I left supper in
the hands of my 2 teenagers yesterday and came home to find them making ‘Beef
Casserole’ with striploin steaks! I was not subtle in my response, I freaked. I
banished them from the kitchen for 15 minutes while I listened to The Archers
and collected my thoughts.
The steak was
unlabeled, my fault and how were they to know.
So we had this
stir-fry instead. And the vegetables they had started became the basis of a
ragu for lasagne tonight.
Next time I’ll
leave more detailed instructions.
Beef Stir-fry With Noodles
This is a basic stir-fry; swap the beef for any lean quick frying meat,
tofu, cashew nuts or prawns. The carrots can also be swapped for whatever
vegetable is around, peppers, mushrooms, bean sprouts or bamboo shoots. I like
to add some Sichuan pepper instead of the chilli. About a teaspoonful crushed
is enough.
If you do not want to get chilli oil onto your fingers use a fork to
hold the chilli steady while you chop it.
This is a starting point, experiment, find what suits you, enjoy!
1 large onion
3 cloves of garlic
2 cm ginger
1 chilli
1 large carrot
2 striploin steaks
4tbs vegetable oil
1-2 sheets of
Chinese noodles
3tbs soy sauce
1 level tsp corn
flour
100ml approx water
3 scallions
small bunch of
coriander
Peel and slice the
onion finely. Peel and slice the garlic. Peel and cut the ginger into narrow
strips. Slice the chilli.
Peel the carrot
and cut it into 3cm x 0.5cm strips.
Trim the fat from
the meat and cut it into short narrow strips.
Cook the noodles
according to the instructions on the packet and drain well. Keep them warm.
Mix 2 tablespoons
of soy sauce with the corn flour and water in a cup or jug.
Slice the
scallions and chop the coriander and reserve for the garnish at the end.
Heat 2 tablespoons
of the oil in a wok or frying pan over a high heat till shimmering.
Add the onions,
garlic, ginger and chilli to the hot oil. Stir-fry till softening. Keep them
moving to reduce the risk of burning. Remove the onion etc to a warm bowl and
add 2 more tablespoons of oil to the wok and let it heat up again. When hot add
the strips of meat and leave them for a minute before turning them with the
spatula. Add the carrots and stir-fry them with the meat.
Return the onions
etc to the wok and mix well with the beef and carrots.
Give the soy sauce
mixture a stir and pour it into the wok keep stirring and mixing while it cooks
and thickens. If it is too thick add more boiling water, too thin let it boil
and reduce for a minute or two.
Taste and add the
remaining soy sauce or more if it needs it and some pepper.
Add the noodles to
the wok and mix well leave for a minute to heat through.
Sprinkle with the
chopped scallions and coriander and then serve.
Serves 2-4, this will serve 2 as a good main course or 4 as part or a meal with other elements. It served the 3 of us perfectly.
Panna Cotta
A touch of sweet dessert.
This needs to chill, but if you use chilled ramekins it will set
sooner. I use this quantity to make 6 small ones. It would make 4 generous
helpings. I tweeted a version of this recipe last night, I hope it went down well.
1 vanilla pod split in half length ways
400ml cream
2 sheets gelatine (Lidl, about 4g)
3tsp caster sugar
Heat the cream together with the split vanilla pod to boiling and turn off the heat. Leave to stand for 5
minutes, while you soak the gelatine in some cold water.
Take the gelatine out and put it into a small pot with some of the
cream and heat it very gently until the gelatine has melted. Add the sugar to
this some and stir till dissolved. Add more of the cream to the sugar and
gelatine and then pour it all back on to the cream and vanilla mixture.
Line ramekins with cling film and strain the mixture in to them. The
seeds will sink to the bottom.
Leave them to set in a cold place.
Rinse the vanilla pod and leave it to dry, when it is dry put it into a
jar of sugar and it will flavour the sugar.
Makes 4-6.