Parkour Stir Fry

My friend Christine and I made plans to work out and cook together for tonight weeks ago, but after checking in with myself and my body (after this hullaballoo weekend in Russian River with some girlfriends), I thought this would be a hard task to pull off. But we did it, and took a Pilates class tonight (with a woodland fairy), and then headed back to my studio to cook and enjoy this freezles SF weather in my lovely backyard for a candlelit dinner. JK, we actually ate on the floor and watched Silicon Valley, but it's the thought the counts. And now our bods are super sore and it hasn't even been 5 hours... so there is that.

Christine spent two years in China while working for the Peace Corps, so for some reason, I always feel the need to eat or cook Chinese with I am with her. Given our shared love of Mexican food and burritos, this should not be the case, but it is.

Despite our love of Mexican (perhaps we will try to remake Burrito Boy burritos in the near future), tonight we made a stir fry! "Stir frying" is a Chinese technique that requires cooking ingredients in very hot oil, very rapidly. What I really like about stir frying is that you can switch it up and use different ingredient combinations and have a completely different dish, even though it is prepared in the same way. You can make a 100% vegetable stir fry, a vegetable stir frys with meat, or you can even throw some noodles in the mix (heyyyyyy-ooooo). The experience is different every time, but it's always just as satisfying as the last. Christine is vegetarian, so we decided to throw some noodles in the mix and get to fryin! This recipe is my own free style recipe (Parkour style recipe, if you will) but feel free to add or omit any ingredients I have included - just check in with your own likes and dislikes and go from there!

I got the idea from a blogger called a Pinch of Yum, but I made sure to add and subtract anything that I liked or didn't like.

Ingredients:

For the Black Pepper Sauce:
1/2 tablespoon freshly ground black peppercorns
5-6 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
5 cloves garlic
1 1" piece ginger (I omitted this, but later regretted it)
2 tablespoon flour, dissolved in water
1 package of baked tofu, cubed
1 tablespoon katsu sauce (this can be omitted, but I used it to replace the corn starch)
1 cup chopped red bell peppers
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/2 cup snap peas

For the Stir Fried Noodles
2 tablespoons sesame oil
8 ounces rice noodles
2 cups spinach leaves
Sesame seeds, for garnish

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil (I used a tea kettle because I still don't have a pot in my new studio yet - you gotta improvise... you know?) and cook for 1-2 minutes (they shouldn't be all the way cooked - just enough to barely soften). Drain and rinse with cold water - this removes starch and helps them stir fry without turning into a big blob. Set aside.

2. Place all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and whisk it together. When it is smooth, taste it and adjust to your liking.

Heat 1 tablespoon sesame oil in a large wok or nonstick skillet. When the oil is shiny, add the toy. Stir fry very gently for 5-10 minutes or until golden brown. Add a tiny splash of your black pepper sauce, a tiny splash of water, and 1/2 tablespoon oil and shake the pan around. Add vegetables. When the tofu and vegetables are cooked to your liking, transfer to a bowl and set aside.

3. Heat the remaining 1/2 tablespoon oil in the skillet. When the oil is hot, add the noodles and black pepper sauce.

Add a splash of water if the sauce becomes too thick. Stir fry until the noodles are softened, covered with sauce, and hot! From from heat and toss with the spinach and tofu. Add the sesame seeds as a garnish and ENYOOOYYY.