It’s no secret that I love to cook, but that doesn’t mean I always have time to cook what I’d like.  There are days when I’m feeling rushed and I’m missing ingredients.  We have our fill of hot dog and chicken nugget days. Should I have my druthers, we would have cereal for dinner more often.  The other day, time was running away from me.  I had prepped some Japanese eggplant and thrown a few cups of rice in my rice cooker, but I hadn’t started on my sauce (usually a mix of fresh ginger, garlic, hoisin sauce and soy sauce).  As if on cue, in walks my husband, with a giant box that had been sitting at my door unbeknownst to me.  I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for Blue Dragon. I received product samples and a promotional item to thank me for my participation.
I forgot that I had submitted a request to work with Blue Dragon Foods. 

After opening my box, and perusing what was in it.  I did what I do with all foods, flipped over the sauce packet to read the ingredients.  “It probably has guar gum or some kind of junk in it.” I thought to myself as I’ve recently noticed I have an averse reaction to guar gum and it seems to be added to everything these days.  I kept reading and did a little dance, as I realised that the ingredient list was just about everything I would use in my own homemade sauce with no extra additives.  And, in minutes dinner was served.

A basic formula I like to use when I make stir fry at home requires just a few things: rice, vegetables, fresh ginger (if you have it), and some tofu or meat.  Make the pan or wok very hot before you start, and use these additional tips and tricks.

1) Make rice.

If you want to be extra fancy make gingered rice, just add a few slices of ginger and a Tablespoon or so of soy sauce on top of your rice before you put the rice on to cook on the stove or the rice cooker.

2) Chop up your favourite vegetables into bite size pieces.

I love to use string beans, Japanese eggplant, snow peas, baby bok choy. mushrooms, and broccoli.

3) Grate a little fresh ginger into the sauce.

4) Add a little tofu or meat.

I love soft tofu.  I like to cube it and gently toss it in at the end.  If I’m adding chicken or beef I will brown it before I cook the vegetables and then set it aside to add at the end and finish cooking with the vegetables and sauces.

5) My sauce trick is to pour about 1/3 of your sauce onto the vegetables as they are cooking so that it can thicken and glaze the vegetables.  The liquid will also help soften the harder vegetables like carrots and green beans. Then, once everything is cooked and well coated, add the rest of the sauce and the meat or tofu to finish.

Blue Dragon Sauces are available in several different flavors including Broccoli Beef, Phad Thai, Szechuan Pepper, Chow Mein and General Tao. If you’d like to try Blue Dragon foods for yourself, head over to Market Basket in Waltham, Athol, or Bedford, NH on February 27th from 11-6 pm, for one of Blue Dragon’s tasting events. Or, enter to win a lot of your own here.

 
Enter here for your chance to win Blue Dragon sauces, a wok and stir fry kit.