Ching-He Huang's Spiced beef stir fry topped with spring onion and coriander

Ingredients

For the beef stir fry
400g/14oz beef fillet
2 tbsp groundnut oil
1 tsp Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry
1 tbsp light soy sauce
pinch sea salt
1 large handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped
1 spring onion, finely sliced
For the wasabi mayonnaise
1 tsp wasabi paste (available from some supermarkets and Asian grocers)
3 tbsp mayonnaise
pinch caster sugar
For the spicy coating
1-2 tbsp ground cumin (to taste)
1-2 tbsp dried chilli flakes (to taste)
1 tsp ground black pepper
½ tsp sea salt
To serve
warm flour tortilla wraps

Method

1. For the beef, prepare the fillet by flattening it with a meat mallet or rolling pin, or cut it in half horizontally. Cut into wafer-thin slices.
2. For the wasabi mayonnaise, mix all of the wasabi mayonnaise ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. For the spicy coating, mix all of the coating ingredients together on a plate. Roll the beef slices in the spice mix, then shake off any excess.
4. Heat a wok until smoking and add the groundnut oil, then add the beef and stir-fry for one minute, or until browned. Add the rice wine and season with the soy sauce and a pinch of salt. Remove from the heat and stir in the coriander and spring onion.
5. To serve, wrap the spicy beef in the tortillas and top with the wasabi mayonnaise. Serve immediately.

- I served it with spicy potatoes this time - next time I'm definately going to try the wrap option.

Debbie & Andrew's Scicilian Sausage Pasta Bake

 

I came across this company at the Good Homes Show in Earls Court a few years ago. They were handing out sausage samples on sticks, my friend Tuely and I kept going back for more as they were honestly the most delicious sausages we had ever had. We both bought lots of sausages that day from Debbie & Andrew's. When I got home I went to their website and found that they kept their own recipe log of recipes they had been sent on there. I liked the look of this one and so printed it out. It is now one of our favourites and always goes down very well.

I would also like to thank this recipe as it is responsible for me finally mastering tomato pasta sauce from scratch so I love it on too levels as it is due to this recipe that I have managed to create my own recipes such as my leftover pasta (with ham)  .

Hope you enjoy!

Mum's Fresh Fried Fish

This dish instantly makes me think of summer. It was a big favourite of childhood and is of adulthood too. It took me yrs to master it for myself but I finally did last summer :) 

Here's some info on Matzo Meal, for those of you who haven't heard of it or want to know some more, what it is and what it can be used for:

Matzo meal: How to cook: Good Food Channel

Rakusen's Limited :: Where can I purchase Matzo Meal?  

New Tip: I now have started coating the fish in plain flour before the egg and then the matzo meal, this, I've found, makes a better fuller coating.

 

Cate's Delicious Fish Pie

Anna's Delicious Cottage Pie

Yum Yum Yum!

Proper traditional comfort food.

18 November 2012 (update)

Didn't add carrot this time but did add sundried tomatoes and a bit of left over pepper and also fennel seeds to the mince when it was cooking. I added a little truffle oil and butter when mashing the potato and  edam and parmesan on  top; all recommended additions, all yummy.

Melodie's Delicious Bolognaise

Another delicious recipe from my fabulous friend Melodie...again learnt when I went to stay with her in Paris during my student days....

 

As you can see for this version I also added green olives and left over orange pepper to the recipe, which worked very well indeed - sundried tomatoes would be another good addition

I personally think that wholemeal pasta works best with all red meat dishes. 

Enjoy! - it's definately one of my long term favourites which I cook time and time again. x

Anna's Mum's Traditional Mexican Picadillo

Picadillo is a traditional Mexican dish introduced to me by my wonderful, half Mexican, friend Anna through her Mum's delicious recipe and Anna's amazing cooking....

Now before you begin the main part of the recipe you should put your brown rice on to cook as it takes 25mins. You want it in a large pan with boiling water, straight from the kettle, 75g per person approx, though for this quantity of Picadillo I generally use 225g which seems to be the perfect quantity. Literally bring the pan up to the boil, place the lid on, turn down the heat to a simmer and set your timer for 25mins - that's it - the delight of cooking brown rice- so simple!

Here is the rest of the method:

Plate it up with a couple of spoonfuls of the rice and equal quantity of the Picadillo as so:

How ever if you then want to freeze the remainder as I did, I suggest that you mix your rice and Picadillo together as so:

New Twist on Macaroni Cheese for dinner (BBC Good Food)

Tonight I am cooking a new twist on Macaroni Cheese from this lovely cookbook. I honestly recommend getting as many books as you can from this series and the Good Home series too - they're are such great books, really well put together with tons of excellent and inspirational ideas.


Here is the original recipe (click to see it full size):

I have added a couple of ingredients over the course of cooking this dish over the years, I warn you it doesn't make it any healthier, but in my opinion adds to its yummy factor!

Here are my ingredients:

So I added a little grated cheese and a pack on honey roast ham...

The quantities are deceptive - this recipes does go quite a long way and also reheats from frozen very well.

Here is my finished dish:

Hope you add this recipe to your store-cupboard recipes too - let me know what you think....enjoy!

Ching-He Huang's chicken fried rice (for dinner with my lovely friend Anna)

Delicious with sticky glutinous rice, it's equally tasty with jasmine rice. Recreate Ching-He's family dish, passed down by her grandmother, in your own home

Ingredients:

• 2tbsp groundnut oil
• 1tbsp freshly grated root ginger
• 3 shallots, finely chopped (I used 1 onion instead)
  
• 3 dried Chinese mushrooms, pre-soaked in hot water for 20 mins, drained and finely chopped (I used 4 regular mushrooms)
  
• 225g/8oz skinless chicken breast fillets, finely diced
• 1tbsp Shaohsing rice wine or dry sherry
• 1tsp five-spice powder
• 1tbsp dark soy sauce (I forgot to photograph this - but please don't leave it out the recipe - it's definately an important factor)
  
• 50g/2oz dry-roasted peanuts
• 300g/11oz cooked jasmine rice or glutinous rice (I used precooked basmati)
  
• 3-4tbsp light soy sauce
• 1-2tbsp toasted sesame oil (I used ASDA Chinese stirfry oil)
  
• Ground white pepper
• 1 spring onion, finely chopped (I used a bunch)
  

Method:

1. Heat a wok or pan over a high heat and add the groundnut oil. Add the ginger, shallots and Chinese mushrooms and cook for a few seconds.
2. Add the chicken and cook for a minute or two, then add the rice wine or sherry followed by the five-spice powder. As the chicken starts to turn white, add the dark soy sauce.
3. Add the peanuts and then the rice, mix well and stir-fry for 1 min.
4. Season with the light soy sauce, sesame oil and pepper to taste and stir to mix. Finally, stir in the spring onion, transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Original Link
 

Nigella's Christmas Puddini Bonbons (looks like a lovely way to use up the remainder of the Christmas pud)

I am going to attempt to cook these tomorrow morning... will let you know how it goes....


Original Ingredients:

• 125g best-quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
• 350g leftover, or freshly cooked and cooled, Christmas pudding
• 60ml sherry
• 2 x 15ml tablespoons golden syrup

      For decoration...

• 100g white chocolate, finely chopped
• 6 red glacé cherries
• 6 green glacé cherries, or 6 short lengths angelica

OK so the only things I changed here were, regular chocolate instead of dark chocolate as it was what I had and regular sherry instead of the fancy one for the same reason. Here is my photo of ingredients:

 

Original Method:

1 Line a baking sheet (that will fit in the fridge) with clingfilm, baking parchment, foil or Bake-O-Glide, and set it to one side while you make the bonbons.

2 Melt the dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended above a pan of simmering water, or in the microwave according to the manufacturer's guidelines.

3 Crumble the cold Christmas pudding into a bowl, add the  sherry and golden syrup and stir briskly till all is incorporated.

4 Pour in the melted dark chocolate and stir again: this will make the mixture much more cohesive.

5 To make this step easier, put on a pair of those disposable vinyl gloves sold in hardware stores and supermarkets, pinch out small lumps of mixture and roll so that you have little rounds about the size of a chocolate truffle. You should get about 30 out of this mixture; fight the impatient urge to make these balls larger as you go.

6 Cover with clingfilm and slot into the fridge to firm up.

7 To decorate, melt the white chocolate either in a heatproof bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water, or in the microwave according to the manufacturer's guidelines, then let it cool for about 5 minutes, to make it easier to work with, while you chop the red cherries into small pieces (to evoke berries), and snip the green cherries (or angelica) into miniature lengths, to represent leaves.

8 Using a teaspoon, drip a little of the melted but slightly cooled white chocolate on each bonbon, then arrange the infuriatingly sticky pieces of cherry on top.

9 Place in boxes to give away -- if you use small boxes that will fit 6 bonbons each, you will get 5 adorable presents out of this -- or on a plate to hand round with coffee, instead of dessert, after a post-Christmas dinner.

Makes about 30

MAKE AHEAD TIP:
Make the bonbons up to 2 weeks before eating or giving. Pack in boxes and store in a very cool place. If made 2 weeks ahead, add a label to say "keep cool and eat within 1 or 2 days".

   Original Recipe link

My finished result:

To be honest, they are very pretty and therefore nice to give as a gift but I wasn't blown away by what they tasted like. Would love to know what you make of them....