Stir fried rice guide with cashew sauce, and stir fry sauce

Stir fried rice guide with cashew sauce

Cashew Butter:

1 cup cashews

⅔ cup water

2 TB oil

Cover cashews with water in a bowl, heat in microwave for 30 seconds. Let it cool for a bit, and then puree in blender with oil and a squeeze of lime. If it starts to have a hard time blending, don’t worry, just skip ahead and add the ingredients below.

Cashew Sauce:

1 cup cashew butter

1 whole lime juiced, zested

2 tsp honey

1 TB soy sauce, low sodium if possible

1 TB sesame oil

2-3 tsp hot sauce (sambal or sriracha)

6 cloves garlic

1 inch chunk ginger, peeled and cut into chunks

¼ cup cilantro (optional, I originally intended to add this, but forgot and deeply regretted it)

Blend with cashew butter. Thin with water if desired, or keep it chunky.

Stir fry sauce:

¼ cup water (or broth)

¼ cup orange juice, freshly squeezed if possible

1 TB white wine, or sake

1 TB honey

2 tsp lime juice

1 TB oil, peanut or canola or other light frying oil

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp sambal

2 TB minced ginger, optional

Whisk together in small sauce pan and bring to a simmer for 5 minutes.

How to fried rice:

There are a great many ways to put together a stir fry. I like to start with a base of good aromatics and spicy stuff: green onions, garlic and ginger, chilies. This goes in first for a quick 60 seconds or so to release the goods and set aside for later. Next take turns cooking your veggies, and meats, employing the classic stir fry technique of high heat and constant vigorous stirring, making sure not to overcrowd that pan. Woks are pretty great here, but you can do a make-shift stir fry in a very large saute pan if necessary. Add about 1 TB of oil each time, using a bit less or a bit more if you feel like you need to. Finally, add half the rice and half of the veggies, and stir vigorously. Once you feel everything is well mixed and cooked up real nice, add half the stir fry sauce and keep up that ever present stirring. Remove to a large bowl and repeat with remaining rice. The following makes about 8 servings, fyi. Halve it if you have less people to cook for.

This is an example of the stuff I used for my simple stir fried rice that I brought to a potluck recently. I cooked up the Andouille sausage in a separate pan so I could have a vegetarian version as well.

¼ cup or so canola oil, divided into tablespoons

6 cloves garlic, minced

3 red fresno chiles, minced

2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced

1 onion, diced

1 orange bell pepper, diced

3 or so cups of savoy cabbage, sliced into thin strips a la coleslaw

2 cups uncooked jasmine rice (always make your rice a day or so in advance for legit fried rice, this should be cooked at least several hours before everything else)

2 big fat andouille sausages, sliced (use 3 if you’re not making half vegetarian)

½ cup cilantro

1 bunch green onions

Follow fried rice instructions above, 1 TB oil into the hot wok, stir fry the garlic, red chiles, ginger. Remove to a plate or bowl. 1 TB oil to hot wok, add onions, stir fry till they are as cooked as you like, remove, do the same with bell pepper, and finally the cabbage.

Finish the rice with the veggies and stir fry sauce. Fry up the sausages in a separate frying pan, and add that to the finished rice along with the cilantro and green onions, and keep on stirring. 

Serve with cashew sauce on the side.