It's been a little bit hectic with the holidays coming and the end of semester drawing nearer. My cooking still happens but I've been doing a lot of repeats and there's not a lot to expound upon when I've made the same dish 3-5x already this year.
We ran out of food halfway through this week so I had to figure out some dishes to cook. It's also been cold and rainy and I didn't feel like going to the store to buy anything so I had to use what we already had. I also wanted dishes with some vegetables in them.
How do I get vegetable dishes cooked Asian style without buying anything fresh? Let me tell you how!
My three dishes which meet the above quota are:
- Peas and Shrimp: $13.99
- Turnip Greens with Dace : $13.99
- Stir Fry Bamboo, Water Chestnuts, and Bell Peppers: $11.99
Total: $39.97
Tax: $3.30
Grand Total: $43.27
Peas and Shrimp
Both of these are in my freezer. I have a bag of frozen peas in my freezer almost at all times. There was a phase when my kids wouldn't eat peas because they influenced each other to not like peas. Now I'm trying to reverse the habit. I finally got the younger one to eat some and I'm trying to get him to influence the older now.
Shrimp is always in my freezer. This dish comes together super quickly. My dad used to make this dish as part of our food rotation when I was in high school. I enjoyed the way he made it. It wasn't super saucy and I actually don't know what he put in it - probably soy sauce or some combination of an Asian sauce - but it was good.
I start by heating up some oil in my wok and then adding the shrimp (1/2lb?). When the shrimp is about 85% cooked, I add in thawed peas (1.5 cups?). I mix it around for a bit, added oyster sauce (approx 1TB?) and a light sprinkle of sugar and salt. Make sure the shrimp is cooked all the way through and no longer translucent. That's about it.
If you're not into Asian food or it's not easily accessible, I bet adding some garlic and butter would make a great sauce for the shrimp and peas! Think shrimp scampi with peas.
Turnip Greens with Dace
I never thought about freezing bags of vegetables until my friend told me she did it all the time. This one is great because bags of pre-washed and cut turnip greens can be found at many grocery stores and aren't specifically "Asian." If you're super chill and want convenience, throw the whole bag into the freezer and save it for when you need it. This is what I do. If you want to go for a little more work before the convenience kicks in, you can open the bag, sort out some of the larger stem pieces, rewash if you'd like, spin dry, and then save in a Ziploc bag in the freezer. This is what I wish I would do sometimes but am realistically too lazy to ever do it. Laziness is a form of efficiency, remember? 😜
Canned dace has become a new staple in our house. I ate it in dishes as a kid and then forgot about it for a while until Woks of Life jumpstarted my memory with this recipe. This was the initial inspiration for my dish. I hardly ever make this with fresh greens because if I'm making this dish, it usually means I don't have any fresh vegetables for one reason or another. I also like to make my dace super small instead of the larger chunks because it is pretty salty and I want it evenly distributed with my greens.
For this dish, I first empty the contents of the fried dace can onto a plate. Then I pick out the bones and cut the fish smaller. Next, I heat up a pan and then throw in my dace, beans, and the oil. Once the fish and oil get hot, I throw in my turnip greens. If you're using a frozen bag of turnip greens, do not thaw first. Throw them in frozen. Let them cook down and give it a good stir. Once the greens are cooked, the dish is done. I don't add any extra seasoning into this dish because the canned dace has a lot of salt in it already.
Stir Fry Bamboo, Water Chestnuts, and Bell Pepper
I made this dish up on the spot because it was vegetables I had on hand which I could combine together for a cohesive dish. The recipe inspiration came from this recipe. I just sub whatever vegetables I have on hand. I keep canned bamboo and canned water chestnuts in my pantry at all times. There are other dishes I use these canned vegetables for, but they came in handy for this stir fry as well. The bell peppers were some of the last ones to come out of my garden. They were smaller and thinner but still usable. I realize not everyone is going to have a garden of bell peppers. That's not a problem because bell peppers can be frozen!
Now you can't freeze them whole. The best way to freeze a bell pepper is to wash, remove the seeds and middle, and cut the bell peppers into the size you want to use them. Then, lay them out on flat on a tray and freeze. Once frozen, transfer them to a freezer bag to use when you want them. This is probably true of most vegetables, but you don't want to thaw them before you use them. They'll turn into a soggy mess. These are best for stir frys because you throw them in frozen and the high heat fast cooking method will help to preserve the texture of the vegetable.
The actual recipe uses much more seasoning than I did for this batch. I just used chicken bouillon in water this time and made a starch slurry to thicken the sauce.
I hope these dishes inspire you to be able to cook with more vegetables even when you're in a bind or can't make it to the grocery store!
