Last month I took a class on Thai cooking at Leah's store. It was very tasty, and demystified Pad Thai to the point where I think I can make it (haven't tried yet -- it requires a run out to the Asian grocery store in Wheaton). In any case, I was inspired enough to buy a wok this weekend, which I seasoned yesterday and tried out for the first time tonight.
I made a veggie stir fry with ginger from a recipe I found online, and it was pretty good. It also reminded me how much I hate following recipes. I can't seem to keep more than one step/measurement in my mind at once, so I'm forever compulsively checking the ingredient list or instructions. It makes for a very halting, non-relaxing time in the kitchen. But I do really enjoy cooking once I get to the point of knowing a recipe by heart, or even better, mastering the general principles involved in a dish and then improvising from there. Of course, to date, I have only achieved the latter with lasagna and quiche. (And grilled cheese, but I don't think that counts.) I should be able to add stir-frying in short order -- although the recipe I made tonight had a few extra wrinkles, it's pretty simple in general.
2 comments:
Yeah! Stir fry is super easy to play around with, and often hard to go wrong with (well... at least as far as the vegetable part is concerned.) I kind of wing pad thai myself—you can buy pre-made pad thai sauce in a jar at even TJ's... I just add it after cooking the veggies and the noodles, and then fry everyone together. YUM!
Yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to fooling around with different stir fry variations -- the wok makes it way easier, and really improves the results versus when I tried it in a skillet.
I tried making pad Thai once with pre-made sauce, and it didn't come out that well...I think it was partly my fault, but I do want to try making it the "real" way because it was delicious in the class I took...
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