mart are so fresh and so appealing. Add some curry paste and riced cauliflower to that and what could be bad, right?

Step 1 saute onions in coconut oil — Step 1: Saute the onions in coconut oil

Step 2 add the brussels sprouts and grean beans — Step 2: Add brussels sprouts and green beans (Using up leftovers)

Step 3 toss in mushrooms — Step 3: Have to add some baby bella mushrooms in there as well

step 4 riced cauliflower — Step 4: Riced cauliflower to give it more body, and substitute for rice or pasta

step 5 some sprouts for a different texture — Step 5: The sprouts looked SO good at the market I had to bring them home. They add a nice bit of texture as well.

Step 6 ready for the curry paste and coconut milk — Step 6: Ready now to add the Arroyo-D Panang Curry Paste and some coconut milk to make sure it’s not too hot for me to eat

Step 7: The curry paste and coconut milk are mixed in. Almost ready, but it needs one more ingredient…

step 8 toss in some cutup baby bok choy — Step 8: cut up some of the gorgeous baby bok choy and tossed that in. I like the taste, I like the crunch and I like the color from the leaves.

Green Curry Paste FTW

Last night I wanted something ‘different’ for dinner – not my typical steamed veggies and whatever. As I mentioned earlier, I buy a LOT of produce. This past weekend I brought home green beans, bok choy, asparagus, mushrooms (a blend of oyster, shitake and crimini) and leeks. I was hungry and didn’t feel like spending a LOT of time cooking. I decided to “borrow” another of my husband’s favorite pots – the wok this time. Our stove has its own fitted wok stand for the burners (it can be used on any burner). My husband uses the wok now nearly every time he cooks.

I wok’d up the green beans, some bok choy, garlic, onions and the mushrooms in coconut oil. It looked so beautifully green and healthy. Last time I was in the Asian market picking up some curry sauce I saw a package for green curry paste. I took that as well and that’s what I used last night. Wow – that was HOT. The package had called for mixing the paste with coconut milk, which I did not have handy. I’d used the coconut oil and added cream for a liquid. I figured that would get me to the coconut milk taste/consistency. It was delicious. There are no leftovers. My husband loved it too.

That has been unusual the last few years. I stuck to my traditional eastern European flavors: salt, pepper, onion, garlic, paprika. I think he was bored by those flavors. With the new kitchen and the easy availability of spices, and the fact that it’s just the 2 of us, I’ve been trying many new flavors and foods. I’ve begun keeping shallots and leeks on hand. Looking at various recipes online for intriguing flavors (which reminds me – I haven’t talked about the red lentil butternut squash soup). I had never cooked squash (or eaten it for that matter) before my adventures last month. It’s working quite well! (And a side note to my son who reads this blog periodically – if you use green curry paste and don’t cut it too much with milk – you can eat just about any vegetable around. *grin* It’s so hot that is the ONLY flavor you will register. Trust me.)