As the alert will have spotted by now, I’m catching up on a backlog of the recipes I’ve tried out over the summer. So here’s another.

Fried Rice

Serves: 2
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 15 minutes

Ingredients

• Mild vegetable oil of your choice
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 banana shallot or small onion, chopped
• 2 spring onions, sliced into rounds
• 4 large mushrooms, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 handfuls frozen peas, thawed in boiling water
• 1 yellow pepper, chopped fine
• 150g cold pre-cooked long-grain rice
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce or more depending on taste
• Ground black pepper
• 150g leftover meat or prawns

What to do …

1. Heat the wok or large frying pan over high heat for a couple of minutes. Add about a tablespoon of oil.
2. Pour in the eggs and scramble. When just cooked, remove from the pan and set aside.
3. If needed, add a bit more oil. Add the onion, spring onion, yellow pepper, mushrooms and garlic. Cook just until the onion is just beginning to brown. Set aside with the egg.
4. Again, add a bit more oil of needed. Add the meat/prawns and cook for 5 minutes until hot through and beginning to brown.
5. Increase the heat and add the rice, soy sauce, egg, veg mix, peas and a good grind of black pepper. Stir-fry for about 5 minutes until the rice is well hot throughout.

Notes

1. Make the rice ahead and chill before frying. The key is starting with chilled, day-old cooked rice that’s only just cooked.
2. Don’t use freshly cooked rice. If you try to use freshly cooked rice, it becomes overcooked and too soft.
3. Don’t make ahead of time and reheat. This will also result in overcooked rice.
4. If using frozen or raw prawns, be sure they get fully cooked through.

OK so here’s another stirfry I’ve been playing with in recent weeks.

Just for a change, we bought a pack of turkey breast strips. We had no great hopes for them as our previous encounters with bits of turkey haven’t been encouraging. However this was good and tender.

Turkey Stirfry with Lime & Coconut

Serves: 2 for a generous main course
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 10 minutes

For the Stirfry

• 2 nests of Noodles
• 300g pack Turkey Breast strips
• 2 banana shallots or a medium onion, finely sliced
• 1 red or yellow pepper, sliced
• 3 or 4 medium mushrooms, sliced
• 3-6 cloves of garlic (according to taste), sliced
• generous handful cashews or pine puts (optional)
• 3 tbsp olive oil

For the Sauce

• 1-2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Worcester sauce
• 50ml dry sherry
• juice & zest of 2 limes
• generous 2 tbsp tomato paste
• generous 1 tbsp garlic paste
• pinch chilli flakes
• 1-2 tbsp flakes of coconut cream (flake some from a block)
• black pepper

What to do …

1. As always with stirfry, have everything prepared before you start cooking.
2. Mix all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
3. Slice the onion, pepper, mushrooms & garlic.
4. If the turkey strips are too large, cut them into small-finger sized pieces.
5. Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions.
6. Sauté the onion, pepper and garlic in the olive oil until going translucent.
7. Add the turkey and cook for another 3 minutes. If necessary add a little more oil.
8. Then add the mushrooms and cook for a further couple of minutes.
9. Add the sauce to the pan and cook to thicken and reduce for 3 minutes or so.
10. Just before the end add the nuts (if using).
11. Drain the noodles and divide between warmed bowls.
12. Top each bowl of noodles with stirfry.

Notes

1. You don’t need salt in this, there’s enough in the soy sauce.
2. As always, if you want to ensure the sauce thickens well, mix in a teaspoon of cornflour.
3. As an alternative, top each bowl of stirfry with the nuts, rather than adding them to the stirfry.

Oh my word, we’ve not had a culinary adventure for nearly 3 months. That’s inexcusable!

Anyway last Friday was our 44^th wedding anniversary. No, we don’t know how it happened either! So I did something a bit different, largely my own invention!

Scallops with Lime & Ginger Stirfry and Noodles

Serves: 2
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 10 minutes

Main Ingredients

• Scallops – as many as you like, we had a greedy 3x 125g packs
• black pepper
• paprika
• 2-3 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2 nests of Noodles

For the Stirfry

• 1 large salad onion (or 1 banana shallot, or ½ small-ish onion), finely sliced
• 1 red or yellow pepper, sliced
• 3 medium mushrooms, sliced
• 2-3cm piece of ginger, grated
• 2-3 tbsp sunflower oil

For the Sauce

• ½ wine glass dry sherry
• a tot of brandy
• juice & zest of 2 limes – zest reserved
• 1-2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp garlic paste
• black pepper

What to do …

You need to concentrate on the timing as the scallops don’t want to be overdone; so have everything prepared in advance of cooking.

1. Lay out the scallops on a board and pat them dry with kitchen paper. Sprinkle them on both sides with freshly ground black pepper and paprika.
2. In a small bowl mix together all the sauce ingredients.
3. Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions.
4. Sauté the onion, pepper, mushrooms and ginger all together in 2-3 tbsp sunflower oil in a suitable frying pan or sauté pan.
5. When the stirfry is cooking well (3-4 minutes), put 2-3 tbsp oil in a second heavy frying pan on a high heat.
6. When the frying pan is hot, sear the scallops and cook for about 4 minutes, turning them over halfway through.
7. As soon as you put the scallops on, add the sauce to the stirfry, bring back up to heat and cook to reduce and thicken.
8. Just before the scallops are done, quickly drain the noodles and divide between warmed bowls.
9. Top each bowl of noodles with stirfry, then scallops and garnish with the lime zest.
10. Eat immediately accompanied by a bottle of champagne.

And it was good! There were no leftovers.

Notes

1. As usual for us, no added salt or sugar.
2. If you want to ensure the sauce thickens well, mix in a teaspoon of cornflour.
3. If you want a bit of variation of texture, add a handful of cashews or pine nuts to the stirfry shortly before serving.