Mushroom and cashew nut stir fry

 

It might look like a long list of ingredients - but it's incredibly quick, easy and tasty as soon as you have got yourself organised.

Chop all veg in advance, heat the oil to hot and off you go.

Peanut (or other veg) oil

Spring onion

Crushed garlic

grated ginger

Sweet chili sauce

Courgette

Broccoli

Mushroom

Pak choi

Tomato ketchup

Soy sauce

Cornflour, slaked in water

Wok noodles

Cashew nuts

Beansprouts

1.  Heat peanut oil in a wok, add chopped spring onion and stir fry quickly.

2.  Add other chopped veg, ginger, and garlic - stir fry a little longer - add a dash of water to steam fry until veg are less raw.

3.  Stir in sweet chili sauce and a splodge of tomato ketchup.

4.  Stir fry a bit longer, then add soy sauce, a little more water and cornflour to start the sauce.

5.  Add cooked noodles, cashew nuts and the pak choi leaves, stir fry again add beansprouts.

6.  When everything is heated through you are ready.

7.  Serve, scoff, seconds

Vegetable, cashew nut and noodle stir fry, with seared ginger soya steak

Steak

Peanut oil

Garlic

Ginger

Soya sauce

Spring onions

Garlic

Red pepper

Carrots

Mushrooms

Pak choi

Udon noodles (rice noodles)

Cashew nuts

Beansprouts

Rice wine

Rice wine vinegar

Oyster sauce

Tomato ketchup

Soya sauce

1.  Marinate steak, in crushed garlic, ginger, soya sauce and peanut oil.

2.  Chop the veg, into this slivers, for the stir fry, crush garlic.

3.  20 before due to serve - bring a pan of water to the boil, put a wok and a grill pan on to heat up.

4.  When the grill pan and wok are hot put the steak in the grill pan, and start the veg stir fry in the wok - using ingredients from the list down to the pak choi (the white bits of the pak choi, save the green leaves until the last stage.  Put the noodles in the water to boil for 5 minutes.

5.  After 2 minutes turn the meat.

6.  Keep stir frying veg, add condiments and a spoonful of noodle water, keep moving in the wok.

7.  Take the meat out of the pan and leave to rest.

8.  Drain cooked noodles and add to the veg, add beansprouts, cashew nuts and the green tops of the pak choi - keep tossing together.

9.  Serve, scoff ... was delicious.

Meals in minutes: stir fries

We needed food fast, so this isn't a recipe as such - as it involved prechopped veggies and ready to wok noodles … however, it gave us two delicious stir fries - one featuring prawns and the other one cashew nuts.

Peanut oil
Garlic paste
Chilli flakes
Soy sauce
Ginger
Rice wine vinegar
Ketchup
Pre-prepared veg stir fry mixes (we had 1 x Chinese veg, 1 x mushroom stir fry & 1 x broccoli and butternut squash …) or chop up veg into bite sized pieces
Frozen prawns
Cashew nuts
Ready to wok noodles

1.  Make a paste from a couple of spoonfuls of peanut oil, garlic and ginger paste, a tablespoon of ketchup and chilli flakes to taste.
2.  Thaw frozen prawns by running hot water over them.
3.  In tow woks heat a little peanut oil until hot.
4.  Fling in veg - I used Chinese type in one wok, and the other two combined in the other one.
5.  Add the prepared mix to the Chinese mix, and a good splash of soy sauce.
6.  Add garlic paste and soy sauce to the mushroom etc mix, and a splash of rice wine.
7.  Toss the veg about for a few minutes, add a little water to help steam the veg.
8.  Add the noodles …. unknit them a bit with your fingers to make them easier to mix in.
9.  Toss around until veg is done and noodles are heated through.
10.  Serve, scoff … add more soy sauce/chilli sauce if desired.

Ten minutes, start to finish.

Curry night

Chicken korma (lactose free), veggie curry, dhal and rice ... it's not that difficult, just lots of ingredients. You need to soak the cashews, so put them in water in the morning.  I started with the chicken and veg curries, and then put the rice on to boil.  As soon as the chicken went in the oven put the lentils on for the dhal ... it all kinda came together in about 45 minutes.

Onions

Olive oil

Garlic

Chicken thighs

Tikka Massala paste

cinnamon

Cashew nuts

Mustard seeds

fennel seeds

cumin seeds

chili flakes

potatoes

Courgette

Mushrooms

Carrot

Tomatoes

Garam masala

Red lentils

Basmati rice

1.  Soak the cashew nuts for some hours, or boil them for a few minutes.  Zizz them up with approximately an equal quantity of water to nuts.

2.  Sautee onions in olive oil in 2 heavy pans - one for the chicken, one for the veggie curry.

3.  Add crushed garlic to both pots.

4.  Put the rice on to boil in a heavy pot, covered by water to 1 inch above the surface of the rice..

5.  Add turmeric and a tsp of tikka masala paste to the chicken pot, then the chicken pieces skin side down first.

6.  Add fennel seeds, cumin seeds, mustard seeds and chili flakes to the veggie pot.

7.  The add peeled diced potatoes, diced courgette, mushroom and carrot to the veggie pot.

8.  Turn the chicken over, sprinkle on 1/2 tsp cinnamon and pour in the cashew mixture.  Transfer to the oven.

9.  When the rice boils, slam a lid on it, and put it in the bottom of the oven.

10.  Add tomatoes, in pieces if whole and veg stock to the veggie curry, stir and simmer.

11.  Put red lentils and water on to boil for the dhal.

12.  When ready to serve make the tarka by frying cumin seeds, mustard seeds, chili and curry leaves, if you have them, in a little olive oil.  Pour this, sizzling over the dhal.

13.  Serve, scoff.

National vegetarian week: Day 3: Broccoli and cashew, szechuan kidney bean and vegetables

An oriental feel to english vegetables for day 3 of national vegetarian week ,,, this is one step further in being totally vegan - also GF if you use GF soy sauce.

Rice
Peanut oil
Spring onion
Garlic
Ginger
Broccoli
Mushrooms
Cashew nuts
Black bean sauce
Carrots
Pepper
Courgette
Kidney beans
Tomato puree
szechuan pepper
soy sauce
rice wine
sesame oil
sesame seeds

1.  Cook rice - cover with water - to an inch over the rice, bring to the boil, slam on tight fitting lid and turn right down.
2.  Prep all the veg - spring onion chopped, garlic finely chopped and ginger into tiny slivers,  broccoli into small florets and thinly chopped stem, slice mushrooms.  Peel and chop carrots into skinny batons, cut pepper and courgette into similar shapes.
3.  In 2 woks, or similar, start both dishes with spring onion, garlic and ginger in hot oil.
4.  Add mushroom and broccoli to one, and carrot, pepper and courgette to the other - stir fry.
5  To mushrooms and broccoli add a spoonful of black bean sauce and a drop of water, stir fry.
6.  To other veg add a squeeze of tomato puree, crushed szechuan peppers, a splosh of soy sauce and a splosh of rice wine, a tin of drained kidney beans, and half a cup of water.
7.  Keep both on a high heat, tossing about until done - it doesn't take long.
8.  Sprinkle sesame seeds on the szechuan mixture.
9.  Serve, scoff ... we all managed chop sticks!

Chinese tonight: chicken satay, straw mushrooms and beansprouts in oyster sauce and red pepper and cashew stir fry

A little trip into a chinese supermarket gave me the idea, but you can get most of the flavourings from Oriental Foods and me in Todmorden market.

Rice
Chicken - legs in this instance
Peanut butter
Sweet chilli sauce
Shaoshin rice wine
Rice wine vinegar
Chilli
Peanut oil
Spring onions
Garlic
Ginger
Straw mushrooms
Oyster sauce
Soya sauce
Red pepper
Chinese vegetable (or pak choi)
Cashew nuts
Beansprouts
Cornflour

1.  Cook the rice
2.  In an oven dish mix peanut butter with a dash of peanut oil, sweet chilli sauce, chilli and soya sauce.  Coat the chicken in the marinade and cook in the oven for about 30 minutes.
3.  In 2 woks, fry chopped spring onion, garlic and ginger.
4.  For the cashew nut mixture add red pepper, chilli flakes, soya sauce, rice wine vinegar, rice vinegar and stir fry.  Add the chopped vegetable and stir fry again.  Add a little water to create the steam.  Finish by adding slaked cornflour to thicken the sauce and the cashew nuts.
5.  For the mushroom mixture add a tin of straw mushrooms, a tablespoon of oyster sauce and a tiny splash of water, heat through then add beansprouts.  Finish by thickenning the sauce (if required) with a little slaked cornflour.
6.  Serve, scoff ...

This went down very well, but the chicken legs were fiddly, so next time I'll use diced thigh meat on a skewer.

Cashew nut stir fry

Fancied a change, and using ingredients available from me at The Mediterranean Pantry, the veg stalls outside and Oriental foods inside ... ta dah - cashew stir fry from Todmorden market! The end result was so good even the meat freak had thirds, and this was completely vegan.

Rice (basmati because that is what I had, should really have been jasmine or something)
Coconut oil (fries well at a high temperature)
Spring onion
Garlic
Ginger
Chili flakes
Red pepper
Green beans
Carrots
Courgette
Tomato ketchup
Soy sauce
Chinese rice wine
Oyster sauce (vegan)
Cornflour
Chashew nuts
Sesame seeds
Toasted sesame oil.

1.  Prepare all the veg - peel etc and chop into even sized pieces.  The list above is what I used because that's what we had - I would have added beansprouts, pak choi, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, lotus root if I had had any, but this was an English interpretation.
2.  Cook rice by your preferred method - I use abrorption ie.  cover rice in pan with 1 inch of water, bring to the boil, slam on lid, turn heat right down and leave ... but you could also bung it in the microwave.
3.  In a wok/deep frying pan - melt the coconut oil, heat quite high, then add onions, garlic and ginger.  Toss about a bit, then add the rest of the veg and the chili flakes, toss about a bit.  Add wet seasonings and about half a cup of water, simmer for a few minutes.
4.  Slake corflour in water, add to veg, stir in.  Throw in cashew nuts, stir.
5.  Serve, sprinkle with sesame seeds and drizzle lightly with sesame oil.

Chicken and cashew nut in black bean sauce with rice

Well, where to begin?  There are loads of things to do with chicken - but I am trying to expand my repertoire without spending anything - and had 2 x chicken breasts left over.  So, quick scout through the fridge and cupboards... and a chinesey vibe... Crushed fermented black beans with chili, garlic, ginger and peanut oil.  Cooked Thai rice using steam method ... ie. bring to boil in water to cover + 1.5 cm ... then out in medium oven to finish itself off.  Chopped spring onion, red onion, orange pepper, celery, sculpted carrot (you can't see on this pic - and victim didn't even notice, but I tried that fancy scalloped carrot slice thing!)  and some mushrooms - cooked in hot (couple of spoons) peanut oil - add crushed paste - add bite sized pieces of chicken breast - sautee.  After a couple of minutes of turning over add mug of water, tomato puree, soy sauce, rice wine and a good squirt of ketchup.  Stir again, and simmer for a a few minutes - add more water to make sure it has enough sauce (it might look a bit watery, but it will be thickened in a mo).  Simmer until chicken is done (pull a bit out and make sure it is cooked all the way through), season, add a handful of frozen peas and simmer for another couple of minutes.  Stir in slaked cornflour to thicken sauce & big handful of cashew nuts.  Stir through until thickened and all is hot.  Serve on rice.  I would have liked more dishes to present more of a feast, and a variety of flavours - but it is only Tuesday tea, after work - do people really find time to make 4+ dishes from scratch?  Victim was pleased it wasn't as horrid as last night (please see last night's post... the cheek!), and finished off seconds - USING CHOPSTICKS!  (have 3 portions for dinners, but am not sure that it will freeze very well... ).

Update:  it froze very well - had it for lunch today - the cashew nuts were chewier, but I quite liked the texture, and they were still sweet.