In the UK our Chinese take-away often comes in re-usable plastic containers. They are ideal for leftovers, or freezing, or doing food to give away.
They are also perfect for Mise en Place. This is a French culinary term for gathering everything for a recipe together.
I have found it, and the take-away containers, invaluable when doing stir-fry.
In days gone by I'd do the whole meal in one go, and it always turned out a bit stodgy and unsatisfying. Now, I prepare and seperate the ingredients into individual portions and do one at a time.
For those worried about not everyone eating at the same time, serve the slowest eaters first.
Today I was doing stir-fry beef with green beans, tenderstem broccoli, shallots, garlic, and brown rice.
While the rice was cooking I split the pre-marinaded beef into portions & prepped & split the veg. When the rice was cooked I portioned that.
The prepped and portioned ingredients made adding them to the wok nice and simple.
And the finished dish only lacked some fresh sibies (scallions or spring onions for the non-Scots), which I forgot to buy, and/or sesame seeds, which I do have in but just forgot about.
text and pictures by stuartcturnbull