These Stir-Fried Snow Peas with Plums are not meant to scare you (or me). Sure they may be a combination of sweet and savory flavors that makes you raise your eyebrows. However, it's not the flavors that give me pause. It's the heat in my wok. These snow peas and plums are stir-fried.
Stir-frys aren't hard. However, they come together at lightning speed so there's no room for second guessing. You just gotta do it, and you gotta do it without thinking. Overcooked plums turn into jam. Jam is delicious, but we're not making jam. We making Stir-Fried Purple Snow Peas from Melissa's Produce, so it's gotta be fast and furious. Think Vin Diesel (whom I've photographed for Rolling Stone Magazine incidentally– brag brag).
But back to the issue at hand. Stir-frying.
I look at the stats of this blog. I realize that you're most likely reading this post from North America. It's possible, though far less likely, that you're sitting at a computer in some other English speaking country like Australia or Great Britain. Sippity Sup even gets a few daily hits from the Caribbean.
Which means my audience is a lot like me. Curious about cooking, and familiar with the cooking methods we embrace here in the Western World. I'm talking about baking, grilling, broiling and roasting. Thanks to Julia Child, most of us have even taken too sautéeing like native born Frenchmen (despite the accent aigu).
Stir-Fried Snow Peas with Plums
But what about stir-frying? It's the preferred method of cooking in many Eastern kitchens. But how often do you pull out your wok? Do you even own one? I don't. I had to borrow one to make these Stir-Fried Snow Peas with Plums.
I'm trying to get over my fear of stir-frying. Stir-frying is not rocket science (unless of course you throw a little arugula– *har har). I'm not claiming to be an expert, but here are some tips to help us all wok and roll:
- Everything you throw in the wok should be cut into bite size pieces. This is mostly because it helps the cook regulate the cooking time, it's also important because my chopsticks just work better when the food is sized just right.
- I don't know the Chinese phrase for mis en place, but it's super relevant to stir-fry cooking. So prep your ingredients and lay them out in the order you plan to use them.
- The order is based on how long they need to cook. Meat (if using) usually goes in first. Mushrooms go in before pea shoots, et cetera. In this recipe for Stir-Fried Snow Peas with Plums, the snow peas go in before the plums, but just barely.
- Preheat your wok. It should be blazing hot BEFORE you add anything to it. Even the oil.
- The last tip I can offer is to please be careful. As I said these woks need to be hot. That's the part that makes me nervous. The good news is we don't have to dance around like the chefs at Benihana in order to make this recipe work.
So pull out your wok. Or go buy one. If I can do this– you can do this. GREG
* Did any one get my rocket/arugula joke?
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