Prawn and Broccolini Stir-Fry

 

This is a quick and easy dish, for any night of the week. If you are a lover of Prawns, this recipe is for you, but if you're not, please don't be disheartened. You can play with it, and substitute some chicken or tofu pieces for the prawns and you will still love the result.  This is a very versatile recipe, other vegetables can be substituted or added, and when it comes to eating your dish, you will think you have just been served a meal in your favourite Chinese restaurant. Promise! It will cost you a lot less as well.

Pork Egg Foo Young (Chinese Omelette)

Healthy Egg Foo Young is a delicious Chinese omelette which was created by the economical Chinese kitchen cooks to use up meat and vegetable leftovers, as was Fried Rice. Most Chinese restaurants generally have omelettes on the menu, and they are also delicious as a takeaway, however you can easily make them at home, as a welcome change to the normal cheese and herb omelette.

Tropical Beef and Mango Chutney Chow Mein

This is the perfect minced beef and vegetable dish for a busy weeknight, fuss free, it's loaded with lots of healthy vegetables, spices, and it takes less than half an hour to cook.  With a recipe like this, you can fly through the week stress-free, with an easy flavoursome meal that will give your family a gourmet experience on the cheap. 500 g of minced beef can be stretched to feed 6 people. 

Tropical Sweet and Sour Pork

 

Happy New Year to you all. If you are living in the Northern Hemisphere where it is freezing in parts I hope you are keeping warm, and if you are somewhere very tropical like we are, reaching temperatures of 36-40 deg. C daily, I hope you are keeping cool and well hydrated.

Summery Vietnamese Chicken Salad

It's Vietnamese food for lunch today. Great! We are so very fortunate to be able to enjoy cooking and eating a variety of cuisines at home now, however one of my favourites, particularly during the Australian Summer, is to eat Vietnamese. This recipe is everything that you love about Vietnamese food, healthy, fresh, full of flavour, and with lots of different textures.

This amazing recipe is based on the fantastic Vietnamese dressing and fresh salad mix used by the great Australian chef, Bill Granger in his book, Bills Open Kitchen. I have been making this recipe for years as his book was published back in 2003, but the recipe is timeless. I haven't included any noodles or rice in my recipe as we are watching our carbs, and quite frankly the dish doesn't need it, but if you must, serve this on a bed of vermicelli noodles, or with rice, and everyone will thank you for it.

It is also very versatile. If you are short on time, buy a cooked chicken, and use the chicken meat already cooked, or substitute cooked prawns for chicken. I love the flavour of Vietnamese Mint, and I'm fortunate to have it growing in a pot in my back garden, however if you can't get hold of it, substitute some chopped coriander leaves. Both of these herbs are quite strong in flavour, but I love that. I know already that a couple of my readers will say they don't like Vietnamese Mint, but there are always substitutes, or just leave it out.

Ingredients:

Serves 4 people

3 x 200 g (7 oz) chicken breasts without skin(or use 600 g precooked chicken breast)

2 tablespoons Olive oil or Vegetable oil 

sea salt

white pepper

90 g (1 cup ) bean sprouts, I even like more of them

20 g (1 cup) Vietnamese mint leaves or 1/2 cup coriander leaves

50 g (1 cup) fresh Basil leaves (sweet or Thai)

180 g (4 cups) Chinese cabbage, finely shredded, or iceberg lettuce if you must

Vietnamese dressing (recipe below)

90 g (1 cup) pickled carrot ( below) or raw carrot, peeled and finely julienned

Method:

Preheat your oven to 220 deg. C. (425 deg. F./Gas 7). 

Heat a frying pan on the stove top. Meanwhile, brush the chicken breasts with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Brown and sear the chicken breasts for 2 minutes, turn over and sear for another minute.  

Line a baking tray with baking paper, and place the chicken on the tray and cook them in your oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Leave the meat to rest covered for 20 minutes.

When cool enough, shred the meat into thin strips, your hands will be fine to do this, and place in a large bowl. This is the foundation of your salad.

Add the remaining ingredients and toss to combine. 

Vietnamese dressing:

60 ml ( 1/4 cup) lime juice

60 ml (1/4 cup) fish sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon caster sugar

2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped

 1/2 red onion, finely sliced or 3 red Asian shallots, finely chopped

1 large red Capilano chilli ( or 2 if you really like some chili), seeds removed

Method:

Place all the ingredients n a small bowl and stir until the sugar is dissolved

Pickled Carrot: as a delicious side and to mix through the salad

250 g (9 oz) carrots, peeled and finely julienned

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon caster sugar

Method:

Mix the salt with the julienned carrots in a colander and toss to combine. Leave for 20 minutes to remove the excess moisture . Place 185 ml (3/4 cup) water with the vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan over a medium heat and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and cool. Rinse the carrot, squeezing out any excess water with clean hands, and place in a bowl. Pour the pickling liquid over the carrot and stand for 1 hour. Strain before serving.

We ate this salad for lunch today, and it was so delicious. I prepared the vegetable salad early in the morning, and made the dressing, and kept them both in the frig. Then when I came home from shopping, I cooked the chicken fillets,  made the pickled carrot,  and the whole dish was very easy to assemble from there.

Cooks Tips:

• If you find you have a lot of the Chinese cabbage left over as I often do, my Wombok and noodle salad recipe has been very popular amongst readers, and my family love it. You can find the recipe at this link. It is also a Christmas favourite here in Queensland
• The pickled carrot makes a delicious side dish, however it is optional and as an alternative just mix some grated carrot though the salad.
• If necessary, crispy iceberg lettuce could be used instead of Chinese cabbage.
• Use a bought cooked chicken on busy days to make this dish, your family will hardly know the difference.
• Cooking the chicken fillets as I did in this recipe, produced very tender, flavoursome, shredded chicken
• If you have any chance of growing your own Basil plants or Vietnamese mint plants in Summer, it is well worth doing.
• If you have them growing, add two very finely chopped kaffir lime leaves to the salad. 

Here is another delicious salad in the same style as the one I have just shared with you, my Vietnamese Ruby Grapefruit Salad

HAPPY RETIREE'S KITCHEN : Vietnamese Ruby Grapefruit Salad (happyretireeskitchen.blogspot.com)

 Best wishes,

Pauline

Slow Cooker Vietnamese Pulled Pork with Char Sui Sauce and a Wombok Salad

 

Vietnamese cuisine is one of our favourite styles of cooking, and whilst we enjoy eating out occasionally at a very good Vietnamese restaurant here in Mackay, it is also very easy in this tropical weather we are still experiencing to place all of the ingredients for the Char Sui Pulled Pork into the slow cooker, set it for 8 hours, make a delicious Wombok salad to accompany it, cook some rice, and eat in the comfort of our own home. 

Gingered Garlic Pork with Stir Fried Vegetables

This is the perfect meal on a hot and sticky day like we are experiencing today, it's light and tasty. I love the way we Aussies describe a day like today, it's a Stinker, or it's Muggy and we are always hoping for rain or a storm. 

My Malaysian Fish Dish Recipe

Instead of queuing up for fresh fish and prawns today, and paying a fortune, I cooked this Malaysian Fish Dish curry for dinner tonight for the two of us, and it was delicious, and there are leftovers tomorrow to look forward to. This recipe is a riff on a family recipe I found the other day, handwritten on a piece of paper in one of my Mother's recipe books. 

Asian Pork Meatballs for a Melbourne Cup lunch

These delicious Pork Meatballs lend themselves very well to being baked in the oven and for me that is much easier than standing over a hot sizzling fry pan, as nice as that sounds, and cooking them carefully and hoping that they don't break up when I turn them over. 

Sticky Chicken Legs with Brown Rice and Stir Fried Vegetables

Who doesn't love sticky chicken wings or chicken drumsticks that are finger lickin' good? The weekend is the time when I am really drawn to more casual meals that are easy on preparation, but definitely delicious, and can still be cooked from scratch. This is a good weekender meal. However admittedly the Hoisin and Soy sauces for this dish come out of a bottle. I think that is ok sometimes, don't you?

 I realised I still had a full bottle of Hoisin sauce in the pantry after making gyozas a few months ago. I had bought extra sauce at the time and thought I would try it in combination with other typically Chinese sauce ingredients this time to use it up and it worked beautifully. If you like more sauce, all of the ingredients except for the chicken can just be doubled. If you have the time and think of it, the chicken would be even tastier marinaded for 6-12 hours beforehand, however this is isn't essential.

Serves 4
Ingredients:

1 kg chicken legs, about 8,  or 16 wings if you prefer
1/2 cup Hoisin Sauce
2 tablespoons low salt soy sauce
2 tablespoons Honey
4 chopped garlic cloves depending on their size
1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger, peeled
1 teaspoon dried ginger or galangal as well for extra oomph, optional
2 cups brown or white rice

Method:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.

1. Mix together well the soy and hoisin sauces, honey, garlic and ginger in a medium sized bowl
2. If you have time, marinate the chicken in this mixture overnight in the refrigerator
3. Because this is a sticky mixture, I lined an average sized baking tray with two layers of alfoil to prevent any leakage and gooey sauces sticking on the tray
4. Place the chicken pieces on the tray and cover each chicken piece with the sauce
5. Transfer the tray to the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes depending on your oven. Turn the chicken pieces every 15 minutes to prevent burning. The chicken should be caramelised and cooked through.
6.  I serve this with brown rice (for health reasons) although white tastes great, and  stir fried vegetables, such as capsicum, zucchini, broccoli or bok choy if you have it, and whatever else you have that is colorful, tasty and healthy.

There are lots of recipe variations out there on sticky chicken legs however this one is so easy with minimal ingredients required.

Dear friends, I hope your week is going well.

Best wishes

Pauline

Asian Pork mince with rice noodles or in lettuce cups

Asian Pork Mince

This has become one of our favourite meals, and we eat it almost weekly. It is healthy, low calorie and easy to prepare during the hot summer. Taste it before serving to ensure the combination of sauces suits your taste.

Serves 4
200 calories per serve

Ingredients:

cooking oil spray

4 green shallots, sliced diagonally
20g knob of fresh ginger, sliced finely
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
400-500g pork mince
120g green beans, sliced thinly with a bean stringer
4 teaspoons fish sauce
1 1/2 tablespoon kecap manis (or more to taste)
2 fresh long red chillis, sliced thinly
4 tablespoons water
small handful Thai or sweet basil leaves
12 baby cos leaves or packet of rice noodles
Lime quarters to serve

Let's cook:

Lightly spray a medium non-stick frying pan with olive oil and heat over a medium heat.Add the shallots, ginger and garlic. Cook covered, for 1 minute.

Increase heat to high. Add pork mince; cook stirring to break up lumps for 5 minutes or until browned. Stir in beans, sauces, chilli and the water. Cook for a further 2 minutes or until beans are tender and the sauce is slightly sticky. Stir in half the basil.

Serve mince in lettuce cups or in a bowl over rice noodles. Either way, top with the remaining basil and serve with lime pieces.

Enjoy!

Best wishes

Pauline

BEEF CHOW MEIN, PALEO STYLE

Paleo style cooking can be easy  and economical. I have been cooking this dish for years using cabbage, mince and curry powder, even before Paleo became a dietary phenomena promoting a healthy lifestyle and weight loss. It is a family favourite and very easy and nutritious to make

Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken for Retirees and Travellers

Dear friends, Here is such an easy and economical version of Sweet and Sour chicken with great flavour, using basic ingredients, and so easy to put together if you are travelling or feeling lazy at home. More vegetables such as zucchini, or snow peas can be added if you have them on hand.

This is so much healthier for us when we are in a rush than reaching for a ready made jar of sweet and sour sauce from the supermarket and tastes even better and is just a cinch to make.

Left over cooked chicken can also be used as a substitute for the fresh chicken. Just cut  into cubes and add it at after cooking all of the other ingredients. So easy and fast.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons Olive oil
3-4 chicken breasts
1 capsicum
4 celery stalks
1 can pineapple pieces, or use fresh if you prefer
1 tin tomato soup
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon curry powder
garlic if preferred

Let's cook:

Cut chicken pieces into bite size pieces and fry in oil until lightly browned. Remove from the pan.
Add chopped vegetables and fry until slightly softened.
Add the pineapple pieces and the juice and the tomato soup.
Add sugar and curry powder. Stir together and simmer until vegetables are cooked but still slightly crisp.



Replace the chicken pieces and serve with rice or noodles.

One of my Cattleya orchids in flower

Happy travels

Best wishes

Pauline