Three SF Restaurant-Inspired Stir Fries

These days I’ve been experimenting a lot with stir fries. I think they’re a great way to cook a healthy, flavorful meal that covers all your bases. Many stir fry recipes are already quite healthy without any modifications, so you don’t end up with a sad *healthy* version of a dish you love (one that often actually tastes nothing like the original dish in my experience...). Rather, you end up with the fully delicious original dish as it was meant to be cooked. As luck has it, it happens to be healthy and energizing. Good spices and a few key sauces go a long way.

While I have no dietary restrictions, I also love that stir fries tend to be gluten and dairy free. This comes in handy when I’m cooking for people with these restrictions. I can respect their limitations without disappointing any of my dairy and bread eating friends.

A wok has been one of our best quarantine purchases as a household. It’s really been inspiring me (and my roommates) to experiment more with the dishes we miss most from local restaurants. If you don’t have a wok, you can always use a large frying pan. If you wan’t to invest in a wok and don’t know where to start, feel free to reach out and I’ll let you know how we went about it.

Here are three stir fry recipes that have been in the rotation lately. I cook these all regularly and continue to be happy with them time after time.

Amateur Stir Fry Tips and Essential Ingredients

Key ingredients that might be new to your pantry

If you want to get into making restaurant grade healthy stir fries and you might consider investing in a few key ingredients that really add to the flavor and show up in many recipes. I mean I am definitely an amateur, but if you are too these might be whats missing in your recipes if you’ve tried before and it just hasn’t been as good as when someone else makes it! All of these can, aside from maybe the shrimp paste, can be found at a supermarket.

Amateur tips

First, a fitness tip. Double the recipe for tons of leftovers and a healthy lunch option for days to come. Meal prepping is essentially just eating leftovers, fitness people just renamed it and claimed it as their own.
Start rice and vegetable sides before you begin to cook these recipes. Stir fries are super fast once the process starts, so the timing will work out better that way.
Prep ingredients in advance. There’s no time for chopping, prepping and measuring once the heat is on. This also makes for a more peaceful, methodical cooking experience.
If recipes call for chicken stock or broth, I usually use a bouillon base. I never end up using a whole container of stock at once, so this creates more waste.

Stir Fry One: Minced Chicken with Spicy Chili + Basil

This recipe is one inspired by one of our favorite Thai restaurants in the Inner Sunset - Marnee Thai!

Ingredients
3 TB cooking oil
2 TB minced garlic
4-8 thai chilis (my recipe here used 6)
1.5 lb ground or minced chicken
I prefer minced as store bought ground meat has a weird flavor in this
2 TB fish sauce
2 TB oyster sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp paprika
1 TB soy sauce
3 TB chicken stock or bouillon
1/2c basil leaves, roughly chopped
2 jalapenos, thinly sliced

Instructions
1. Prepare all ingredients in advance as shown (stir fries are super fast, you won’t have time to chop, measure and prep while things are cooking)
2. Heat the oil over medium high heat in a wok or skillet
3. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and thai chilies. Stir for 1-2 mins (until it starts to smell good)
4. Add the ground/minced meat and continue stirring. Make sure to break the meat up, but it doesn’t have to be fully cooked at this point.
5. After its broken up and coated in the other ingredients (just another minute or so), add the fish sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, paprika, soy sauce, and chicken stock. Continue to stir until the meat is cooked (3-4 min).
6. Add the basil and jalapeno, cook for 2 more minutes.
7. enjoy along with rice and, of course, some vegetables.

Tips

Use bouillon instead of stock to avoid wasting the rest of the container of stock
try this recipe with any other type of minced or ground meatl

Stir Fry Two: Fish (or Shrimp) Kebat

A favorite seafood based recipe inspired by Burma Superstar and Burma Love in the Inner Richmond and Mission, respectively.

Ingredients
1 lb white fish cut into 1/2” pieces, or peeled shrimp
2 TB oil
1 tsp madras curry powder (can be found at any supermarket)
1 tsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1 small-medium yellow onion, 1/2 sliced thinly and 1/2 diced
1 TB minced garlic
1 TB minced ginger
1 tsp shrimp paste (can be found online or at an asian grocery store)
2 roma tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 lime, cut into wedges

Instructions
1. In a bowl, mix the fish with fish sauce, salt, and curry powder. Let it sit as you prepare and gather the rest of the ingredients.
2. Separate the diced and sliced onions, you won’t use the sliced half until the end.
3. In a wok or skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add the diced onion and cook until it’s soft, maybe 3 minutes or so
4. Stir in garlic, ginger and shrimp paste. Cook for 2 minutes more.
5. Add fish, stir and cook until the fish is cooked and almost beginning to flake apart - about 5 minutes. If using shrimp, cook until the shrimp turn pink. This may take a couple minutes longer than with fish.
6. Mix in sliced onions and tomato, cook for another 2 minutes - onions should still be crisp at the center.
7. Squeeze 2-3 of the lime wedges and serve with additional lime to add to taste. Serve with rice a side of vegetables.

Tips

Use any white fish for this. I’ve been using tilapia as it is pretty cheap and really easy to find.
You can cook similar recipes with other meats and tofu. If you like this I’d suggest buying the Burma Superstar cookbook. There are so many good options in there and some are quite simple.

Stir Fry Three: Cashew Chicken

A second chicken based stir fry inspired by Marnee Thai again. This one is less spicy than the first. I love the texture that the cashews add to this dish.

Ingredients
1 lb chicken breast, sliced
Salt and ground white pepper, to taste
4 TB oil
1 tsp corn starch
4-6 dried chilies
2 jalapeños, sliced
1 TB minced garlic
4 TB oyster sauce (you can even get this at walgreens, easy to find)
3 TB chicken stock, or broth made of bouillon
1 cup yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 green onions, cut into 1/2” pieces (large pieces)
1/2 cup cashews

Instructions
1. Prepare all ingredients in advance.
2. Season chicken with a bit of salt and pepper, a small amount of the oil, and the corn starch. Set aside for 10 minutes.
3. In a wok or skillet, heat the rest of the oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add garlic, jalapeños, chilies, and sliced seasoned chicken.
4. Stir for about 3 minutes, or until the chicken is roughly half cooked. Add oyster sauce, chicken stock and the sliced onion.
5. When the chicken is cooked though (about 3-4 more minutes), add the green onion and adjust seasonings by adding more salt and pepper if desired.
6. Combine cashews and serve with rice, and as always with a side of vegetables.

Tips:

For spicier, let jalapeños ripen until redder and leave more seeds intact.
For dried chilis, pick up a big bag of them at a Mexican market or just in that section of a larger supermarket