Thai Stir Fry a la Chef Michael

Tonight I decided to take a break from my new cookbook. I was in the mood for Michael's famous stir fry, so I asked him to teach me how he makes it. He wasn't allowed to touch anything...only to walk me through it. He won't be HGTV's Next Food Network Star or anything, but he was a decent teacher.

I don't have an actual recipe to share, but I can summarize and you can play with it if you want to make your own. We started with a bit of sesame oil in a pan (you can use any kind of oil really). When it got hot, I added a little garlic (I used two cloves) and let that sit for a minute. Then I added a "heaping teaspoon" of yellow thai curry paste. This adds a LOT of the flavor. If you like things spicy, use red curry paste instead...it adds a lot of heat. The yellow curry paste adds lots of flavor with only a little heat. If you use red curry paste, you'd probably want to use about half as much as if you use yellow. Then we added our meat (we used sirloin, cubed) and cooked it until browned on all sides but definitely not done. I removed the meat in a separate bowl (it will keep cooking while resting) and put sweet potatoes in instead. They were cut thin and quartered and needed about 12 minutes to cook. Every few minutes, I'd sprinkle on a little water or soy sauce, to sort of steam the sweet potatoes. Then came the baby corn and bamboo shoots, then mushrooms, then snow peas. After the veggies were pretty well done, I added the meat back in and also some soy sauce, and some oyster sauce. Michael usually adds a little Mirin but we were out and I didn't really notice the difference in the end. Then, I added some chopped cilantro, a dash of nutmeg, a little ginger, and some turmeric. And some cashew nuts, which added a really nice texture. I served it over rice, but there wasn't a ton of liquid so it probably didn't need the rice. Obviously you can use whatever veggies you like. I hate cooked onions and peppers, but they'd probably be good in here.

We both wound up rating it 4.5 stars. It was pretty easy, though it took some time to prep all the veggies. And also pretty healthy, especially if not served over rice. AND there's enough for leftovers tomorrow. Yay.

Tuesday we have a dorm parent BBQ on campus and I need to decide what to make for that. I could make the Asian Slaw I like so much, but I have made it twice already. It's hard to make a protein/entree for that many people...tricky. Maybe I'll do a fancy dessert! Any suggestions out there?