Stir Fry

I'm going to have to improve my food presentation skills - it's just that after cooking the thing and having to photograph it before I can eat discourages me from making any further delaying efforts at pimping my plate.

Anyway, this is a pretty ordinary bowl of food, is it even right or proper to try to make it look otherwise?

The beans aren't quite as I wanted them, normally I drop them into a fierce heat to almost blacken before adding a good dollop of proprietary sweet chilli garlic sauce but I had no such sauce and the biggest gas ring on the cooker is inadequate for Chinese restaurant style cooking.

The celery, potato and almonds might make a dish worth recording though.

3 stalks of celery
1 medium waxy potato
2 cloves of garlic
2cm root ginger, finely chopped or grated
A pinch of sugar
Soy sauce
Pepper, ground white or black
A small handful of whole almonds (about 50g?)

Stir frying is all about the prep.

Peel your potato, it needs to be a salad or waxy variety or you'll be making stir fried mash. Make it into fine matchsticks or little slices like ready prepared bamboo shoots.

Top, tail and string, please string, your celery. I may be rubbish at food styling but even I draw the line at tooth flossing at the table. Then turn the sticks into similarly sized matchsticks to your potato.

In a wok or heavy frying pan dry fry your almonds until they are hot through and starting to pop. Remove from the pan and hold to one side until needed.

Heat some oil (peanut is good) in the pan until it's almost smoking. Then add your finely sliced garlic and grated ginger. After about 3 seconds of stirring about add the potato matchsticks and keep stirring until they are coated in the oil and flavourings. Cook for a further couple of minutes and then add the celery.

Stir again to combine, then add a couple of tablespoons of water, the pinch of sugar and a big splash of soy sauce. Add pepper at this point too if you like. Mix it up and allow the moisture to simmer away again. Check your potato is cooked through, it should be tender but still hold its shape, if not continue cooking until it is.

Add the almonds and serve.