Seafood Medley Stir-Fry

The beauty of Asian stir fry dishes is, your imagination is the limit in terms of what ingredients to include! Here is a relatively simple seafood medley - in addition to (or instead of) the items I've listed below, you could use things like sliced bamboo shoots, scallops, baby corn, green and red peppers - or whatever else tickles your fancy!

What you'll need:

Makes 2 servings

• 1 lb shrimp, scallops, and / or cuttlefish
• 1/4 cup snow peas
• 1/4 cup carrots
• 1 can (15 oz) peeled straw mushrooms
• 1 stalk scallion
• 1 small ginger root
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 Tbsp canola oil

Sauce:

• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1 Tbsp cold water

As with many Asian dishes, preparation is 90% of the time and effort, the actual cooking is the easy part!

First, wash and prepare the vegetables:

Snap off both tips of each snow pea with your fingers. You may be able to pull a tough string off along the top of the pod, as shown. Wash the snow peas in cool water, drain, and set aside.

Pare the carrots, wash, and slice diagonally.

Cut the scallion into 1" long pieces.

Thinly slice the ginger root, and mince the garlic.

Next, wash and prepare the seafood:

Slice the cuttlefish into 1" x 2" pieces. Cuttlefish can tend to be a bit chewy, so to alleviate this, using a sharp knife, score one side of each piece in a criss-cross pattern as shown, going about half the thickness of the cuttlefish.

Peel, devein and wash the shrimp.

Rinse scallops and pat dry.



In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients for the sauce and mix well, set aside.



And finally, you're ready to cook!

Heat canola oil in a wok. Add scallion, garlic and ginger, and stir fry over high heat until fragrant, about 10 seconds.

Add seafood and stir fry until it is about half-done (seafood will begin to turn from translucent to opaque).

Add vegetables and continue to stir fry until seafood is fully cooked, about 1 minute depending on quantity.



Pour sauce in and mix well until everything is evenly coated. Remove from wok and place in a covered serving dish (if you leave everything in the wok, even with the flame turned off it will continue to cook and become over-done).

Serve over steamed white rice.