Stir Fry

Something magical happened today.  As I was driving home from the farmers market (stock piling lots of bacon to bring on spring break) I opened my sunroof and windows.  Yup, I opened my sunroof for the first time since October.  Sunroofs are beautiful.  I love my sunroof, even if they aren't exactly primal.  This cave girl isn't giving up her motorized vehicles anytime soon.  I wish my apartment had a porch (and a bigger kitchen), then I could be writing this outside instead.

Also, I tried kumquats today.  I mainly bought them because seriously, they're adorable.  Also they were grown by the lunar cycles or something.  Anyway, I got home and I wasn't totally sure how you were supposed to eat them so I Googled it.  You eat them with the skin on and spit the seeds out like you would a grape.  They're really interesting at first there's a really big burst of citrusy flavor, and then it fades to the sweetness of the rind before getting kind of bitter from the pith.  That's my issue with citrus fruits you get all the yummy flavor first and then you're stuck eating the flavorless pith after the good parts over (why bother?).  But I still like my kumquats, they're cute and fun to say!

Anyway, enough ramblings.  I made a stir fry today.  I was afraid I was getting a little carried away with how many ingredients I was adding but it worked out really well, except that my fry pan was too small so I over cooked parts of it while waiting for stuff to cook down so I could add the rest of the ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 2 Chicken breasts
• 1 Bok Choy
• 1 Green Pepper
• 3 oz of Pea Shoots (this was a lot...another reason to hate shopping for 1)
• 2 big Cloves of Garlic
• 5 Scallions
• 4 Tbsp Tamari (I actually have no clue how much I used, I didn't measure and added to taste but this is my best guesstimate)
• Red Pepper flakes
• Butter

Directions:

1. Cube chicken, dice scallions and garlic, cut pepper and bok choy.  For the bok choy I cut horizontally across the bok choy to try and separate the leaf and the base.
2. Put fry pan (or wok) over medium high heat and add butter.
3. When oils hot add chicken.
4. Cook chicken about half way (some pieces will still be partially pink) add the bottoms of the bok choy and scallions.
5. When the chicken is almost done (5 minutes? depending on the size of your chicken chunks) turn heat to high and add green peppers, garlic, and bok choy leaves.
6. Add tamari to taste, I also added a little bit of water (Tbsp?) to help distribute the tamari and prevent it from being too concentrated.  Also add red pepper flakes to taste, I used maybe 1/4 tsp, and cook for a minute or two to let the liquid cook off.
7. Add pea shoots and cook until just wilted.
8. Top with the tips of some scallions and enjoy!

Like I said I had way too many pea shoots (I still have some left over and am trying to figure out a good use for), but they actually end up acting kind of like a noodle so maybe it's a good thing to add lots of pea shoots!  I used a 10 inch pan, it's the biggest I have, and it was way too small while things were cooking down which resulted in over done green peppers.  If you're looking for a more traditional stir fry flavor add some honey (1 tsp?) and ginger to your tamari before adding it to the stir fry.