Wen's Chow Mein - Slimified!

So my cousin married the most amazing woman, Wen. She has become a good friend and a couple of years ago they came down to visit so she could give me some Chinese cooking lessons.  Her chow mein is out of this world, better than any takeaway and to watch her cook is such a joy.  She uses chopsticks for almost everything and has a natural instinct in the kitchen.

The recipe she gave me is so wonderful and versatile that it will really work with just about any meat and veg.  The version I post here is fairly true to Wen's method, only I remove the oil and the fried onions on top (moment of silence for the onions please...). I do add half a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil at the very end for the flavour of it, which is what really makes Chinese food. That is one syn for the whole recipe, which should easily serve 5-6 people.

Ingredients:

• Cooking spray
• 250g medium egg noodles (dry weight)
• 500g chicken fillets (sliced into thin strips)
• 2 carrots, peeled and cut into thin slives
• 1 large onion, sliced
• Beansprouts, half package
• Mange Tout, half packet
• 1 tbsp fresh garlic
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
• 3 tbs dark soy sauce
• 3 tbs oyster sauce
• sweetener (optional) to taste
• white pepper
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil

Cook noodles according to package directions, cut into smaller pieces, set aside to cool.

Spray wok with cooking spray and cook chicken slices until cooked through. Remove from wok.

Re-spray wok and cook carrots for a minute or two then add onions.  Cook until beginning to soften.  Add mange tout and beansprouts. Cook for a minute or two.  Add garlic and ginger and cook for another minute or two. Add soy sauce, oyster sauce and sweetener. Season with white pepper.

Add chicken and noodles to wok.  Stir fry and ensure the noodles are all coated in the sauce. If you need to, add a bit more soy and oyster sauce (equal parts).  Once ready, stir in sesame oil and serve. 

Salad for Breakfast: Layered Tex-Mex Salad

I just ate salad for breakfast. Because I can. Isn't being an adult wonderful? I've gone wheat-free and quasi-paleo of late and am loving it, feel like a new woman and this salad fits in well!

This isn't your average salad, it's salad I've been dreaming about all night because it is just that good. The combination of flavours and textures added to the aesthetic appearance is just fabulous. It's a whole meal and a healthy one at that, which would be perfect for dinner or to bring to picnics, potlucks or parties. It keeps well overnight and doesn't get soggy. I used grilled Mexican seasoned pork chops as the main protein, sliced thinly, but you could use a layer of seasoned taco beef or ground turkey, or some sliced grilled chicken or just leave meat out entirely! You may notice you don't see the corn in the pictures that the recipe calls for, but that's because when I went to get the corn, it turned out I had none. Although this was excellent without it, I think the crunchy sweetness would have added another fabulous layer of flavour.

Ingredients:

For the salad:

• 4 little gem lettuce, thinly sliced
• 4 ripe tomatoes, diced
• 1 large white onion, finely diced
• handful chopped coriander (cilantro)
• 2 avocados, thinly sliced
• lime, juiced
• 2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 can black or kidney beans
• 1 can sweetcorn
• 4 roasted red peppers, sliced
• 2 cups meat choice (see intro)
• 1 cup sliced black olives
• 1 quantity of dressing (recipe below)

Mix the onions and coriander and add half the juiced lime. Season with salt and pepper.  Use the remaining lime juice to coat the avocado slices to ensure they don't brown.

Get a large glass bowl and begin assembling. Start with a big layer of lettuce, reserving about 1/4 then layer the rest of the ingredients in whatever way seems appealing to you, with the dressing on the top. Top with another thin layer of lettuce. You can add a bit of cheese and green onions and olives on top as a garnish if you'd like.

Serve 

For the dressing:

• 2/3 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp chill powder
• salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. 

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Winter Warmers: Italian Wedding Soup

When I lived in New York state, I worked for a major bank. During my training I was sent to a different part of town to work in a corporate branch in the business district. I hated every second of it, except for lunch time on Wednesdays.  I smelled it before I saw it, rich, warm, flavoursome and I asked what it was. Italian Wedding Soup they said.  Every Wednesday they had Italian Wedding Soup. It was so good, the only way I got through my few months in that job was knowing that every week had a Wednesday!

The whole family, even the picky ones have inherited my love for this soup and often beg for it after a long hike in the mountains. It really is a full meal in a bowl with protein, veggies and carbs all covered.

I've tried many recipes over the years and nothing has compared to that little canteen. Eventually I had to reconstruct my own version. Some recipes use kale, some use spinach, either would work fine, I use spinach because it's easier to find here, but go with whatever works for you.  If you can't get Italian sausage, use normal sausage and add some ground fennel seeds, chilli and Italian seasoning to the meatball mix and you will come pretty close! A perfect meal for these cold wintery days.

Ingredients:

For the meatballs-

• 1 lb Italian sausage meat (remove casings from alb of sausage)
• 1/2 lb lean ground beef
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 egg
• handful parmesan
• pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• salt, pepper

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and form small one inch meatballs. Brown in a 200C/400F oven for about ten minutes. 

For the soup-

• 1 tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 tbsp Butter
• 3 carrots, peeled and diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3-4 celery stalks, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 3-4 litres chicken stock
• 1 cup small pasta shapes (orzo or risini work well, broken spaghetti is fine too)
• 2-3 handfuls torn spinach
• Meatballs
• Salt
• Black and white pepper
• Parmesan cheese to serve

Saute the carrots, onion and celery in the butter and olive oil until soft. Add garlic and sauté for another minute or so until fragrant. 

Pour in stock and add pasta, cook for about ten minutes then add meatballs. Allow to cook for another 5-10 minutes until pasta is cooked. Stir in the spinach and allow to wilt. Season with the salt and two types of pepper. Serve in big bowls with lashings of freshly grated parmesan.

Chicken and Dumplings

Winter is well and truly here. Time to break out the comfort food.  This is more chicken and biscuits (of the American variety) than chicken and dumplings, but the biscuits are baked on top of the casserole.  It's absolutely delicious and frugal as well.  My kids and all their friends go nuts for this one. 

This would also be great for all the leftover turkey and stock you're bound to have after Christmas or Thanksgiving.  When I don't have stock on hand I just use a bouillon cube and it's just fine.

If you're not up for making biscuits or just feeling lazy as I often am, the base casserole will be delicious with a sheet of puff pastry over it too.

Ingredients

For the casserole:

• 1 lb leftover chicken/turkey, chopped
• 3 large carrots, cubed
• 3 stalks of celery, diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 tbsp butter
• 4 tbsp flour
• sprig of thyme, chopped (or 1/2 tsp dried thyme)
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup cream
• handful of frozen peas
• handful fresh parsley, chopped
• salt and pepper 

Pre-heat oven to 180C/350F.

Saute the carrots, onion and celery in the butter until they are beginning to soften.  Stir in thyme.  Sprinkle with flour and cook for about a minute stirring to incorporate the flour.  Slowly pour in the stock, cream and milk and whisk in until a thick sauce forms. Bring to boil, reduce heat to a simmer.  If the sauce is too thick, add more cream or milk to thin.  Stir in chicken and peas. Allow to simmer for about five minutes while you make the biscuits.  Stir in the parsley at the end and season with salt and pepper.  

For the biscuits:

• 2.25 cups plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.  Add butter and mix with two knives or a pastry cutter until it resembles breadcrumbs.  Stir in the parsley and milk to make a sticky dough.

Pour the filling into a 9x13 pyrex dish or something similar.  Break off large tablespoons of the biscuit dough and plop on top of the chicken mixture.  I usually get about 12 biscuits.

Bake for half an hour or until golden brown on top and dumplings are cooked through.  Allow to stand for about 10 minutes before serving.

Chicken and Black Bean Burritos

This is a delicious and super easy Tex Mex meal that can be whipped up in no time. Serve with salsa, sour cream and shredded lettuce for a delicious healthy meal!

Ingredients-
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 cups shredded cooked chicken
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 2-3 tbsp salsa
- 1 can black beans, drained
- 1 large handful coriander (cilantro) chopped
- 2 cups shredded cheese
- 8 flour tortillas
- butter for frying

Melt a tablespoon if butter in a small skillet. Add onion and sauté until softened. Add in chicken and spiced and stir in garlic until fragrant. Remove from heat and stir in salsa, beans and coriander. Season to taste. Depending on your taste you may want to add a teaspoon of sugar to counteract the salsa.

Split the mixture onto the 8 tortillas. Top with 1/8 of the cheese and fold into a little envelope.

Fry in butter until browned and pop in oven to keep warm while you do the rest.

Serve with salsa, guacamole, sour cream and some shredded lettuce. Enjoy!

Cheater's Pizza

Excuse my absence of late, we have moved to the fabulous County Tipperary and I haven't had much internet access!

So this week the kids were bugging me for pizza and it was 5pm and I knew I didn't have time to make dough properly and have it risen and rolled out etc in time to feed them. However, I had some no-knead wholewheat dough in the fridge and had a brain wave!

Normally to use the no-knead dough as pizza you have to roll it out, pre-heat your oven to the highest setting and somehow manage to get a topped pizza into the oven without the use of a pizza peel, which I cannot find anywhere in Ireland, so my pizzas generally turn into calzones on the way to the oven. But this time I tried something different.  I fired up my grill pan to a high heat and rolled out some dough very thin and threw it on the pan.  It grilled up quickly and then we let the kids top them (don't ask me about the corn, I know it's insanely wrong, corn on pizza, it's something they have picked up in Ireland!) and threw them under the grill/broiler in the oven to melt the cheese.  Ridiculously quick and easy and none of the usual pizza hassle.  So easy we did it again the following night!

Ingredients:

• 1 quantity of no-knead dough *
• Pizza Sauce **
• Mozzarella
• Toppings of your choice

Pre-heat grill pan until it is smoking. Pre-heat oven grill/broiler.

Sprinkle your dough with flour and coat your hands in flour. Tear off a fist size ball of dough and roll out as thin as possible on a floured surface.

Throw on grill pan and grill for 2-3 minutes until grill marks are prominent then flip and repeat. It should get quite crisp.

Top the pizza base with sauce, cheese and toppings of your choice. Pop under grill/broiler until the cheese is bubbling and browning.

Enjoy!

* If you have not heard me wax evangelical about no-knead dough, check out this post. If I had to give up all my cookery books save for one, this would be the one I would keep.  The bread takes next to no effort, is cheap and so delicious!  There is now a UK version of the book for those who prefer to work with weight measurements, but I prefer the book with the US cup measuring system, less thinking or time involved!  The dough I use on a daily basis and used for this recipe is their light wholewheat bread.

The recipe is as follows:

3 cups luke warm water
1.5 tbsp dry yeast
1.5 tbsp kosher/sea salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
5.5 cups white flour

Mix the water with the yeast and salt and gradually stir in the flours. Stir until all combined, don't knead or over mix.  Leave to rise, lightly covered for two hours or so until it flattens again.  At this point either use the dough or pop it in the fridge and pull off as needed.  One pound pieces make lovely boules and loaves.  I rip off small fistfuls and make the kids rolls for lunches. You can use it to make pizza, pitta, naan, cinnamon rolls... the list is endless. The book has so many different dough recipes from granary to rye to broiche. I cannot recommend it enough!

** I just mix some passata with garlic powder, a pinch of sugar and Italian seasoning when I'm in a hurry!

Better than Take-Away Cashew Chicken

It's a rare thing that I cook something that everyone raves about.  I've made this before as per the original recipe and it was ok, but this time I added some twists and it was out of this world.  Both the girls raved about it and had seconds and himself kept saying it was better than take-out.  I would have to agree, this is a simple and delicious dish that comes together quickly and pleases just about everyone.  You could certainly add any other vegetables you prefer.

The recipe is a little odd in terms of the oil used, but basically it makes an emulsified sauce that somehow works and isn't at all greasy.  This comes together really quickly as well, so have your rice cooked and ready to go!

Better Than Take-Away Cashew Chicken

• 4 large chicken fillets, cubed
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup tamari (dark soy sauce)
• 3 tbsp chilli powder
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 cups unsalted cashews, roasted
• 2 large onions, roughly chopped
• 1 large carrot, thinly chopped
• 1 package of mushrooms, quartered
• 2-3 scallions, sliced diagonally

Marinade chicken by adding oil, tamari, chilli powder, honey, garlic and ginger to a bowl with the chicken.  Stir until emulsified. Allow to marinade for at least 30 minutes, the longer the better.

Heat up a wok and remove the chicken from the marinade with a slotted spoon.  Reserve marinade. Stir fry until cooked through and remove from wok and set aside.

Pour marinade into wok and cook for a few minutes at a high boil to kill any bacteria from the raw chicken.  Remove all but 1tbsp from wok and set aside.

Add carrots and onions and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes.  Add the mushrooms and stir until cooked through.  Add cashews and chicken and enough of the sauce to coat.  Sprinkle chopped scallions on top and serve with white rice.

Adapted from Simply Recipes. 

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