Cooking with Nancy Drew: Asia & Stir Fry

Tour of Asia - Nancy Drew Style

Asian Stir Fry & Fried Rice

Take a tour of Asia with Nancy Drew and enjoy a delicious stir fry while you're at it! Here are four Nancy Drew books set in Asia - Hong Kong and Japan - where Nancy travelogues her way around the culture and sights and enjoys the local dishes!

#38 The Mystery of the Fire Dragon

Nancy stumbles upon a mystery involving a strange bookshop, codes in books, and a kidnapped Chi Che Soong (who her chum George manages to resemble strangely enough...) which leads the gang to Hong Kong to match wits with ruthless smugglers.

#56 The Thirteenth Pearl

Nancy finds herself touring Japan in this mystery involving a "pearl cult" front for an international ring of jewel thieves. We also learn that 4 + 9=13. Numerous times! 

Nancy Drew Files #96 Runaway Bride

Nancy's friend Midori is getting married so Nancy goes to Japan to attend the wedding--only the bride disappears before the wedding ceremony and Nancy must get to the bottom of her friend's disappearance.

Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys SuperMystery Tour of Danger

Nancy Drew tangles with smugglers again while the Hardy Boys are on the hunt for counterfeiters--and their cases are connected. Shocker!

Pork Fried Rice & Veggie Stir Fry

The key to stir fry is chopping--don't leave things too big--everything needs to be sliced so that it cooks fairly quickly. I used broccoli, yellow onion, green onion, mushrooms, snowpeas, water chestnuts, and bean sprouts in this veggie stir fry. Anything goes, so use your favorites. Broccoli cut into chunks has to be cooked a very long time to get to the right level of crispness--not enough and it still tastes raw. You don't want overcooked mushy broccoli either. So, slice each piece into thin pieces. Sometimes it's best to cook the broccoli to desired crispness and then transfer to a dish while cooking the rest of your veggies to ensure it doesn't get overcooked.

I have managed to time mine well in that I start off using some olive oil in a skillet or wok pan, add the broccoli and stir fry for several minutes then add the onion and water chestnuts for another minute or so, then the mushrooms and some green onions. I add the beansprouts and snowpeas at the last to ensure they're not overcooked as well--you want them to add a nice crunch. I add some soy sauce to add a bit of taste to everything. Then I add a little bit of water to the pan to create a rush of steam then take the pan off the burner and put on a lid to steam for about a minute or so. That usually sets everything. Then remove the lid as you don't want to keep cooking. There are stir fry sauces you can make up to add to your stir fry or good ones you can get at the store. Sesame oil, hot chile oil, oyster sauce, rice wine vinegar can liven up a stir fry.

For the fried rice, I cut up boneless pork chops either into small strips or small cubes, toss in a little bit of cornstarch and stir fry. Remove once done. Then you stir fry thinly sliced or shredded carrots until just done, remove from the pan. I stir fry green onions and add garlic, then a little dash of soy sauce. I usually push these to the edge of the pan and then add 2 eggs that have been whisked to the pan and let them set up for a few seconds then I take my spatula and start turning and chopping a bit until the eggs are the right consistency--I don't want fried eggs, but I don't want completely scrambled either. Back in goes the pork and carrots and the boiled rice. Then I add soy sauce to taste and stir fry this until it's nice and combined for several minutes. I always use the reduced sodium soy sauce.

Jenn:)