Just in time for Valentine’s Day, I decided to come up with another red dinner. We had a few fresh cranberries kicking around the other day, and I decided they were too few to cook up the normal way and too many to put in a muffin or salad, so I would try adding them to a stir-fry. The ‘recipe’ could be made with just about any combination of vegetables you have on hand, but this is what I did.
Stir-fry onion, garlic, and plenty of fresh ginger. Some people grate theirs, but I usually just coarsely dice it. I would say I added at least a tablespoon. Add to that diced parsnip and carrots, then mushrooms, and finally bok choy. I usually slice the white end of the bok choy into thin half-moons and then chop up the green leafy end pretty fine. Spice with curry and about a tablespoon of pure maple syrup (you could use brown sugar or regular sugar, but we had the dregs of a maple syrup bottle on hand that I wanted to use up).
Then, I added a cup or two of Quorn ‘chicken tenders’ for protein. You could use tofu or any other oriental vegetarian protein (or I suppose if you eat meat, chicken would do well).
Quorn is a product we discovered a few years back in Europe, but can now get in our local Kroger. It is made from a fungus, like a mushroom, and is high in protein. It cooks a little like chicken when sold in nuggets, or like ground beef when sold in little pieces. Its flavor and texture is better than the old style TVP, so we use it as a tofu substitute — a) for a change of pace, and b) because it isn’t made from soy.
Near the end of the stir-frying, I added soy sauce and the cranberries, about a cup of fresh berries. I let them cook a bit until they started to pop open. Then I added a couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter to the liquid in the wok to make a peanut sauce. To kick up the spice, I added some Sambal Olek (garlic and red chili paste), though Sriracha would do well, too.
Serve over rice (though it would be fine with oriental noodles as well). The cranberry and maple syrup gave this a sweet/sour taste, kicked up a notch with the ginger and chili, and the peanut sauce made it creamy and rich. I might not serve this every night, but now and then, esp. when you have a few stray cranberries kicking around (or want a red meal for a special occasion), it makes a great change of pace.
Kendall Dunkelberg 