Fish and Vegetable Stirfry

If you don't know her already, let me be the first to introduce you to a Canadian celebrity chef, Christine Cushing. When we were planning our Tried, Tested and True Two event, we knew that we wanted to give prizes, but didn't feel qualified to make an objective opinion. I don't know if it was Giz or me, but the suggestion to ask Christine to judge this event happened very quickly. Giz is not really a timid person (incase you couldn't tell...), so she sent off an e-mail and next thing I knew, Christine had agreed to participate as a guest judge for this event. She's also donated her products as prizes. Pretty awesome!

Christine has written three cookbooks. You can read about them here or here.

We in Canada also know her as a die-hard hockey fan supporting the Toronto Maple Leafs. (I won't hold it against her)

Christine is not a stranger to charitable causes. She has also endorsed Kitchen Aid and Cook For the Cure. Cook For the Cure is a charity that supports Breast Cancer research.

She's also a big advocate for fresh, healthy food. You can see her, below, giving her food tips for shopping for fresh, healthy food in the Fall:



The first Christine Cushing recipe we'd like to showcase is:

Fish and Vegetable Stir Fry
Yield: 6



Serve this stir fry with rice noodles or steamed rice. Make sure to prep all your vegetables and measure out all the ingredients before you start stir frying so that you can add ingredients to the wok without delay.

Ingredients:

Fish

1 lb. halibut, cut into 3/4-inch cubes (454 g)
1/2 tbsp cornstarch (7 ml)
1 x egg white
2 tsp sherry (10 ml)
1 tsp orange zest (5 ml)
1/4 cup vegetable oil or safflower oil (60 ml)

Vegetables
1 tbsp vegetable oil or safflower oil (15 ml)
1 tsp sesame oil (5 ml)
1 x carrot, sliced thin on the diagonal
1 x stalk celery, sliced on the diagonal
1 1/2 cups broccoli florets (375 ml)
1 x small red onion, thinly sliced
1 cup shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced (250 ml)
3 tbsp minced garlic (45 ml)
1 1/2 tbsp minced ginger (22 ml)
fresh chili or chili flakes, to taste
1 cup snow peas (250 ml)
1/2 cup bean sprouts (125 ml)
3 tbsp tamari (45 ml)
2 tsp sherry (10 ml)
1 tbsp brown sugar (15 ml)
2 tbsp rice vinegar (30 ml)
3/4 cup chicken stock, for slurry (175 ml)
1 tbsp cornstarch, for slurry (15 ml)
1 tsp orange zest (5 ml)

Directions:

Fish

Combine the egg white, sherry, orange zest and cornstarch. Marinate the cubes of fish for 30 minutes. Heat oil to 350 degrees F. Blanch fish in oil for 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to plate. Discard oil or use of this 2 tbsp. of this oil to stir fry vegetables.

Vegetables

Combine the chicken stock and cornstarch to make a slurry.

Heat vegetable oil and sesame oil in a wok until almost smoking. Add the carrots and celery and stir fry over high heat, about 1 minute. Add the broccoli, stir fry another minute. Add the garlic, ginger, red onion and shiitake mushrooms, stir fry another minute. Add brown sugar, sherry, tamari, rice wine vinegar. Stir the slurry and then add to stir fry. When liquid comes to a boil, add the blanched fish and snow peas and stir gently to combine, cook for another 1 to 2 minutes, until fish is cooked through. Add orange zest and stir. Garnish with bean sprouts.

The verdict: So good! For those who aren't too sure about fish, you wouldn't even know it was fish in this dish. Chicken would work really well also. The key, as the recipe says is in the prep. Once you have everything ready, the cooking only really takes minutes.

I did alter a couple of the ingredients. I cut back the Tamari sauce (for the sake of the sodium) and didn't have Shitake mushrooms so I used sliced button mushrooms. The Shitake mushrooms are far more flavourful and would be terrific in this recipe.



If you haven't seen it already, the announcement for the upcoming Tried, Tested and True event can be found here