This meal is probably in more frequent rotation that any other in our house.  It’s healthy, vegetarian, uses up a lot of produce, and it takes 30 minutes start to finish, (assuming I managed to put the rice in our slow rice cooker earlier in the day.)  And honestly it’s delicious.

Serves two hungry adults plus a kid.

Ingredients:

• 1 block of firm tofu
• peanut oil (or some other kind but unrefined peanut is best
• shiitake mushrooms (you can make it without them, but why?)
• a bunch of different vegetables including at least one green
• a shallot or two, finely chopped
• some garlic (optional), finely chopped
• a tablespoon or two (or three) of fresh (or frozen) ginger, grated
• soy sauce
• vinegar
• white wine or mirin or some kind of stock
• sriracha hot sauce (“rooster”)
• sugar
• a little cornstarch

1. Press the tofu.  Split the block in half horizontally so you have two rectangles about 3/4 of an inch thick.  Put them on a pan over a paper towel, put another paper towel on top and another pan, weighted with a few cans or something.  Set aside.

2. Chop your vegetables however you like them.  You want them all ready to go when it’s time to cook because it doesn’t take long.

3. Fry the tofu.  After ten minutes it’s pressed enough.  (Sometimes I only give it five minutes, but up to 20 is OK.)  Chop it in cubes.  Heat some peanut oil in a (very) nonstick pan over medium high heat.  When it’s hot, add the tofu and then pour a tablespoon or two of soy sauce over it.  Stir with a spatula until it’s coated, then let it cook, turning every few minutes.  Try not to let the tofu stick to the pan.  When the liquid is all evaporated and the tofu is golden on most sides of each cube, turn off the heat.

4. While the tofu is cooking, start cooking the other vegetables.  In a large saute pan or wok, heat some peanut oil on high or medium high heat.  Add the mushrooms and toss to coat with oil.  Stir only every few minutes, until they are nicely seared and delicious but not dry.  Add the rest of your vegetables in order of cooking time: this can take some practice.  In my experience, green beans take way longer to cook than you think, add them first.  Carrots and zucchini and broccoli are next,  then turnips or radishes because you want them to stay kind of crisp, then the greens (bok choy or chard or even kale, especially the curly kind) are last.

5. While the vegetables cook, mix the shallots and ginger in a bowl with some peanut oil.  If I’m feeling kind, I don’t add garlic, because it can upset Nathan’s stomach.  If I’m feeling spicy, I add a clove or two.  When the vegetables are almost done but not quite, add the tofu to the pan and stir.  Then push everything to the sides of the pad, and spoon the shallot mixture into the middle.  It will fry up in the oil and smell delicious–stir it around.  After a minute or two of cooking, mix everything together.

6. IMPORTANT: if you have a kid who doesn’t like spicy food, now’s the time to take our her portion.

7. Make the sauce and add it.  (Really you should have made the sauce in a spare moment earlier, so now you can just dump it on.)  In a bowl, put aboutt 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/3 cup vinegar (I use red wine, but rice is fine too or whatever), 1/3 cup white wine or mirin or stock, 1 tablespoon sugar, half a teaspoon of corn starch, and some squirts of sriracha to taste.  Mix it up and dump on the hot stir fry, stir around for a second or two, turn off the heat and serve over brown rice.

I recommend that the first few times you make this, you get everything all prepared before you start cooking (the sauce made, the shallot mixture prepared, etc.)  Otherwise you will be totally stressed at the end when things start happening fast.  When I first started making this, the kitchenwould look like a bomb went off in it after I was done, and I was so frazzled and stressed about getting things right at the last minute that I ate half my bowl in about twenty seconds.  But practice makes perfect I guess.  Now it only looks like a tornado blew through the kitchen.