So Many Dishes

I read a very interesting article in the Washington Post a few days ago about repeating recipes. The author’s contention was that, in addition to making meal planning decisions easier, it also is one way we can improve our cooking skills. The ideas are interesting, but it also got me thinking about how Ken and I plan our menu.

I’m a planner. I don’t walk into the kitchen at 5:00pm, survey what’s in the fridge, and then decide on a meal. What actually happens is that Ken and I sit down either Monday or Tuesday evening and plan a menu for the upcoming week. We pull out cookbooks, my recipe files, the planners from the last few years where I record what we’ve cooked each day and choose what we’d like to eat. From that menu, I’ll build a grocery list for our primary shopping trip. (It’s a rare week that I make only one visit to one store).

Maybe 40 years ago, I read that every household should have three weeks’ worth of recipes to cook on repeat. Even then I thought that 21 recipes was a really small number. These days, we might cook one of the recipes we really love four times in a year.

Reading the article made me wonder if I’m cooking more new recipes so that I can blog about them. I decided to look at a couple of my older recipe diaries and compare them to what I’ve been cooking since I started blogging. I thought that perhaps I’m choosing more new recipes, so that I have something different to share. I realize that the proportion of new recipes to old ones is about the same. But it also reminded me that there are a lot of recipes that we tried once, said “let’s make that again,” and then just forgot about.

Potsticker and vegetable stir fry falls into that category. Winter/spring of 2023-24 was a tough few months for Ken, as he dealt with a medical issue. He got a lot of help from a wellness practice that specializes in his type of issue, and we’re fortunate that his problem has been resolved. In the midst of that journey, we had a consultation with the nutritionist that worked with the practice. She recommended a more plant-focused diet, so we followed her suggestions. We ultimately decided that the dietary changes didn’t really affect Ken’s recovery, and that neither of us is cut out to be a vegetarian. But it was an interesting exercise, and we found some good recipes, including this one.

I found the recipe in one of the Cooking Light special issues that they have published since the magazine ceased monthly publication. This one was called Eat More Veggies. I cooked it once—March 21, 2024, according to what I wrote in the magazine. Even though it was the first time I made it, I made a change, substituting green beans for the sugar snap peas called for. It’s obviously a versatile recipe. It’s the cover photo, and that picture shows broccoli was included, even though there’s none in the recipe.

Although I hadn’t cooked this dish in over two years, it popped to mind immediately when I saw frozen potstickers in the case at BJ’s recently. It was the perfect meal for last evening. We’re headed out tomorrow for a week at the beach, and I’ve been trying to use up the produce in the fridge. I didn’t have any cabbage and wasn’t going to buy a head; I knew I’d end up leaving half in the fridge while we were gone. We made do with half of a bell pepper, although we both wished we’d had more. I added celery to the mushrooms and snap peas, and we were good.

Cooking this dish requires two pans. I pan fried the potstickers according to the package directions while I started stir frying the vegetables. It really didn’t take long to cook, since I had the veggies and sauce ingredients prepped.

Potsticker and Vegetable Stir-Fry

• 6 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons dry sherry
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 16 frozen potstickers
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 8- ounce package mushrooms, sliced
• 1 bunch scallions, sliced, whites and greens separated
• 1 bell pepper, sliced
• 4 cups coarsely shredded Napa cabbage
• 2 cups sugar snap peas, trimmed
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Whisk water, sherry, oyster sauce, soy sauce, and cornstarch in a small bowl until smooth. Set aside.

Prepare potstickers according to the pan-fry directions on the package. Transfer to a plate.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a wok over medium-high. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until brown, 4 to 6 minutes. Add scallion whites and bell pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until bell pepper is tender-crisp, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in cabbage, snap peas, ginger, and garlic; cook, stirring, just until peas are bright green and cabbage begins to wilt, about 1 minute. Stir sauce and add to wok along with potstickers. Simmer, gently stirring, for 1 minute. Serve topped with scallion greens. Makes 4 servings.

I managed to time things so that the potstickers finished cooking just a minute before I needed to put them in the wok, soi just moved the pan off heat until I was ready to transfer them. I had chicken and vegetable potstickers, but you can make this a completely vegetarian dish with vegetable potstickers.

We won’t make this next week, but we won’t be waiting two years to do this again. Happy eating!