This is my first time writing about food. Stir-fry is about the only thing I cook often, though I manage to keep it fresh enough by varying things here and there. I was in the mood for something a bit different, so I made up the following:

Ingredients

• 1 apple (used a Gala here, but whatever you like)
• 1 large yellow onion
• 1 pound of baby carrots
• 1 pound tofu, firm as you can get
• 1 tablespoon of ginger powder (or none, if you don’t like it)
• Extra virgin olive oil (just enough to coat pan)
• Textured vegetable protein, AKA TVP (about same quantity as tofu)
• Balsamic vinegar (a reasonable amount)
• Soy sauce (less than the amount of vinegar)
• Raw sugar (to your liking)

Method

Start with the olive oil, along with a small amount of soy sauce and a fair amount of vinegar, at medium-low heat. Then add in the apple, cut into very small pieces. Wait a few minutes so the pan can think about the apples and make them warm. You know you’ve added too much soy sauce or vinegar at this point if you are unable to smell anything apple-related. Heat should be around medium.

Next comes the onion and the carrots, both chopped at a small but not ridiculously small size. Get the heat up to medium-high, then add the sugar. In Starbucks terms, we’re talking somewhere on the order of four or five packets-worth, unless you love/hate sugar in which case vary accordingly. There should always be some some sauce (liquid) at the bottom of the pan, and you should constantly be smelling to get a sense of what proportions you have in there. Ginger powder can go in at this step (or earlier, if you want it to be more prominent).

After about ten minutes of cooking, you can then toss in the TVP. The carrots may not be cooked quite as much as you’d like it by this point, in which case a) go for a longer time at medium heat, or b) pre-cook the carrots a bit more. TVP soaks up most of the liquid in the pan since it can generally take on twice its volume in water. Add in some extra vinegar or soy sauce, to smell, especially if there is no sauce left. Tofu, cubed, can now go in the mix. Heat level should be medium-high to high, as long as there is always enough sauce at the bottom of the pan at all times.

As with any stir-fry, you’re only doing half the job if you never stir what’s in the pan. Move things around enough so that it’s heated evenly, and that nothing is getting burned.

Stir-fry disclaimer

There’s a reasonable amount of ambiguity in the above, though I’m not doing that to just be a jerk. The exact amounts do not particularly matter. It is much more important to use your nose to direct the amounts in the way that you like. In the worst case, be conservative and turn down the heat. Let the mixture warm enough, stir everything around, and smell. If you do not smell what you are making, it most likely will not come out any good.

This is my first real time experimenting with the above combination, and it came out really, really well. I placed the final result on a re-heated (microwaved) bed of white rice, though I’m sure it’d work well with pasta or on its own.