cucumber stir fry

I’m always looking out for things to eat for lunch that aren’t “crackers, cheese and cold meat”, especially at this time of year when soup is off the menu.

I found 1 1/2 rather tired cucumbers in the veg drawer, which is odd, as we normally demolish them quite quickly.  They’re only courgettes in another form, so I decided to cook them for lunch.

I chopped them into chunks (didn’t bother skinning them), and peels and cut an onion in half, before slicing it as thinly as I could (not very :).  Minced up some garlic and fresh ginger.

Put some noodles on to cook, and heated some groundnut oil in the wok.  In went a teaspoon or so of sesame seeds, followed by the garlic, ginger, cucumber and onion.

Stirfried it all for about 5 minutes or so, then added a little soy sauce, and some torn basil leaves, as we happen to have a basil plant on the kitchen window sill.

Drained the noodles and added them to the wok.  Made a really nice change.

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stir fried asparagus

Now, you may thinks this an Abomination, but trust me - it’s gorgeous. We only eat English asparagus, as we feel the imported upstart has no flavour, so we tend to gorge on the stuff when it’s in season. This was the first bunch of 2009, and this is one of our favourite things to do with it.

2 tbsp groundnut oil
2 thin slices fresh ginger, peeled and lightly mashed
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and lightly mashed
1 dried red chilli, coarsely crumbled
900g asparagus, peeled and cut into thirds
4 tbsp vegetable stock
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp sesame oil

heat the oil in a wok over high heat, then add ginger and garlic. Stir quickly, and add the red chilli. Stir once, and add asparagus. Stir fry until the asparagus turns deep green and is coated with oil. Add the stock, soy sauce, salt and sugar. Stir, bring to the boil, then cover, turn the heat to low, and cook for 3-4 minutes until asparagus is just tender.

uncover, and boil away most of the liquid. Add sesame oil, stir once and serve.

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chicken stir fry

Using up: spring onions, red pepper, the last bit of courgette, half a lemon

The thing about a stir fry is you can lob pretty much anything in it, but you need to have it all ready before you start.

So, as you may see, I chopped four spring onions, a red pepper, a small piece of courgette.  Garlic and ginger were whizzed in the most useful kitchen gadget known to (wo)man.  Pete chopped up a red chilli.

Out of the larder came sesame seeds, and I had a tub of cold roast chicken in the freezer that was pressed into service - I marinated that in some shoyu and a teaspoon or so of sesame oil for about 20 minutes.

Into the wok went the sesame seeds, garlic and ginger for a minute or so, then added the white bits of the spring onion, the pepper and courgette.  Stir fried till done, then added chicken and marinade, the lemon juice and a teaspoon of five spice powder.  Oh, and a dribble of honey.

Left it to bubble while we boiled up some noodles, and realised it was a bit thin, so mixed up a teaspoon of cornflour with some cold water, and hurled that in.

Drained noodles and put them in the wok, mixed it round a little.

Served into bowls, then sprinkled with the chopped chilli and the green bit of the spring onions.

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a simple veg stir fry

Stir fries are indeed quick to cook, but they are not necessarily quick to prepare. The secret is to do all the prep first, as the cooking is very swift. For this one:

Take one red pepper, some rather tired mushrooms, two courgettes, and chop up as you will.

Finely chop ginger and garlic - we usually use an old Braun Multipractic for this; I’ll be heartbroken when it dies, because the new ones are horrible in comparison.

Finely chop spring onions and a red chilli (we only had green, but red is better, in my view), and leave them to one side for the end. Ditto some basil leaves ready to be shredded.

Boil some noodles for however long they say, then drain in a colander, and pour cold water over them to stop them sticking.

Then let battle commence! Heat some oil in a wok until is Very Hot. Hurl in the garlic and ginger, stir about for a minute or so. Add the pepper, courgettes and mushrooms, and stir fry for a few minutes. Then add a splash of lime juice, and some tamari. Bung in the noodles and stir around until they’re warmed, then add the chopped chilli, spring onions and torn basil, and stir until they’re just combined - you don’t want to cook them.

Decant into bowls and scoff; a really nice, light summer supper.

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simple food again

Concocted this for supper last night - quick and simple, tasty and healthy. What’s not to like? :)

Seed and core a red or green (bell) pepper, slice thinly. Slice a courgette into batons. Quarter an onion, then slice thinly. Finely chop as much garlic as you like (lots in our case) and some peeled fresh ginger (ditto) - I always use my Braun whizzy thing, which they will prize from my cold dead hands.

Heat about 3 tbsps groundnut in a wok until it’s Hot. Throw in the veg and garlic and ginger, and stir about until they look reasonably cooked to you; this entirely depends on how crunchy you like your veg - we did it for about six minutes. Add the juice of a lime, a sachet of coconut cream diluted with about the same again of boiling water, and the remains of a bunch of rather weary basil that was in the fridge. Sprinkle a little salt over, and cook for another couple of minutes.

Serve with rice or noodles - lovely.

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