asian style tat soi and zucchini stir fry

food co-op stir fry

This dish was really simple, so it was sad that I screwed it up. I started off by trying to recreate a baked zucchini dish my dad and I invented last summer. I had sliced zucchini and summer squash sitting in the fridge, so I simply rubbed them with brown sugar and sesame oil laid them flat on a tray and baked them in the toaster oven. Looking back, I think my dad and I also used butter and salt and pepper. These want a significant amount brown sugar, and I think I skimped on it.

While these were the toaster, I chopped up some tat soi, leaves and stalks both, and sauteed them in hot vegetable oil with minced garlic and ginger. Since I had already used the sesame oil and ginger, I started to feel like my veggies were asian inspired, and decided to add some soy sauce. Usually, I only use soy to make fried rice, which can absorb a lot of soy flavor. The tat soi was overwhelmed by what I thought was a small glug of soy, and the dish became overpoweringly salty. To try and spread the soy around, I threw the zucchini and squash into the pan. Not only did this not particularly help, it also meant that I completely lost the brown sugar and sesame flavors. It was sad. Not terrible tasting, but disappointing nevertheless.


zucchini and tat soi with soy sauce, sesame oil and ginger

You might expect that I paired these veggies with some sticky rice, and if I had planned ahead, that's probably what I would have done. However, this wasn't so much a planned ahead dish as much as a "oh shit, these zucchini and summer squash slices have been sitting around since Sunday! and I need to use that tat soi!," so I ate it with leftover mac and cheese. The two made relatively strange bedfellows, but I was eating by myself and I wasn't too bothered by it.

It was my first time eating tat soi, and I liked it. I just wish I hadn't killed it with so much soy sauce. If the food co-op gives us more I may try this simple blanched and sauteed version. I also plan on trying my sesame brown sugar zucchini again, since it didn't work out so well this time. I think I just lost sight of the goal. Oops.