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Ginger-Shiitake Celery Stir-Fry
A celery salad from “A Spoonful of Ginger” by Nina Simonds inspired this stir-fry. The unique flavor of celery mellows and sweetens slightly with cooking and partners perfectly with nutty sesame oil, peppery ginger and the umami notes of soy sauce and shiitake mushrooms. Chinese chili bean sauce, or toban djan, is a spicy, salty fermented mixture of soybeans, broad beans and chilies that gives this stir-fry lots of character; it’s sold in jars in Asian grocery stores and in the international aisle of some supermarkets. If not available, use an equal amount of chili-garlic sauce; its sharper, more garlicky flavor gives the dish a slightly different, but still delicious, taste profile.
4
Servings
Don’t forget to reserve the scallion whites and greens separately, as they are added at different times in the recipe. Also, don’t use regular soy sauce, especially if using chili bean paste; both are high in sodium and combined may make the dish too salty (chili-garlic sauce is less salty than chili bean paste, so if using it, regular soy sauce is fine).
30 minutes
Ingredients
-
2
tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
-
1
tablespoon chili bean sauce (toban djan) or chili-garlic sauce (see note)
Directions
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01In a small bowl, stir together the vinegar, chili bean sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, white pepper and ¼ cup water; set aside. In a 12-inch skillet over medium-high, heat the grapeseed oil until shimmering. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, beginning to brown, 4 to 6 minutes.
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GET DIGITAL & PRINTFirst time using low sodium soy sauce and this recipe really worked well. The flavor was not muted and liked the toothy texture of thin diagonally sliced celery in this. I normally do not care for celery in most Chinese stir fries as I considered it fillers and overcooked. The addition of tobanjan gave this recipe more than just heat with its broad bean funkiness. I used third to half of tobanjan and it was plenty spicy for us. I briefly cooked celery slices to retain its color and some texture. Added small amount of dry shrimp to sauce as well as julienned kamaboko ie fish cake common in Japan and Hawaii to boost the overall umami.
I am not generally a celery fan... but this is really good!