Peanut and Ginger Stir Fry

We had a lovely weekend, cycling to the beach with some friends of ours and chilling out in the shade after a gorgeous swim in the ocean. When we got back we hung out some more for a nice lunch and a little 6 Nimmt. Our friends served us a really nice warm salad which inspired me to try a different take on my usual stir fry. Served over plain white rice, this gorgeous combination of peanuts and ginger really warms the tastebuds and sets off the fresh greens.

Ingredients:

• a ladle of plain white short-grain rice
• two spring onions
• a large thumb of ginger
• a few handfuls of mange-tout or sugar snap peas
• a generous handful of  roasted salted peanuts
• a big handful of sprouting seeds or alfalfa sprouts
• soy sauce

Cover the rice with two ladlefuls of boiling water, and simmer for ~10 minutes, or until cooked. Finely chop the spring onions and peel and finely grate the ginger.Slice the mange touts or peas in half lengthwise. Roughly chop the peanuts. In a large wok, get a little vegetable oil nice and hot, then fry the spring onion and ginger for a minute, turning constantly. Throw in the mange tout or peas and stir fry until the peas are cooked and bright green, but before they wilt. Stir in the alfalfa sprouts and peanuts, then turn off the heat. Serve the stir fry over the rice, with soy sauce on hand to add if you need it.

Sweet Potato and Bacon Frittata

The Internet told me to make this one. It was the end of the week, and we were running low on food, and the two things I needed to use up most were a large sweet potato, and a packet of bacon. So I typed 'sweet potato bacon' into Google, and auto-complete immediately suggested 'frittata recipe'. So I went for it! And it turned out wonderfully :) I also served it with a quick courgette ribbon salad from a blog that I simply cannot find again, but I'll cover that in another post.

I think grilled green pepper or even some okra would work better than peas; I might try that next time.

Ingredients:

• a medium sweet potato
• 3 full (or 6 streaky, or 4 back) bacon rashers
• 6 eggs
• 3/4 cup of frozen peas
• 25g cheddar
• 1 tsp paprika

Preferably using a mandolin, but a sharp knife and a steady hand will do, slice the sweet potato into 3mm rounds. Brush them lightly with oil and bbq them with the bacon; if you can fit them all on the grill, it should take about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, break the eggs into a large bowl and whisk in some bubbles of air. Drop in the frozen peas. When the bacon is done, shred it finely and add it to the eggs and peas. When the sweet potatoes are done, make a layer of sweet potato discs at the bottom of an oiled, medium cast-iron skillet. Pour in half the egg mixture, then add another layer of sweet potatoes, then the remaining egg mixture, and then a final layer of sweet potatoes. Grate over the cheddar and sprinkle over the paprika. Cook on the bbq hot plate for a further 10-15 minutes, until set and coming away from the sides.

Any extra sweet potato discs are fantastic to snack on with a sprinkling of coarse salt.

Beef and Ale Stew

This week I have a plan, and it involves stretching a kilo of cheap beef across three very tasty meals. The trick with cheap cuts of beef is to simmer them for a long time, until the gristly fatty connective tissue breaks down and becomes a thickener for the sauce. By this point the meat itself is tender and falling apart. Wonderful!

First off is the world's simplest stew, something I can always throw together if I have just a few minutes to do the preparation before I go do an hour's work -- or telecon as is usually the case on Tuesdays. Tomorrow I want to use the remaining stew in Cornish pasties, but tonight it's just as-is, with delicious fresh bread spread thickly with margarine to dip in. This recipe serves six if you were to eat it all straight away.

Ingredients:

• 1kg diced beef
• two large brown onions
• a couple of bay leaves
• 500-600ml dark ale (so a pint or a demi depending on your country of origin)
• 15 shallots (optional)
• two large carrots
• four potatoes
• two large tomatoes
• 300g frozen peas (optional)

Chuck the beef in a large heavy-lidded casserole pot (e.g. a Le Creuset) and fry for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, finely dice the onions. Once the meat is a little browned on the outside, add the onions and bay leaves and fry for a further 3-4 minutes, until the onion has lost its raw smell. Pour in the ale and bring up to a simmer; allow to cook uncovered until it stops frothing. If you're using the shallots, cut off the root and peel them, and drop them whole into the stew. Cover and simmer for an hour, checking halfway through to stir and make sure it is not looking dry.

After an hour, check a piece of meat - it should slice easily with a knife, and any fat should be transparent and wobbly. If the meat is still tough or the fat is white and stringy, simmer for a further half hour and check again. Meanwhile, scrub and cube the carrots and potatoes; finely dice the tomatoes. Add to the pan, cover and simmer for a further twenty minutes, until the carrots and potatoes are soft. If using the peas, pour directly into the stew, stir to cover, and simmer for 2-3 minutes until sweet. Chcek the stew for seasoning; it may need 1-2 tsp of salt and a good grinding of pepper. Serve with hot fresh bread.

Laksa Lemak

This is a slightly vegetable-fortified version of a very seafood-heavy Singaporean soup from my humungous Asian cooking compendium. The whole house now smells of prawns but it was worth it :)

Ingredients:

• 10 raw prawns (or more if you're hungry)
• a large handful of rice vermicelli
• 1 tsp dried shrimp paste (don't inhale, lol)
• 1 large onion, peeled and cut into big pieces
• 1 tsp galangal powder
• 6 candlenuts
• 1 stem lemongrass
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• a 200g chunk of pumpkin, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 200ml of coconut milk (or thereabouts)
• a large handful of frozen peas
• one lime
• fried tofu, cooked crab or fish cakes (add if you're very hungry)
• a quarter of a cucumber
• a small bag of beansprouts

Peel and devein the prawns; reserve the flesh in the fridge and put the heads and shells in a stockpot. Cover with at least 300ml of boiling water and boil for 30 minutes, to produce a rich prawn stock. Drain and discard the heads and shells. Soak the rice vermicelli in hot water for 10 minutes, then drain.

In a food processor, blend the shrimp paste, onion, galangal powder, candlenuts and lemongrass, then fry for 7-8 minutes, turning frequently, until the mixture has darkened and reduced a little. Add the prawn stock and simmer for twenty minutes, then add the pumpkin and cook for a further five -- or until the pumpkin is almost done. Stir in the coconut milk, frozen peas, cooked vermicelli and add the raw prawns. Bring up to a simmer and cook for a few minutes; turn off the heat as soon as the prawns are cooked. Juice in half of the lime, and cut the other half into wedges.

Slice the cucumber thinly and add to the bean sprouts in a separate bowl; add the lime wedges to decorate. Serve the soup in deep bowls, topped with the extra protein if you're very hungry. Take handfuls of salad and top the soup, add a splash of lime juice and soy sauce and eat the salad with the soup. Yum!

Quick Thai Coconut Chicken

A quick one after a long day at work, again based on a tasty pre-marinaded meat available at our local butcher's. I'm pretty sure it was just a couple of chicken thighs, deboned, marinaded in garlic, chilli, coriander leaf and ginger for 24 hours. I cut them into bite-sized pieces, fried in a hot wok, then covered in 100ml of coconut milk and the juice of a lime, bubbled through and served over egg-fried rice, with a slightly more generous amount of peas than usual to make up for the lack of vegetables.

Ham and Pea Soup

One delighted and surprised parent!

My parents dropped by after a long drive down, during which they hadn't been able to find a good restaurant to stop in. So they were hungry from the drive, but didn't want anything too heavy. Luckily I just happened to have a big vat of chicken stock boiling on the stove and in the fridge, the last few slices of a lovely ham I cooked earlier in the week.

I drained the stock, thickly diced a few slices of ham and dropped a cup of frozen peas into each bowl, then poured the stock and ham over. Popped each bowl into the microwave for a minute each, and stirred in a handful of finely chopped parsley - and made instant delicious soup!

Broad Bean and Pea Salad

A warm and zesty salad, and a delicious way to use broad beans, which tend to glut in the spring. We peeled ours after cooking tonight, as they seemed to have more bitter skins than usual. But sometimes the skins are thin and delicate so you can leave them on. Otherwise, peeling them doesn't take too much time: just use your thumbnail to nick a small hole in the end opposite the black sprout line, and squeeze the cooked bean out.

Ingredients:

• 200g broad beans, unpodded weight
• 100g petit pois (frozen is fine)
• 1 generous handful of mint leaves
• juice of half a lemon or a whole lime
• 1 tsp demerara sugar
• good olive oil

Pod the broad beans, bring a small pan of unsalted water to a moderate boil, and drop in the broad beans. If you have a lot of different sizes, try to give the largest an extra minute or two of cooking time by dropping them in first. Cook for 7-8 minutes, until tender. Just before they're done, you can drop in the frozen peas and bring back to a boil, then drain. Run under cold water, especially if you intend to peel the broad beans.

Toss the beans and peas with the rest of the ingredients and serve warm. Tonight it went well with lamb burgers and apricot cous-cous, before we got down to the serious arts and crafts of wedding invitations..!