thai pork stirfry

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using up: peppers, basil, mushrooms

I bought one of those pots of basil - you know, the ones that last two days then die.  This one is still going strong on the kitchen windowsill several weeks on, but it does look as though it might be starting to flag a bit now.  I love basil - so sweet and peppery at the same time.

I took half a pork fillet out of the freezer (a whole one is a bit much for two of us, so I tend to bifurcate them before freezing).

Slice it thinly across the diagonal.  Also thinly sliced one red pepper, some tired chestnut mushrooms, one shallot.  Put a lemongrass stick, four cloves of garlic and a knob of fresh ginger into the whizzer and whizzed.

Fried the pork in the wok in some groundnut oil, in batches,  and set aside.  Wiped out the wok, heated more oil, and added garlic/ginger/lemongrass, stirred around for a minute or so.  Added mushrooms/shallot/red pepper, stirred around until cooked.  Returned pork to wok, added a good splash of lime juice, ditto fish sauce, and some instant coconut milk (powdered, so you can mix up how much you need - excellent larder standby).  Cooked this through for a couple of minutes to deepen the flavours, then added cooked noodled and a handful of chopped basil.

Ate from bowls.  Followed with mince pies (well, it’s that time of year, isn’t it).

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egg fried rice and bits

using up: cold pot roast beef, spring onions, pepper, cucumber, broccoli

I love egg fried rice - we always have it when we have a Chinese takeaway.  Not that we’ve had a Chinese takeaway in years, but we always did.

I don’t know why I’ve never made it before - partly, I guess, because you have to have cold, cooked rice, and I never thought about it in time (like the indian lentil bread I want to make, which needs starting two days before I think “Oh, that’d be nice”). However, last week, I was organised and cooked some rice, and we had egg fried rice with a thai veg curry.  It was lovely, so I resolved to do something more interesting.  And yesterday lunchtime, I cooked some rice!

So - I cut up some (not much) of the leftover pot roast beef into slivers.  Finely chopped three cloves of garlic, and sliced a knob of fresh ginger into julienne strips.  Chopped three spring onions, one red pepper, about a third of a rather tired cucumber.  Beat two eggs in a mug with some sesame oil (about two teaspoonsful, I would say).  While I was doing all this, I steamed a few broccoli florets.

Heated some groundnut oil in the big wok, and put in the garlic, ginger, pepper, spring onions and cucumber.  Stirred round till cooked, added juice of half a lemon, broccoli, cold beef.  Stirred around till they were warmed through.

Poured in egg, and stirred it round with a chopstick - it felt more authentic, somehow. As it started to set, I added the rice, then stirred it all together furiously with a dollop of soy sauce.  It was lovely - we shall have it again!

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broccoli and cucumber stir fry

using up: broccoli, cucumber

“Stir fried cucumber?” you cry.  Yes indeed - why not?  It’s only a courgette, almost, and stir fries up very well.

Steam or blanch or whatever the broccoli for a few  minutes, then drain.  I kept the water for next week’s soup - I’m like that.  In fact, I used it to make some broccoli/chicken stock with the remains of a chicken breast, but we’ll come to that later.

Mince garlic and ginger, hurl in the wok with some groundnut oil and sesame seeds.  Add sliced red pepper and cucumber, and chopped spring onions, and stir for five minutes or so.  Add broccoli and soy sauce.  Cook a bit more.  Add some cooked noodles, stir together, serve in bowls.

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stir-fried belly pork

using up: cooked belly pork

Last Sunday, i.e. a week ago, we had roast belly pork with fennel seeds, and very nice it was too.  I wrapped the remains in some aluminium foil and put it in the fridge for later in the week, and then promptly forgot all about it, to my shame.

I remembered it on Saturday, part way through the fish pie frenzy, checked to make sure it was still ok, and resolve to do something with it on Sunday. I wanted something quick, as we were working yesterday, and were due out at the local pub quiz in the evening.

It was alright, thankfully.  In the morning, I chopped it up and set it to marinade in some cornflour, water, sesame oil and a little dry sherry (we are out of rice wine).  Then, when we were ready to eat, we minced ginger and garlic, chopped a red pepper, some spring onions and the last four mushrooms.

I deep fried the pork in batches until it was crispy, and drained on kitchen paper.  I kept the marinade. Then stir-fried the remaining ingredients with some five spice powder,  while we cooked some noodles.  Tipped in the marinade, added the cooked noodles and some chopped coriander.

Apart from the marinading aspect, 15 minutes start to finish.  And it worked very very well.

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duck surprise*

using up: very weary flat mushrooms, cold roast duck

It seems daft to tell you how to make a stir fry - you all know how to make a stir fry, surely?!  But they are great ways of Using Things Up, so I do try to write them up.

We bought an organic duck on Sunday at the farm shop at Puxton Park - it could not be described as cheap, and I know that there’s not much eating on a duck, but this one cost thirteen quid, and did us one roast meal, and some scrapeens (Irish word). I’ve boiled up the carcass to make soup, and the cats finished off the very bitty bits, but even so …

Anyway - three large mushrooms sliced, 2/3 courgette, one red pepper, two spring onions, some garlic and ginger, minced up.  All into the wok and stirred about in ground nut oil with some sesame seeds.

Duck added, five spice powder, splash of tamari, some noodles boiled and hurled in, job done - 15 minutes absolute tops, start to finish.  Why don’t people cook?

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stir fried broccoli with almonds

Using up: a head of broccoli, and some of a tin of roast salted almonds we found in the depths of the cupboard

Chopped the florets off the broccoli, and then sliced the stalk into rounds about 1/2″ thick.  Blanched for about 4 minutes.

Mince up garlic and ginger, chopped an onion.  Put some groundnut oil in the wok (not too much - I’m trying to cut down on oil and salt and stuff [sob]).  Added a teaspoon or so of sesame seeds when it was hot, then the garlic / ginger / onion.  Stirred them about until they were looking cooked, then added the broccoli and almonds; about 2 tablespoons of almonds, I would guess.  Then added a goodly sloosh of shoyu, and a little water.

Boiled up some egg noodles to go with it - stirred them all round in the wok together before service.  Quick, light, lovely.

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duck and pineapple stirfry

No photo, I’m afraid, as the household was a tad fraught last night, due to one thing and another.

I bought a pineapple last week, and Pete brought home a huge bunch of coriander.  We were going to have pork and pineapple, but somehow we ate all the coriander with other things.  Then when I went to get the basil from the fridge for Thursday night’s pasta, I realised that we had enough to open a market stall.

So yesterday morning, I took a duck breast from the freezer ready for a stirfry.  Pete manfully chopped up the pineapple - in fact he cooked the whole thing.

A tip if you’re stir frying duck is to steam it over some boiling water for a few minutes, skin side down.  It causes the fat to crisp up nicely.

He stir fried the duck first, then set it aside; then he fried the usual suspects - green onion, mushrooms, garlic, ginger, added the duck back to the wok, added some pineapple and the remaining basil.  Delicious!

We had the rest of the pineapple for breakfast this morning, combined with some strawberries.

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meat free stir fry

using up: bits and bobs of veg, some rather tired coriander leaves, small chestnut mushrooms and some beansprouts from the veg box

It’s nice - and cheaper - not to eat meat all the time.  And it’s good for you.  This served two of us quite happily.  As always, the secret of a stir fry is the prep .. get everything ready before you start to cook.

One red pepper, de-seeded and cut into strips.  Half a carton of bean sprouts.  A handful of chestnut mushrooms, sliced. One green onion, chopped - green bits set to one side with a chopped red chili and the coriander leaves.  Some cashews from the larder, and lime juice from the bottle in the fridge (I’ve given up with fresh limes, we just don’t use them often enough).  Garlic and ginger, minced.  Some tamari.

Cook some noodles in boiling water - I always put a teaspoon of sesame oil in with them.  While that’s going on, fling everything in the wok (apart from what we set aside - green bit of the onion, red chilli) with a little groundnut oil and stir.  This is going to take about four minutes tops.  Then add lime juice and tamari.

Drain and rinse the noodles and add them to the wok with the coriander, and stir until everything is combined.

Serve in bowls, sprinkling chilli and spring onions over the top for a bit of crunch.

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broccoli stirfry

Another of those deceptively simple meals, which take less time than required to phone for a pizza.

Take some (lots?) of broccoli, remove the florets from the stems, and boil/simmer/steam for about seven minutes.  Drain.

Peel and chop some garlic - we like Lots, so we did about four fat cloves; you might not want so much (how odd).

This is important when you’re stir-frying - fetch out everything you might need before you start; it’s a swift process ad things can go pear-shaped before you blink.  So, for this one: tamari, sesame oil, oyster sauce, sesame seeds, the aforementioned broccoli.

And spring onions and red chilli, chopped up.

At some point in these proceedings, you’ll need a pan of boiling water and some noodles too.

Groundnut oil in a wok, heat, add garlic and sesame seeds; stir about a bit.  Add broccoli, pre-steamed.  Stir about some more.  Add a sloosh of oyster sauce, a sloosh of tamari.  Sort noodles - two minutes, how hard can it be?

Serve in bowls, scatter with chilli and spring onions.  If we’re being conservative, this took 25 minutes from starting to denude the broccoli.  Do you really want to buy convenience food?!

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