February 3, 2015 New Recipe Stir Fried Scallops and Sugar Snap Peas and Mushrooms

February 3, 2015 New Recipe   Stir Fried Scallops and Sugar Snap Peas and Mushrooms

Last night Suzette announced that she wanted to eat some meals without any alcohol, so I said what about a scallop stir fry with tea.  She agreed to that idea, so today I thawed out a package with about ½ lb. of bay scallops.

 

I rode to Rio Bravo and arrived home around 5:20.  Suzette did not arrive home until after 6:00.  At 6:00 I began de-stemming and slicing in half about 1 lb. of sugar snap peas and then sliced into thin slices ½ of an onion and diced three stalks of celery from our garden.  When Suzette arrived I asked if there was anything else she wanted to put into the dish and she mentioned mushrooms, so I sliced four mushrooms, 2 brown and 2 white.  Suzette asked if there was anything she could do and I suggested she peel three cloves of garlic, while I sliced about 1 ½ Tbsp. of ginger root.  Then I sliced the garlic in thin rounds like Lan does at Lan’s Vietnamese Restaurant in Santa Fe.

We were ready to stir fry.  Suzette took out the wok and put about 2 Tbsp. of peanut oil and 1 tsp. of sesame oil into the wok.  When I finished chopping the garlic and ginger I turned on the heat to medium high and put in the ginger and garlic and fried them for a minute then I added the onion and let it cook for a couple of minutes.  Then we added the celery, sugar snap peas and mushrooms and then added about 1 Tbsp. Chinese rice wine and 1 tsp. each of tamari soy sauce and mushroom soy and a few dashes of chili oil to give the dish some liquid content.  In another minute we added the drained scallops.

While Suzette stirred the wok, in a separate bowl I made a thickening sauce with 3 heaping tsp. of corn starch, ¼ cup of water and a ¼ tsp. of instant dashi to add a fish flavor to the liquid and then added to that sauce 1 Tbsp. of oyster sauce, about 1 tsp. of mushroom soy and 2 Tbsp. of Chinese Cooking Wine.

I fetched the PPI rice from the garage fridge and Suzette heated a bowl with about 1 1/2 cups of rice in the microwave and started water heating in the tea kettle. 

In about five minutes, when the vegetables had softened a bit, I added the thickening sauce and stirred the mixture in the wok for a minute to mix the sauce with the vegetable juices and other liquids until it thickened. The color of the sauce was dark brown, mainly due to the large quantity of soy and oyster sauces, and it had a creamy consistency.

Suzette put a pile of rice into each of two pasta bowls and I served scoops of the scallop and vegetable mixture sufficient to cover each pile plus a little sauce to flavor the rice and Suzette made green tea and we were ready to eat.  Suzette served my tea in my newest porcelain cup with its lovely blue green iridescent glaze.

steam rising off the dish

I loved the mass of fresh vegetables and I hope we can eat more of these heart healthy dinners in the future.  Maybe meat with red bell pepper, a Chinese green, onion and mushrooms next. 

Bon Appétit