Snowed In With A Chinese Five Spice Veggie Stir Fry

So, Sunday the plumbers came and put in our new water heater. We were so excited to have hot water, to finally wash dishes that were stacking up, to finally shower. Unfortunately we?d had to wait. For whatever reason our new water heater was wired incorrectly and as a result had no power. It would be another day before we had hot water and know the wonders of said dish washing and showering. Since we were still snowed in (we live on a dead end street with a sizable hill that doesn?t get plowed) and waterless dinner needed to be easy and made with ingredients we had on hand. Earlier Sunday I had been reading the most recent Cook?s Illustrated in which there was mention of a broccoli stir fry. We didn?t have all the ingredients for it and not near enough fresh broccoli, but it sparked an idea for what turned into a delicious Asian-inspired dinner.

The original recipe was just broccoli but like I said, we didn?t have enough of it but we did have mushrooms and carrots and some baked tofu. After weeks of heavy food through the holidays and baked goods just for the sake of it being winter, a nice healthy dish of vegetables and healthy, low-fat protein sounded really good. We were going to just have rice with the stir fry, but I remembered that one of the things we had laying around the kitchen was half a pound of whole wheat egg noodles from our CSA. Now, I know that these aren?t necessarily traditional Asian fare, but, like I said, we were snowed in and this was an Asian inspired meal, plus, I love Asian noodle dishes!

There?s just enough heat from the cayenne and Sriracha to have a slight burn, which was nice. You can adjust this to your taste by using more or less cayenne. The original recipe called for a minced whole clove of garlic, but we had just run out making breakfast the previous day so I used the garlic powder. You can (and should) substitute a whole clove of garlic for the garlic powder. Our pantry is not normally this bare, but with the weather the way it was, we just hadn?t been able to restock anything. Trust me that has been taken care of now as I have some other delicious meals planned for the week. For now, enjoy this quick (seriously, 20 minutes) and easy meal.

Chinese Five Spice Veggie Stir-Fry

Serves 4, Adapted from Cook?s Illustrated

1/4 cup chicken or vegetable broth

3 Tbsp. hoisin sauce

1 Tbsp. soy sauce

1 tsp. toasted sesame oil

1 Tbsp. Sriracha (Asian Chili-garlic sauce)

1/8 tsp. Chinese five-spice powder

1 tsp. corn starch

1/8 tsp. garlic powder

1/8 tsp. ground cayenne pepper

Tbsp. vegetable oil, divided

1/2 lb. mushrooms, cut into quarter-inch slices

1/2 lb. broccoli florets, chopped in half-inch pieces

1/4 tsp sugar

2 carrots, julienned

1/2 lb. tofu, cut into half-inch cubes

1/2 lb. udon or egg noodles, cooked per package?s directions

toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Whisk broth, hoisin, soy sauce, sesame oil, Sriracha, five-spice and corn starch together in a small bowl. In another small bowl, combine 1 tsp. vegetable oil, garlic powder and cayenne pepper, stirring well

Heat remaining cayenne-garlic oil in a wok or large non-stick skillet over medium high heat until just beginning to smoke. Add mushrooms and broccoli and sprinkle with sugar. Cook, stirring frequently, for 7?8 minutes. Add carrots and tofu and cook for 3 more minutes until the carrots soften.

Add broth mixture and cook for 1 minutes, stirring to coat vegetables well. Add the cooked noodles and stir to coat.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.