Frannie's Cashew Stir-Fry

What Alice Forgot - Recipe #2

Frannie is Alice's grandmother figure, who practically raised Alice and Libby after their mother fell into a deep depression following their father's death. After Alice suffers head trauma and can no longer remember the past 10 years of her life, she is overwhelmed with relief when she sees that Frannie, unlike every other person around her, hasn't seemed to have changed a bit. 

In What Alice Forgot, many of the chapters are presented as letters from Frannie, written to her past love, Phil. During one of the dedicated Frannie chapters, she reminisces about the time when Alice and Libby were young girls growing up next door to her and had just become her de-facto grandchildren, of a sort. She describes a time when she would take the girls to their favorite Chinese restaurant - which sparked the idea for this recipe, Frannie's Cashew Stir-Fry. 

Since reading this book, I have done a lot of reading about Australian cuisine, and found that much of it is heavily influenced by Asian traditional cooking. This makes perfect sense geographically, as Australia is so close to Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines - and if you go a bit further north, you'll hit Japan, Korea, and China! Much of the immigrant population in Australia hails from these nations, and their cuisine is now as much of an Australian staple as a good old pavlova (recipe coming soon!).

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup soy sauce (low sodium is preferable, or coconut aminos if you are avoiding soy)

• 1/4 cup rice vinegar

• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

• 2 tablespoons coconut sugar (add more or less to taste)

• 2 tablespoons pineapple juice

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 2 tablespoons peanut oil

• 1 large carrot, thinly sliced into rounds (or grated, if you prefer)

• 2 stalks celery, diced

• 1 small thinly sliced onion

• 1/2 cup raw sugar snap peas

• 1 baby bok choy (white part chopped with greens removed and discarded)

• 1 cup broccoli and/or broccolini, chopped

• 1 green bell pepper, chopped

• 1 red bell pepper, chopped

• 1 small can water chestnuts (chopped, if you prefer smaller pieces)

• 1/3 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms

• 1/2 cup whole, unsalted, raw cashews

Instructions

1. Mix soy sauce, vinegar, and cornstarch in a bowl until it forms a unified sauce (cornstarch should be dissolved)

2. Add remaining ingredients up until peanut oil, and stir well to incorporate

3. Add sauce to a large pan or wok, and bring to a simmer over medium heat

4. Add onions, celery, and carrots, and simmer in sauce for 5 minutes (sauce should have thickened and reduced a bit)

5. Add all remaining ingredients and cook over medium heat until all veggies are soft (10 min)

6. Continue to stir fry over medium for about 20 min

7. Serve over rice or rice noodles (or plain!)

8. Enjoy!