broccolini stir fry
Rachel SimpsonA certain person at the dinner table was annoyed at the lack of meat in this Broccolini Stir Fry. Others were not.

"There's egg," I said. "Egg is not meat," I was told. "Egg is egg and meat is meat." In my opinion, egg is protein, which makes it the same as meat. And we each had basically 1 1/3 eggs in this dish, so I don't see the problem. And hello, I am the only one in this family who actually knows anything about nutrition and nutritional values (I have to, I'm diabetic).

That certain person -- who can't imagine a life without rare steak every other day -- said he'd rate this dish only 3 1/2 stars. The two other people at the table – me and my daughter Michaela -- gave it 5 stars and 17 1/2 stars (on a scale of 1 to 5.)

I liked it a lot. So did Michaela, obviously. She had two helpings within about 5 minutes and then spent the rest of the evening stalking the leftovers -- we weren't sure if my husband was going to have a second helping or not. And I think he had some fun telling her he wasn't sure yet. Michaela even came into my home office after dinner and repeated to me how good she thought the stir fry was. "It's addictive, Mom. Did you put something in it to make me keep wanting more?" Yeah, and it wasn't MEAT!

I've never made a stir fry with egg, but the result was nice. I didn't watch the video of Marcus Samuelsson making this, just did it straight from the printed version. It didn't say how much veggie oil to use but I just blipped in enough to coat the bottom of the skillet and that was plenty. When I added the egg to the vegetables, it didn't really seem like it was going to work right – I was worried I would end up with some kind of demented frittata -- but as the egg continued to cook and I added the rice, everything got properly incorporated. And I can't say enough about fish sauce -- I hate the way it smells but it sure does make a difference in terms of flavor.

After Chris got over the lack of meat, he admitted that he did like the stir fry. "The ginger is not overwhelming," he said. Translation: "Yes, this is actually pretty tasty." Michaela took her first bite and said "This is very good. VERY good."

Next time I'll leave out the salt -- don't think you need it with the soy sauce. And I only used about 3 1/2 cups of rice – if you want more veggies than rice, change the ratios, as long as it can all fit in your pan. I gave away my wok the last time I moved (I have no idea why) or pan size wouldn't have been an issue at all.

Get the Broccolini Stir Fry recipe.
Watch Marcus Samuelsson make his Broccolini Stir Fry.