I am looking for some simple sauces for stir fries or anything to do with courgettes and oyster mushrooms that we need using up. We always have lots of random vegetables to use up and thought this would be the best way.

I have a simple recipe for courgettes with pasta.  You slice two medium onions and fry very gently on a low heat for 10 -15 minutes, add 2 cloves garlic crushed and fry for another couple of minutes, dice courgette and add to pan cook until tender.  Cook pasta.  Serve with grated Parmesan.

With the mushrooms you could cook in butter and have with toast, or have garlic mushrooms with jacket potatoes or make a pate or soup?

If I was making a stir fry I use sesame oil and would cook up with onion, fresh ginger, garlic and any other veg that I have all sliced very thinly, I add a Chinese spice mix that I have and some soya sauce towards the end.  I cook rice then in another pan heat up sesame oil fry two to three spring onions cut into slivers, then add the cooked rice and stir.  Beat one egg in a cup and add stirring in well, finally add a dash or two of soya sauce.

You don’t really need a recipe for stir-fries, though sustainablemum has provided a good framework!  In general you just want to:

1) make sure you do the whole thing on REALLY high heat, as high as your cooker will allow, in a wok if possible, working quickly (so get everything ready, chopped, etc. before you turn on the stove);

2) make sure your wok or pan is large enough so that your ingredients are not crowded in, or they will steam instead of stir frying—you don’t want the veggies releasing a lot of water;

3) use an oil suitable for very high heat (we use peanut or sunflower oil; never, ever use olive oil for stir fries!) and heat it almost to smoking point before adding in the first ingredients;

4) start with a combination of finely minced garlic, ginger, shallots, spring onions (just the white part; use the green as garnish at the end) or any combination of these (I sometimes just use one) and fry this until it turns golden but not brown;

5) put the veggies and meat in in the order in which they cook and leave the veggies slightly undercooked at the end; it will continue to cook in the heat of the wok for a bit (in your case, I’d put in the mushrooms first, then the courgettes after a few minutes as oyster mushrooms are quite delightful slightly charred in a stir fry, I’ve found);

6) keep seasonings as simple as possible and not too many: you can either use a premade stir-fry mix or just soy sauce or soy sauce+oyster sauce+toasted sesame oil (a favourite combination here) or oyster sauce+a bit of chili paste if you like heat;

7) mix the seasonings separately in a little bowl and stir them in at the end, after you turn the heat off, if you don’t want the green veggies discoloured;

8) finally, this is just me and I’m sure many here will disagree, but I am a purist and believe that stir-fries should always be served with white rice, never brown .

Hope this helps!

While there is a stirfry thread…...I cant eat soy sauce, just doesnt agee with me, I think it is probably the yeast element as other fermented things/most bread is also a problem. I have been meaning to ask if anyone has any alternative ideas?

Flower-try tamari. Most soy sauce has gluten in it but tamari shouldn’t (double check the tamari though as apparently some does have gluten in these days!)

Thankyou