Moon Wok

Stir-frying up some lunar luck

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From Karyl’s Cook & Tell Newsletter (March 1986)

Daughter Amie said we ought to have a Chinese menu this month. In fact, she was insistent. The Kid is sovereign over a kitchen of her own, and a very good cook (but yes, dear, in that meat loaf recipe, where it says to soak the bread in the water and “add it to the meat mixture,” it means to add the bread, not the water) so how could I object?

She said the menu should be easy, so everybody could learn how much fun stir-frying is. Besides, it’s shrimp season in Maine¹, so why not celebrate with a shrimp stir-fry, she said, offering this one from a Junior League cookbook I gave her.

Then I said, hey, it’s also Chinese New Year season, so there was no way to avoid a Chinese menu, because as long as we’re celebrating, let’s celebrate the Chinese part too, I said. Furthermore, said The Mother to The Kid, let’s wind up the Real Meal section with REAL fortune cookies like you never get in Chinese restaurants! And The Kid said Great! Send me the recipe.

Okay, Amie, here it is. They are worth the fuss, incredibly delicate and delicious. I took a tin of them to our local Chinese eatery and passed them around after dinner—waitress, hostess, chef and all. To ensure good fortune, stuff the cookies with messages that promise all the things you’ve ever wanted.

illustration by my mom, Karyl Bannister

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Amie’s Headnotes

Chinese New Year, more broadly known as Lunar New Year, is a 15-day festival marking the first new moon of the lunisolar calendar which signals spring’s arrival. Celebrated across Asia and worldwide, it focuses on family reunions, honoring ancestors, (hi, Mom! 👋) and new beginnings through food, red decorations, and fireworks for luck.

The traditional feast includes a whole fish to signify abundance; instead, we’re bringing you a simple shrimp stir fry, along with the uninspiringly-named-yet-unbelievably-tasty broccoli dish I’ve been making since my teens. And if I actually did make my mom’s fortune cookies in the little kitchen of my cabin on Lucerne Lake—the last place I lived in Maine before I moved out West—I’ve forgotten. There’s so much of those years I’ve forgotten.

STIR-FRIED SHRIMP AND PEA PODS

• 3 T. vegetable oil

• 1 t. fresh ginger, minced, or ½ t. ground

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• 1 lb raw shrimp, peeled and deveined

• 6 oz. pea pods, fresh or frozen

• 1 4-oz. can sliced water chestnuts, drained

• 1/3 c. chicken stock

• 1 T. soy sauce

• 1 t. sugar

• 1 T. sherry

Heat oil in wok or skillet with ginger and garlic. Add shrimp and stir-fry 1 ½ min. Add pea pods and water chestnuts; stir-fry for 2 more min. Add remaining ingredients and stir-fry 2 min. Serve over rice.

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Endnotes: What I’m (Not) Reading

In support of authors and the seemingly dying species of actual, real-life books, I’ve been on a pre-ordering binge of the latest offerings from my favorite food writers and micro storytellers.

Arriving later this month: The Irish Goodbye, by Beth Ann Fennelly.

In March, from Luanne Castle, whom I wrote with at the Tucson Book Festival workshop a few years back, a memoir in flash: Scrap: Salvaging a Family.

And finally, in April, the long-awaited Italian Cookies cookbook from Domenica Marchetti and Alicia Kennedy’s On Eating: The Making and Unmaking of My Appetites.

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By the way, Happy Mardi Gras! If you’re hankering for some Fat Tuesday flavor, here’s the official Cook & Tell Jambalaya Recipe.

And here’s a couple shots from the best meal of the official Cook & Tell Palm Springs Galentine’s Weekend, Cinnamon Swirl French Toast at Rick’s Restaurant; check out Bob Hope and his ham in the background.

Your Pantry Pals,

Amie & Karyl

The Cook & Tell Library | Recipe Index | Owner’s Manual | Notes | the micro mashup | instagram

1. The shrimp population in the Gulf of Maine has declined sharply and remains critically low primarily due to warming water. The moratorium on shrimp fishing through at least 2028 has been in place since 2014.