Tuesday, March 3, 2009

All right, I need some help - who has an answer for me?

I am married to a man who loves Chinese food. Which means that every time he gets a craving, we have two choices:

1) We can go out and get good Chinese food.

2) I can make Chinese food, and then 10 minutes after we try it, we can go out and get good Chinese food.

Because I am not good at making Chinese food.

I would say that most people who know me, or at least the people who have lived near me and been invited to dinner, would say I'm a pretty good cook. I can make pretty much anything, and it usually turns out pretty good, sometimes even great. It's all about identifying great recipes, really.

But I have not had any success with Chinese food. Sure, I've made lots of stir-fries (beef, chicken, shrimp - you name it), and while they're healthy and packed with veggies, they just don't taste anything like what you get in a Chinese restaurant. We've decided it's all about the sauce, and I just haven't found any recipes with that good restaurant-like stir-fry sauce.

So I'm putting this out there: do you have a stir-fry recipe with good sauce that tastes (almost) as good as a chinese restaurant? If so, email it to me. Our budget depends on it!

(Yes, I'll settle for almost. I'm being realistic here, and know that it will never be as good a the restaurant.)

6 comments:

AnJ. said...

No help here. Did I tell you about the time I tried to make cream cheese stuffed wontons and basically scarred one of my pans for life?

Sometimes you can find sneaky restaurant recipes online. Do a search for PF Changs recipes and see what happens.

Mandy said...

No help here, either. If you do find something though, you have to share!

Kar said...

I love, love, love Chinese food! I don't know if mine is very "authentic," but I have some tried-and-true (and easy) recipes. I'll scan them when I go home for lunch and e-mail them to you.

DaNae said...

I have my sweet and sour and Aunt Karlene's chow main and a couple of other one's I think.

Janene said...

ok, Chinese has always been my have-to-eat-out choice because it scares me to try. I've tried a few without success. A lot of times I'm so tired of the odor after cooking it that the food doesn't seem to measure up. But the other night, I had a little taste of homemade chinese success. Beef Szechwan stir fry and it was actually rather good! I will email you the recipe.

also found one I'm going to try in the 7th ward cookbook - one of Connie's called Orange Honey chicken. I'll email you that too.

Becky said...

I don't have a stir-fry recipe, but if you click on the link that says "Knock-off recipes" on our blog and then do a search on her blog for lettuce wraps from either P.F. Changs or Cheesecake factory...oh man. They are delicious! And I tell you this because the sauce with them was really really good and might be something you could use or alter...or you might find a recipe with sauce specifically for stir-fry on there. I'm too lazy or I'd look for you, heh.