Sunchoke and Cashew Stir-fry Recipe
A beautiful fried rice made with brown rice, egg, sunchokes, cashews, and basil when Grace Young came over for lunch last week.
I have a baby wok. It is cast-iron and metallic grey with a crackly surface texture, something reminiscent of elephant skin. My wok has a round bottom, two handles, and aspirations - or rather, I have aspirations for it. It is simple in shape and material, and will eventually be able to tell its own story through the patina it will develop on its surface - the sort of thing that takes time, and countless meals. This relatively new addition to my kitchen has been sitting on my stove lately next to my old cast iron pan - one black and slick, the other young and fresh with barely a bruise of color beyond the grey. If you have a minute, I'll tell you how it got here. This all started when Grace Young took me wok shopping in San Francisco's Chinatown a few months ago.
Actually, Grace and I chatted about wok cooking while signing books next to each other last year at a conference. I told her how my dad would cook with a wok once or twice a week when I was a kid, after taking classes at the local junior college. Grace and I agreed it would be fun to go wok shopping the next time she was in San Francisco. I'm junior varsity on the stir-fry front and I was excited that Grace was game to talk me through my wok options. And she did! Grace is awesome, and her enthusiasm for wok cooking is infectious. I came home with the perfect wok.
Now, I believe in serendipity, and although I suspect Grace had planned to set me up with a carbon steel wok (which I think would have been perfectly nice to cook with), fantastically practical with it's flat bottom and wood handles. Tane, the owner of The Wok Shop, had a run on those the previously day. Instead, a traditional Chinese-made cast iron wok was handed to me - the kind Cantonese home cooks swear by to impart the coveted taste of wok hay. There are few things I love more than cooking in cast iron, and I knew in an instant this was the wok for me. In the months since, my wok and I have become fast friends. I think people have the idea that cast-iron is fussy, but it's really not so. My cast iron skillet is as slippery as any non-stick, and my wok is well on its way.
Grace was in SF last week, and she came over for lunch (and to take my pan for a spin). It was fantastically helpful to see some of her cooking techniques in action. We made two dishes with fresh ingredients I'd picked up at the farmers' market. This one was a simple fried rice stir-fry made with day-old brown rice, sunchokes, sweet corn, toasted nuts, and punches of flavor from basil, ginger, garlic and the like. Big thumbs up. I wrote up the recipe down below.
There are definitely some considerations related to choosing the appropriate wok for your cooking surface (flat bottom vs. round, etc), and Grace's books (Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge / The Breath of a Wok) are inspiring references for everything you need to know. There's a bit of a learning curve, but once you're going it's a fascinating cooking vessel with its own personality and temperament. My wok has certainly impacted some of my favorite one-pan meals for the better. I think my wok set me back just $15, but it's the sort of thing that a year or two (or ten) from now, it will evolve into something priceless. I have to tell you, one of my favorite things is when Grace posts photos to her Twitter stream of people holding their woks - many have made long journeys, provided a lifetime of meals, been passed down from generation to generation. Look at this photo of Florence Lin with her wok from the 60s. That's what I mean when I say my wok has aspirations. Thank you Grace, and I look forward to many more wok meals together. xo-h
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Sunchoke and Cashew Stir-fry
I'm still getting my head around which oils I prefer to use for stir-frying, but have had good results with Spectrum sunflower and peanut oils - Although they're both refined to allow for the high temps encountered in stir-fry, but my sense is that they start with good organic ingredients, and use natural refining techniques. Some of the other fats/oils I like to use in relation to high-temp cooking (coconut oil, clarified butter, etc) would definitely lend a not-always-welcome flavor profile to some of these stir-fries.
1 teaspoon peanut or sunflower oil
1 egg, beaten1 tablespoon peanut or sunflower oil, plus more if needed
1 tablespoon minced ginger
2 cloves minced garlic
3 medium shallots, chopped
1/2 serrano chile pepper, deveined and minced
1 cup very thinly sliced sunchokes, well scrubbed
Kernels from 2 ears of corn
1 1/2 - 2 cups day-old, cooked brown rice
1 egg, beaten (optional)
1 tablespoon soy sauce, plus more to taste
1/3 cup toasted almond slices
1/2 cup toasted cashews
fine grain sea salt and pepper, to taste
plenty of chopped fresh basil
Start by making a thin egg pancake/crepe by adding one beaten egg to a hot wok (or well-seasoned skillet) that has been coated with about 1 teaspoon of oil. Carefully tilt the pan so the egg covers the bottom as thinly as possible. Cook until the egg is just set. Flip and cook the other side before removing to a cutting board. Let cool, then cut into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.
Now you're ready to stir-fry the rest. Make sure all your ingredients are prepped and at the ready, because this goes fast. Heat your wok (or skillet) over high heat until a drop of water vaporizes in a second or two. Swirl in 1 tablespoon of oil, and add the ginger, garlic, shallots, and chile pepper. Stir-fry 20 or thirty seconds, or until fragrant and softened a bit. Stir in the sunchokes and cook until they take on a hint of color, then add the corn, all the while pushing the ingredients around the pan. If you feel like you need a touch more oil at this point, swirl a bit more in before adding the rice, and stirring well to combine. If you like less separation in your fried rice, you can stir another beaten egg straight into the rice at this point, it's optional though. If added, stir well, letting the egg cook through. Swirl in the soy sauce, and continue to toss the ingredients. Add the egg crepe, almonds, and cashews, then taste and work in more soy sauce if needed (or perhaps a bit of salt and pepper instead). Quickly turn out onto a platter to serve, sprinkled generously with chopped basil.
Serves 2-3 as a main course, more as part of a larger multi-course meal.
Prep time: 10 minutes - Cook time: 3 minutes
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Comments
i used to work with grace... she is amazing! i'll never forget the trip she led to chinatown (nyc) where she showed us the best spots for everything you could need for chinese cooking. you are so lucky to have a chance to work with her!
HS: Hi Bree - agreed! She's fantastic (and incredibly knowledgeable!). I always feel lucky to spend a bit of time with her.
Why is it that any recipe with the word 'cashew' in the title makes me start to drool a little? I'm growing sunchokes in the garden this summer and will definitely try this come harvest time.
I have never heard of some the ingredients here being used but it looks delicious!!
What a wonderful way to use up sunchokes!
I have been hankering after some stir-fried rice, so will definitely use this recipe. Would love too to get the recipe notes for the tofu/greens dish I see on the table, if that's not too cheeky?!
ooh, what a great new kitchen tool to have!
I am so excited to see a recipe with Sunchokes. I always look at them but never know what to do with them- so I haven't tried them. Thanks!
What a fabulous idea! This recipe is awesome!
So lucky to have her!!! WOW!! I too got mine from the Wok Shop in SF - they ship, folks! My dad has had his for goodness, over 40 years, and I'm hoping mine will last as long!
You have certainly inspired me to take cooking with a wok more seriously and to find one that I'll have for life. That picture of the woman in her 90s who has had the same wok since the 60s is amazing. It is truly remarkable to think about how many meals have been cooked on that one wok. And another beautiful recipe. I love the combinations of ingredients.
This looks like a great alternative to the usual fried rice! So much goodness and flavour.
Cooking the egg before everything else...that's what I've been missing all these years. I usually throw everything inside in one batch and cook it. From now on I'll know better!
I have a high carbon steel wok, bought on the dusty bottom shelf of an Asian grocery store some 6 years ago for $17 dollars, that is one of my two "in a fire" pans (my LC dutch oven being my other.) Grace's books, both of them, have been my wok bibles, full of practical, plainspoken techniques that always, always work. (Not to mention the recipes themselves, which always work, and delight.) My wok now has a gorgeous black sheen, which, yes, works as well as almost any non-stick skillet. (Save eggs. They are tough). My best seasoning tip? Every so often, in our home, a few times/year, deep fry something in your wok. Ricotta fritters, fritto misto (not exactly Chinese, either of these, but a wok's usefulness stretches way, way beyond its country of origin), anything that involves a few inches of hot bubbling oil. We don't eat this way most of the year, so the light, crisp whatever is always a treat. And the boiling oil mends any blemishes in the seasoning, and adds one more wink of gloss to the patina. Congratulations on your new baby! And happy wokking, Heidi. You will love it.
I have a lovely wok my friend bought me many years ago sitting at the back of my pan cupboard gathering dust. My stir fry's have never turned out very well but this post has convinced me to try again... thanks so much :)
I think I'm going to have let go of that nagging temptation to buy a $5 wok every time I walk through the kitchen department in Ikea. I love the simple approach you've shown to a seemingly complicated technique. You always inspire me to step outside my ethnic cilunary comfort zone!
I always thought there was more to stir frying than just throwing all your ingredients into a skillet at hoping for the best which is my current technique and this post has convinced me that I need to take the whole science slightly more seriously (and probably explains why some of my results are less than stellar...)
I don't quite know what I'm doing with woks and the stir-frys within--but this beautiful fried rice sounds well worth some practice! I live right down the peninsula, so maybe I should hop on the train and pay a visit to the Wok Shop sometime soon...
perfect timing on this post. we are in need of a wok, and i had no idea where to start (& absolutely love our cast iron pans). curious- did you get the 14"? ...also, wanted to tell you i made the sunflower butter the day after you posted it. SO incredibly delicious. the next day, i used it to make flourless sunflower butter cookies. Mmmmmm. :)
Sunchokes, peanut oil, cashews...oh it sounds wonderful and I get smelled divine while cooking!
This looks like my type of stir fry! Love the cashew nut in a speedy stir. A trusty old wok is like an old friend, you can always rely on it. I find seasoning mine, very therapeutic too :-)
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