A MISSISSIPPI VEGAN STIR FRY

This thing comes together once a year, when the asparagus is ready. Then you have to hope to find the mushrooms. One should court caution and buy a copy of “Field Guide to Southern Mushrooms”, or just tip over to Water Valley, Mississippi where the proprietor of BTC Grocery always seems to have a stock of the fickle fungi. Other than that, we always have in inventory pecans from the riverbank or orchard, and sweet potatoes grown anywhere from Tallahatchie to Calhoun County in storage. Ideal stir fry oils with high smoke points come from around the state; pecan oil from The Indianola Pecan House, cottonseed oil from Greenwood, and peanut and soybeans grow statewide in abundance. The uber healthy high amylose brown rice comes fresh out of our farm’s rice paddies and mill. The outstanding and versatile Hoover Sauce is the most famous thing to ever come out of Louise, Mississippi; its presence pulls the other ingredients together. And…if your resolve for a vegetarian dinner is wavering and you’re achin’ for bacon, it’s at Hines Grocery on old 49 west of Yazoo City; if your stricken for chicken, there are millions of them here just down the gravel roads pecking in someone’s yard.

INGREDIENTS

 2 medium size sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in about 1 inch cubes

Big handful of fresh asparagus, cut to 1 to 2 inch lengths

Salt, to taste (preferably from the Mississippi Gulf Coast)

1½ cups cooked and cooled Two Brooks Farm Beulah Land Tan or Beulah Land Medley Long Grain Brown Rice

¼ pound mushrooms, of your fortune, chopped

3 tbsp cooking oil such as pecan, peanut, cottonseed, or soybean oil, divided

¼ cup Hoover Sauce, from Lee Hong Company

METHOD

     Make sure to have 1½ cups rice cooked and cooled.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Lightly coat cubed sweet potatoes with oil and salt, and bake until just becoming soft with occasional browning on edges. Remove and set aside.
In fine, heavy wok (or skillet), heat oil until hot. Add asparagus and sweet potatoes, stir well until heated, and move to side of pan. Quickly add rice to bare bottom of wok, stirring vigorously over high heat. When heated, add mushrooms and blend together the rice, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, and asparagus. Heat and stir vigorously for 1 minute. Add Hoover Sauce, blend quickly and well, and remove wok from burner. Serve promptly and enjoy!