Tonight I decided that we hadn't had Chinese food in a while; we really like hot and spicy seasonings, so Szechuan seemed to fit the bill. When I cook Chinese food, I seldom have any plan in mind; that's what makes it fun to prepare and always good...you just put in the skillet what you like. I don't use a wok; a skillet seems to work just fine and doesn't take up near the pantry space.
Tonight I used fresh bell peppers and squash from Mom's garden; I sliced the peppers and did a large dice of the yellow squash. To this I added a yellow onion, a couple of carrots diced coarsely, and sliced mushrooms. I dropped all these pieces into a hot skillet, added a little oil, a bit of soy sauce, some Szechuan seasoning. Once these had some time to cook on higher heat, I then added the big scallops, turned down the heat, added a lid, and let all those flavors just soak in while the scallops cooked.
In the meantime, I had prepared some white rice; I diced a bell pepper and some green onion, added a little oil, soy sauce, and a spicy fried rice packet and sauteed this on medium high heat. Once they started softening, I took them out, cracked a couple of eggs, and fried them while chopping into little pieces while they were cooking. Once the eggs were finished, I added everything to the rice and folded it all together.
By this time the scallops had done their thing and were cooked without being overcooked--they had absorbed some of the juices from the vegetables and Szechuan seasoning. After plating, I added just a bit of hot chili sauce to each scallop to add just a bit more bite. I ladled the scallop/vegetable mixture over the fried rice, poured a little Sake, and Tom and I had a nice evening meal. For dessert, the strawberries are sitting out and warming up a bit with a hint of sugar to make them good and tasty.
This is a fairly easy meal to prepare and it makes good left-overs as Tom will attest to tomorrow when he digs into Szechuan scallops part two. Enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment