Index

Prepare the tofu and vegetable ingredients ahead of time. Group the vegetables in bowls according to cooking time they need. I put the carrots and green beans in one group which needs to cook the longest, green pepper, celery and onions in a second group which doesn't need to cook quite so long, mushrooms in a third group. It helps if everything is at room temperature when it's ready to go in the pan.

Heat the fry pan to something over medium hot and start some water boiling for the noodles. Once the fry pan is heated up, put in the oil and the first bowl of vegetables and stir and fry for a few minutes. Then add the second group and stir and fry another few minutes. Then the third group etc. In the midst of all this, when the noodle water boils, turn it off and put in the udon noodles. Back at the fry pan, put in the tofu and tamari and keep stirring and frying for a few minutes. Finally drain the noodles and put them in and stir and fry for another few minutes. Shovel it all out onto your plate and eat it.

Although my mother did a few demos for me when I was younger, I pretty much stayed away from stir fry as too exotic for my cooking abilities. However, in the summer of 2002 or so, at the Hadley branch of Whole Foods, I ran across a Pad Thai instant meal which looked interesting (and I think I had a coupon for it or it was on sale), so I bought it. When I brought it home, I was shocked to find it expected me to stir fry things. So I decided to try even though I'd heard an electric stove is not the ideal environment, and I knew my cast-iron fry pan was only a poor approximation to a wok. The result was good enough that I continued with the above recipe. I'd get the mix again, but I can't find the sort I originally purchased which had the flavors in dried form in a packet. I can only find it with a packaged sauce now which seems over-packaged to me.

My main reason for putting together this recipe is so I can remember what sort of vegetables to use. Seems I always leave something out. Other good things to put in are cabbage or broccolli. The carrots are good for color as well as taste. Cranberry sauce served with this tastes good and adds another color. A bit of chopped seaweed and crushed garlic can be substituted for the tamari and put in earlier. Chopped tomatoes can be added with the tofu. Leave out the noodles and serve over rice. I still need to add more on quantities and timing.