awesomely spicy stir-fry

Those who frequent my blog will note that typically, Dan is the stir-fry chef in our house. He makes a mean stir-fry, but his secret is relying on bottled kung pao stir fry sauce . . . tonight, the "scratch-ist" in me wanted to try my hand at my own stir-fry sauce, and it turned out SPECTACULARLY! Here is my version of Dan's stir-fry, with my awesomely spicy sauce:



Order of stir-fry preparation:

1. Start rice, unless you cooked a bunch of rice ahead of time. :) Press tofu.

2. Make sauce: puree 1/4 cup low-sodium soy or tamari, 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil, 2 tablespoons flax oil, 1 tablespoon chili-garlic paste (use much less if you're sensitive to heat, or more, if you prefer!), 1 tablespoon ketchup (or tomato paste, but I didn't have any open,) 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 2 cloves garlic, 1 small piece of fresh ginger, and 1 tsp cornstarch.

3. Heat wok. Add peanut oil and heat. Fry tofu cubes until golden. Remove from wok and drain on paper towels.

4. Fry veggies in an order that makes sense. (Tonight, I did the following: onion, mushroom, carrot, pea pods, green peppers. Essentially, you want to add the veggies in order from longest-cooking to shortest-cooking.)

5. Add tofu cubes back to wok. Add sauce. Boil and stir the sauce for 1 to 2 minutes, or until it thickens and clears slightly.

6. Serve! Enjoy!

Stir-fry seems like such a "classic" to me that posting "directions" seems a little silly. Oh well! What are your stir-fry secrets/tips/tricks?