Mom's Stir Fry

My mom called me up today and said "I have an onion, peppers, and beef that's been cut up into strips, how do I make a stir fry?" I couldn't believe my ears. I even made her repeat herself.

As a general rule, my mom doesn't cook. It's not that she can't, per se, it's that she just never wanted to. I mean,  in the general sense, sure, but in the immediate "hey, let's cook dinner tonight!" way, she was always much more inclined to order chinese food. Needless to say, I was shocked to hear that not only did she want to cook, but that she'd already bought ingredients!

I tried looking up recipes, but a lot of them included things that mom just doesn't have, like a fully-stocked spice rack and three different types of vinegar. Instead, we decided to improvise. Mom got out a big saucepan, some olive oil, garlic powder, paprika, and a few soy sauce packets from the last time she ordered chinese food.

Improvisation, a cook's best friend!

First, she heated up olive oil so that it would be hot when the meat hit the pan. She had a little problem with her stove because it was making the oil evaporate, but then she turned down the heat and it was just fine. She then used 4 packets of soy sauce, garlic powder, and a little bit of paprika to make an impromptu marinade for her meat. At first I suggested less soy sauce, but with over a pound of meat, she thought more was appropriate.

Next, she chopped her onion and cut her multicolored pepper strips into smaller, bite size pieces. She asked me if she had too many peppers for her one onion, so I told her that she's the chef and it's her call. She ended up using all of them.

Once her oil began to spit (or start shooting hot oil at her), she put in her steak. She also opened more soy sauce packets and put them in a measuring cup so that she could pour it on her veggies while they cooked.

As soon as her meat browned (she flipped it once), she seasoned and added her vegetables. And then realized that the pan wasn't big enough for all of her ingredients! She freaked out a little bit, but then she grabbed a new pan, started heating some more olive oil with some cooking liquid from the other pan, and scooped out as many veggies as she could. When the new pan got hot, she put the peppers and onions in there to cook down so that they wouldn't take up as much space when cooked with the beef.

When the vegetables cooked down, she put them back in with the meat, let the flavors simmer together for a minute, stirred, and served.

Good job, Mom!

I'm very proud of her for attempting this stir fry, especially since she came up with the idea all on her own. Even though I was on the phone talking her through it, she really did this all by herself. And the best part is - she had fun :)

Well, maybe the second best part. The real best part was that it came out so good that she's already talking about cooking again!