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Archive for June, 2009

This is a simple stir-fry recipe. When I do stir-fries, I tend to mix in lots of vegetables so that the dish is pretty much a meal in itself.

Five Spice Pork With Lettuce

Ingredients:

1  large carrot or 2 small carrots
1 tin water chestnuts
1/2 red capsicum (or red pepper if you are in the northern hemisphere)
6 – 12 snowpeas
3 or 4 shallots
1 tsp sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2.5cm piece ginger, peeled and grated
500g pork mince
1/3 cup dry sherry (or rice wine)
1 tblsp soy sauce
1 tsp sweet soy sauce
1/2 – 1 tsp Five Spice powder
1 tsp sugar
2  cups cooked brown rice
6  lettuce cups (the innre leaves of iceberg lettuce is best for this)
oil for frying

Method:

1. Finely chop carrots, water chestnuts, capsicum, snow peas and shallots.
2. Heat 1 – 2 tblsp oil in wok then add crushed garlic, grated ginger and chopped shallots.
3. Stir fry for about 1 minute
4. Add minced pork and stir fry for about 3 – 4 minutes.
5. Add chopped carrots and fry for 2 minutes.
6. Add water chestnuts and capsicum and fry for 2 minutes.
7. Mix together dry sherry (or rice wine), soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, 5 spice powder, sesame oil and sugar.
8. Add cooked rice to wok and pour in combined sherry soy mixture.
9. Add snowpeas and mix thoroughly. Heat through, stirring frequently.
10. Wash lettuce and separate into cups.
11. Place lettuce cups on plates,  spoon in a quantity of the pork mix and serve.

Variations

If you prefer, you can use finely chopped chicken instead of pork.

The ingredients and quantities can be varied. You may like to add baby corn or bamboo shoots to this recipe. You can also use shitake mushrooms (if dried, you will need to soak and chop them first).

Tips

Have everything chopped and ready to go before you start cooking.

This recipe can be easily adapted to whatever you happen to have on hand. Try and have different colours in it to make it look interesting and appetising.

Don’t cook the vegetables too long or they will start to lose their colour and become soft.

You can prepare the rice the day before hand and keep in the refrigerator. This helps prevent it sticking and becoming gluggy when you fry it with the pork.

Polenta is a common Italian ingredient and is basically corn meal. For many years it was one of those things that I didn’t really like but thought I should eat more of as an alternative to the likes of rice, potatoes, pasta and bread. The problem was that the recipes I had were either bland (it is generally an accompaniment, after all) or required too much effort and time.

Then one day when I was buying some, the lady serving me asked how I was going to cook it. When I told I wasn’t really sure, she suggested cooking as per the directions on the packet and then at the end stirring in some sour cream and grated parmesan. So I tried that and found it to be very tasty and I have used that recipe many times.

More recently, I varied that to include mushrooms and onion and that essentially makes a quick and easy lunchtime snack. Here is the recipe.

Savoury Polenta

Ingredients

1/2  dozen mushrooms
1  medium onion
1  clove garlic
2  cups polenta
4 cups water
1  chicken stock cube
1  beef stock cube
300 ml sour cream
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
oil for frying

Method

1. Chop mushrooms into reasonable small pieces
2. FInely chop onion
3. Gently fry chopped onion, mushrooms and garlic
4. Remove from heat and set aside
5. Bring the water to the boil. Add the stock cubes and stir till dissolved.
6. While the water is boiling pour in the polenta stirring sonstantly.
7. When all the polenta has been added, continue to stir polenta frequently.  The water will be absorbed into the polena and as it thickens you will find that it causes large bubbles – be careful as the polenta can splatter and burn you. You may find it better to reduce the heat when it reaches this stage.
8. Once the polenta has been cooked, add the mushrooms, onion, garlic, sour cream and grated parmesan and stir into the polenta.
9. Heat through, and serve.  This can form a dish in its own right or you can serve it as an accompaniment to another dish.

Variations

If you just want plain polenta but with a bit of flavour, you leave out all of the other ingredients and just cook it in stock.

There is also nothing to prevent you using other ingredients such as chopped, cooked vegetables etc instead of or in addition to the mushrooms.

You can leave out the sour cream and once the polenta is cooked, put it on a baking tray in a 1 cm thick layer and bake in a moderately hot oven for 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and cut into squares or slices. Again, this can be served as finger food or as an accompaniment to a main dish.

Tips

As I want to reduce the amount of washing up, I usually fry the onions etc in the saucepan I intend to use for the polenta. After removing the cooked onion, I put the water in the saucepan with out washing it out. It may look a little oily but all you are doing is allowing a little of the onion flavour to permeate the water you are going to cook the polenta in – and you are going to add the onion to it later anyway.

You may have to adjust the amount of water depending on how dry or moist you like it, and depending on the brand of polenta. Once you have made it a few times you will know how much to add according to your taste.

This recipe I normally cook in a wok because I enjoy wok cooking and because it has an Asian influence in terms of preparation and ingredients. However, there is no reason you can’t prepare this in a large frying pan.

The important thing with this recipe is to read it through and then have all the ingredients ready. Everything is chopped and sauces are mixed beforehand so that once you start cooking, you just add the ingredients as they are called for.

For the most part, ingredient quantities aren’t critical. If you don’t have enough of something, or you would like to have more of something feel free to adjust the recipe.

Chicken With Vegetables And Chow Mein Noodles

Ingredients:

2  chicken breasts, cubed
2  or 3  tblsp soy sauce
2  tsp sweet soy sauce
2  tblsp honey
1/4  cup rice wine (or dry sherry)
2  tsp sesame oil
1  clove garlic, crushed
a 2cm piece of fresh ginger
2  medium carrots
1/2  red capsicum (or pepper)
3  stalks celery
6 – 12  snow peas (depending on size, smaller snow peas are better)
2  shallots
2 cups chicken stock (best if real chicken stock otherwise use chicken stock cubes or powder)
2 tsp cornflour
1/4 cup water
1 pkt Chow Mein noodles
1 tsp chilli sauce
oil for frying (not canola)

Method:

1. Combine soy, sweet soy, honey, sherry, sesame oil, crushed garlic and grated ginger in a large bowl. This is the marinade.
2. Cube the chick into 1 cm pieces approx.  Put in to the bowl containing the marinade and mix. Cover and place in refrigerator while you prepare the other ingredients.
3. Chop the carrots, celery and capsicum into similar sized pieces. If the snowpeas are large you may want to cut them into 2 or 3 pieces.
4. Chop the shallots into 1/2 cm slices. (You can cut them into larger slices, I cut them smaller so they more easily blend in with the other vegetables and the kids are less likely to pick them out.)
5. In a measuring cup or jug mix the cornflour and cold water.
6. Heat the oil in a wok. (You can use a frying pan or large saucepan if you don’t have a wok.)
7. Cook the chicken in two batches – ie, cook half of the chicken for a minute or two, take it out and put in a warm dish, then cook the other half. Reserve the marinade – you will use this later. (The reason for cooking the chicken in two batches is so that you do not cool the wok down too much when you add the chicken. A hot wok is necessary to sear the chicken and seal in the juices. If you add too much chicken, the wok cools down too much, the chicken does not sear, the juices escape and you are left with dry chicken and a lot of moisture in the wok which boils the chicken rather than frying it.)
8. Put all the chicken back in the wok.
9. Add the chopped carrots, celery and capsicum (or pepper).
10. Stir fry for about 1 minute.
11. Add the reserved marinade to the wok.
12. Add the chicken stock to the wok and bring to the boil stirring all the while.
13. Add Chow Mein noodles to wok and cook till tender
14. Add combined cornflour and water to wok.
15. Add Chilli sauce.
16. Bring to boil again for about 1 minute stirring often then serve.

Serves: 3 or 4

Variations:

You could use pork or even prawns (shrimp) instead of chicken if you prefer. If using prawns you would cook them but then not add them to the wok at step 8 as they will overcook. Instead keep them out and add them in at step 16.

You don’t have to use the exact same ingredients as listed here. Use whatever you have in the house or whatever happens to be in season. For example, you could use broccoli, beans, cauliflower, asian greens such as bok choy, pak choi etc, baby corn, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots – whatever you happen to have to hand.

Adjust the amounts of soy, honey and chilli to suit your taste. The amounts given here are merely a starting point but if you like lots of chilli, for example, then add as much as you like.

Tips

As I mentioned at the beginning, you really need to have everything ready and chopped, combined etc so that you can just add them when required. The actual cooking time is fairly short but the preparation is the longest part.

Try and have a variety of colours in this dish. The vegetables listed in the ingredients are only a suggestion but they provide red, orange and green to make a colourful and interesting looking dish.

Serve it up as soon as it is cooked. If you leave it sit too long before serving, the vegetables will become soft and the green ones will start to lose their bright green colour whic h will diminish the appeal of the dish somewhat.

Fritters are extremely easy to make and they are one of the best ways to use up left-overs. Kids seem to love them no matter what is in them so you can put lots of vegetables in them. At different times, I’ve put in things like chopped up silverbeet (or spinach), roast vegetables, corned beef, bacon – bascically anything that needs to be used up.

The Fritter batter is very simple.

Basic Fritter Batter

Ingredients

1  cup plain flour
1  pinch salt
2/3  cup warm water
2  tblsp oil (not canola)
2  egg-whites (I can’t be bothered separating the egg whites so I use the whole egg – I figure it’s better for you anyway and it doesn’t seem to make a difference to the batter).

Method:

1. Sift flour and salt into a bowl.
2. Make a well in the centre and gradually add the warm water and oil, mixing the flour into it.
3. Beat with a whisk or wooden spoon until very smooth.
4. Cover and let stand for 1 hour (I never do this – I don’t have time) .
5. Add the eggs or egg-whites
   • (Do this if you are using the egg-whites.) When needed beat the egg-whites until stiff and fold in.
   • (Or Do this if you are using the whole egg.) Add in the lightly beaten eggs and mix well
6. Add whatever fillings you like and cook in a frying pan. Serve with tomato sauce.

Filling Suggestions:

I always use some finely chopped onion which has been fried before adding to the fritter batter otherwise it can taste a little bland.

If you are using ham or bacon or other uncooked food you should fry it first before adding it to the batter.

If you have trouble getting your kids to eat certain vegetables, chopping them finely and putting them into the batter ususally works. I’ve used chopped silverbeet which I lightly fried before adding it to the batter and you wouldn’t know it was there.

You can also add frozen vegetables – just heat them first.

Roast beef, corned beef, roast pork, cooked cauliflower, cooked broccoli, mushrooms, in fact, just about anything provided it is chopped finely can be used.

Stir the chosen and chopped ingredients into your fritter batter and then fry.

Tips:

You may find that you need more or less water depending on the moisture content of your flour, whether you are using whole eggs or just the egg-whites and depending on how runny you like the mixture before cooking it.

When cooking, I preheat the frying pan to a moderate heat and put in a reasonable amount of oil to just cover the bottom of tha pan with a little butter or ghee. This helps give the fritters a nice golden colour when cooked that oil by itself doesn’t really do.

The pan and oil should be hot before adding the fritters as this prevents them sticking. (No, I don’t like teflon coated pans so I never use them.)

I also like to use egg rings to give the fritters a more regular shape. Just put the egg rings in the frying pan and allow them to heat up then add a quantity of fritter to the egg ring. Once it has fried and set on one side you can use an egg-flip to turn the ring over and cook the other side. A pair of tongs can be used to remove the egg ring from the fritter while it is still cooking so you can get another lot started to satisfy those starving kids!

This is a great winter recipe and very simple to make. Serve it with hot crusty bread or croutons for a warming winter meal.

Tomato Savoury Soup

Ingredients:

3  large tomatoes, peeled
1  medium onion, chopped
1  clove garlic, crushed
1  tsp salt
1/4  tsp pepper
2   sprigs winter savory (if you can’t get winter savory you can use fresh dill)
1  tbsp tomato paste
1/4  cup cold water
1/2  cup cooked macaroni
1  cup chicken stock
3/4  cup cream

Method:

1. Slice tomatoes into a saucepan.
2. Add chopped onion, crushed garlic, chopped winter savory, tomato paste and water.
3. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 12-15 minutes.
4. Transfer to electric blender. Add cooked macaroni, cover and blend on high speed.
5. Add chicken stock and 1/2 the cream. Blend once more.
6. Return to stove and heat gently but do not allow to boil!
7. Serve hot with remaining cream swirled in at the last minute.

Tips

Instead of transferring the soup to a blender, you can simply remove the saucepan from the heat and use a stick mixer to blend it in the saucepan – saves a bit of washing up. Then just add the other ingredients to the saucepan.

Although the recipe calls for macaroni, you can use any cooked plain pasta including wholemeal pastas. All the macaroni does is thicken the soup a little.

If your tomatoes are not as ripe as you would like, you can add 1 tsp of sugar to the recipe to remove some of the tartness. In fact many recipes that call for tomatoes often use a little bit of sugar.

Variations

Instead of cream, you can use sour cream if you prefer. You could even use natural yoghurt (ie, unsweetened).

Serves: 4