Stir It Up

Not every dinner that I cook has to take a long time, have many steps, or cost a ton. Noel and I love stir-fry. It's easy, good, and thanks to our friends at Russo's, is one of the cheapest meals we make each week. First you must have a wok. Noel found ours at T.J. Maxx; we find a lot of our kitchen gear there. The last one I had I got at Ikea. Needless to say, they tend to be cheap and can be the most used pot in your kitchen.  I have found that I like to use canola oil instead of vegetable oil and keep the amount of ingedents down. I like no more than three veggies, and I try and get them to be different colors (come on, it's more fun to have a colorful dinner. Isn't it?), a pepper or two, garlic, shallots, and a meat (you don't really need the meat, I am just a meatatarian). A stir-fry is also a great summertime dish, as you have a better choice of veggies, and its a light meal.While I was at Russo's last week, I was able to check out more of their oils. I found a Tangerine Oil from Boyajian and knew that I wanted to make a Tangarine Chicken Stir-fry.

Here What You Need
1 medium carrot sliced long wide pieces
dozen or more snap peas
1 red pepper cut into long slices
1 cubanelle pepper cut into long slices
1 clove garlic minced
1 shallot sliced
hand full beans sprouts
4 tablespoons canola oil (enough to coat the bottom of the wok)
3/4-pound of chicken breast cutlets
tangerine oil
salt
crushed red pepper flakes

First I marinated the chicken in tangerine oil for 45 minutes. Then coat the bottom of the Wok with the canola  oil. I wait a few minutes to let the oil warm and add the chicken. Cook for about a two minutes and add the garlic, shallots, carrot, red pepper flakes and sea salt. After about two minutes toss in the peppers. Basically from this point on, you are adding the veggies one at time letting the ones that need more time to cook first. I usually let a minute or two between each. After all the veggies are added, I cover it for another two to three minutes to let it all steam together. And there you go: a great weekday meal that took less than 15 minutes to make. Its so quick that I usually forget to cook any rice or noodle dish as a side. Ooops. Doesn't matter, this is a great healthy meal. Most veggies all go well together, so what you can use is endless, which is what makes this an easy meal to have every week, or even two or three times a week.  This was the first time I used the tangerine oil, next time I would add a little more heat to off-set the sweetness of the oil, but the oil really did a number on the chicken and it tasted great!!

So I wasn't in the mood for a full bottle of wine tonight. Last night however Noel and I did have a bottle while we sat on the couch watching a movie. Noel is a fan of sweet wines. Over the years I have introduced her to Riesling, Chenin Blanc, Sancerre and Moscato. The Muscat grape is a very sweet grape that is grown all around the world for wine, table grapes and raisins. As a wine it is known for it sweet floral aromas. In Italy some of the wines made from Muscato are made in a light fizzy, low alcohol style that is delightfully, Luna Nuda was no different. The bubbles make for a fun drink and the very floral, grape and apple fruit make it extremely easy to drink, as Noel and I found out in about a half hour.