Summer Vegetable Stir Fry

Rainy season isn't the best time to find a variety of Vegetables. Especially if you are doing non deshi cooking, the cauliflowers and broccolis of the world are a little hard to come by. I have been experimenting a bit with the more common veggies like Chal Kumra (Gourds), Mishti Kumra - Green ones (Pumpkin), Borboti (string beans), Raw Papaya etc. for making stir fries and so far they have turned out quite nice. Of course there is always the canned button mushrooms (thank god for those) and now you can get very good fresh baby corns almost all year round along with bean sprouts. So today's installment is an easy stir fry veg that you can make it vegetarian or non-vegetarian depending on your choice!

Stir-Fry Vegetable in Oyster Sauce
(serves 4-5)

Raw Papaya thinly sliced into 1/2 inch long pieces - 1/2 cup
Bean Sprouts - 1/2 cup to 1 cup
String beans cut into 1/3 inch pieces - 1/2 cup
Baby corn cut into 1/3 inch pieces - 1/2 cup
Canned button mushroom diced - 1/2 cup
Raw Ginger finely diced - 1 1/2 Tablespoon
Oyster sauce - 1 tablespoon
Soy sauce - 2 tablespoon
Sesame oil - 1 1/2 teaspoon
Spring onion (only the green part) finely chopped - 2-3 tablespoon
Oil (I prefer light oils like corn/cannolla/sunflower oil) - 2 tablespoon
Salt to taste
Boiling water - 3 cups

Heat water till it is boiling in a pot, add the raw papaya, string beans, baby corn and boil them till they are just lightly tender. You need to make sure you don't over cook them, they should be half cooked. Alternatively you can also steam them over the stove or on the microwave. To steam in the microwave simply sprinkle some water on the vegetable and stick it in the microwave for about a minute or two.

In a small bowl mix the oyster sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil and set aside.

Heat the oil in a wok/karai add the ginger, fry for half a minute. Add the spring onion, fry for another minute.

Add the mushroom and fry for 2 minutes.

Add the steamed/boiled vegetable along with the bean sprouts and cook till the sprouts wilt and the raw smell is gone.

Finally add the sauce mixture and cook for another 1-2 minutes coating the vegetable throughly. Check for seasoning. Add some salt or some soy sauce to adjust the seasoning. Since soy sauce usually has a lot of salt, I usually adjust my final seasoning once I put the sauce in.

Serve hot over rice or noodles. ENJOY!!!

Note: You can add other vegetable and bean curd (tofu) to this as well. Just make sure you steam/boil vegetable partially before adding them.

To add chicken or beef, thinly slice the meat and marinate them in a mixture of soy sauce, chopped ginger and sesame oil. Add the meat when you add the mushroom and add the other vegetable only after the meat is cooked.

To make the dish a bit spicy, add some chili sauce or chili oil to the soy sauce-sesame oil-oyster sauce mixture.