Stir-fry of beef with broccoli

This is a very basic template that I often use when doing a Chinese inspired stir fry dish. By template I mean that the specific ingredients can be substituted to taste, seasonality and whatever you have on hand. I love using vegetables that keep a bit of crunch (pak choi, chinese kale, etc.). Otherwise you can use whatever you fancy.

Ingredients for two to three people:
ca. 200 gr. good beef, thinly sliced (steak cuts tend to be good for this)
1 tblsp oyster sauce
1 tblsp soy sauce
a generous pinch of sugar or palm sugar
pepper to taste
Groundnut or vegetable oil to fry
two cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 cm piece of ginger, finely chopped
fresh chili to taste, finely chopped
1 head of broccoli, florets split if they are big, stem parts chopped to equal sized pieces
one glass of water on standby
1 small red onion, cut into wedges
a generous splash of Shaoshing rice wine or dry sherry
1/2 tsp of corn or potato starch dissolved in a little bit of cold water

1. Marinade your meat in a mixture of the oyster, soy, sugar and pepper. Leave it for at least 20 minutes.
2. Heat your wok or frying pan on high. Put in a tablespoon or two of oil and add your beef evenly. Let it sit for a minute or two to brown and then turn over. Take out of the pan and set aside.
3. Wipe out your pan if necessary. Heat it back up and add more oil if desired. Add the garlic, ginger and chili and fry until fragrant (Only a minute or so). Add the broccoli and stir fry for two minutes. Add a splash of water and cover the pan to allow the vegetables to steam for about three minutes.
4. Remove the lid and add back in the beef, the onion and the Shaoshing rice wine. After the wine has cooked off you can add more water if needed for the sauce.
5. Add the dissolved starch at the very end and it will only need a couple of moment to thicken the sauce. Check the seasonings and add more soy or pepper if necessary.
Serve with rice or noodles.

Asian Rice

My recipe today is not really photogenic... It's not very spectacular either. But it's a little trick I learned a couple of months ago that takes virtually no time at all and makes such a difference!

I love doing stir fries during the week. They take virtually no time at all and have tons of flavor, even if you only stick with the basics of chili, ginger and garlic with your chosen ingredients. This method of rice preparation has completely won over my taste buds with any kind of Asian inspired main dish... Give it a try and you won't be disappointed!

For two portions of rice (don't worry, it's so easy to multiply...)

ingredients:
one clove of garlic, finely chopped
one cm of fresh ginger, (peeled, if so desired and) finely chopped
a little bit of oil
one cup of long grain rice of choice (I use basmati), rinsed until the water runs clear and drained
one cup of stock (your choice, I like the chicken)

1. Heat the oil in a pan over moderate heat. Add your garlic and ginger. Let them fry for a couple of minutes but make sure that the garlic doesn't turn brown. You don't want the bitter taste.
2. Add your rice and slowly mix the whole thing. Like with the first step of risotto, you want every kernel coated.
3. Add your stock and let it come to the boil. Lower the heat, put a lid on it and let it simmer for ten minutes.
4. Take the lid off, let the remaining fluid evaporate and fluff the rice up with a fork.

Enjoy with your stir fry of choice...

Lamb cutlets

Yesterday was spent recuperating from a great night out two days ago (! that's how good it was) and cooking for various sick family members in the house. This produced a couple of soups and a lot of grated apple. The Orange and White Asparagus Soup will definitely be made again.

But not having foreseen the blight of sickness, I had already done the shopping in anticipation of being able to cook something a little different. I went ahead with this plan for dinner and was not disappointed. The results of this recipe will have me raving like a lunatic for some time yet.

It is, to me, the perfect finger food. The cutlets can be enjoyed without cutlery and I will definitely make this for the next party, that deserves a bit of effort.
These crunchy, juicy morsels of meat had the perfect texture for the creamy yogurt sauce. The cumin and the fresh coriander gave it the perfect hint of Asia.
Can you sense that I LOVED this? And I was not alone.

Please excuse the lack of appropriate photo-documentation. This is one instance in which a thousand raving words will have to do instead of the perfect picture. (Hope to change that soon.)

This recipe is adapted from Bill Grangers Everyday book.

12 french trimmed lamb cutlets
1 egg
1,5 tablespoons milk
flour
80 grams of fresh bread crumbs
one small handful of finely chopped flat leaved parsley
1 generous tablespoon of finely chopped fresh coriander leaves
1 teaspoon lemon zest
half a teaspoon of ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil for frying

Fill your flour into a flat, deep plate or bowl. In a second dish beat together the egg and milk. In the third mix together the breadcrumbs, herbs, zest and cumin. Then season to taste.
Take your lamb cutlets and beat them gently with the broad side of a chopping knife or a rolling pin. A classic meat hammer would probably tear them to shreds in seconds...
Dip the pieces of meat first in the flour (shake off excess), then in the egg and lastly into the crumb mixture. The general goal is to get as much breadcrumbs to stick and turn these beauties into crunchy delicacies when fried up.

Heat a frying pan to medium-high heat, add olive oil and fry the cutlets in batches for about two minutes per side. Keep them warm in the oven until you want to serve them.

Herb Yogurt Sauce
125 ml greek yogurt
2 tablespoons flat leaved parsley chopped
2 tablespoons coriander chopped
1 teaspoon lemon zest
salt to taste
a pinch of crumbled dry or finely chopped fresh chili, if desired

Very simply mix all of the above together and serve with your warm lamb cutlets.

*Advice on buying the meat in Switzerland: I found the cutlets sold at the local Coop to be slightly on the thick side. I chose to buy lamb racks instead and cut them up at home.

Improvised asian pork chops

These pork chops were a spur of the moment thing. We used what we had on hand and they turned out very delectable.



The marinade was;
lots of soy sauce
a couple of cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
a dash of ginger powder (because we didn't have any fresh)
a generous table spoon of homemade orange marmalade, very finely chopped (because the sister doesn't like it) *devilish*

In hindsight a little chopped chili would have been nice too.

We prepared the chops with a generous sprinkling of Dayong powder* on both sides and let them sit in the marinade for half an hour.
The chops were cooked about four minutes on both sides and left to rest under aluminum foil whilst the leftover marinade was used to make a sauce. I just let the marinade and a splash of white wine reduce in the pan that was used to cook the chops. Then I stirred in cold butter and adjusted the seasoning.

Served in slices with a few waxy potato and salad. Sorry, no pictures. We were sooo hungry.

*This is my fathers secret ingredient for cooking meats of all kind. It's an Asian (I think Chinese) spice mixture that gives the dish a more rounded flavor with a hint of exotic. But it doesn't really dominate the taste of the dish.