Fast Food, but home-made (Home Cooking - Helpful Hints and Tips)

Name: upton66

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Product:	Home Cooking - Helpful Hints and Tips
Date:	18/11/02 (221 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Really quick and wholesome, Healthy, Little washing up

Disadvantages: None

Over the last six months we have discovered the joy of the wok. We bought one of the electric all-in-one integral types. The whole non-stick pan with sealed element is easily washed up. Just plug in and you’re ready to go. Meals cooked in less than ten minutes.

I have always quite liked Chinese style cooking but been put off take-aways and Chinese food in restaurants by the sweetness and general artificial flavours, let alone the rather off-putting thought of overdosing on monosodium glutamate.

The first thing that surprised us was how quickly the wok cooks but I suppose, unlike large saucepans or frying pans, the whole pan gets hot evenly, both the bottom and up the sides. It also reaches alarmingly high temperatures very quickly. Until you get used to it, the danger is to overcook.

Ingredients - well the best thing is that anything goes.

I prefer food from the wok with a little meat; you get more flavour as well as something to get your teeth into, though I fully respect the feelings of vegetarians. We’ve tried chicken and turkey breasts, beef and pork fillet and fine lamb loin. Cut it into strips or chunks half inch thick. We hate any sign of fat so that is all cut out so we just have pure lean protein., and goodness.

Vegetables – basically anything you’ve got lying around goes, but I like a base on onions and peppers. Chop them into a mixture of chunks and slices. My favourite extra veg are whole baby sweetcorn, couple of crushed cloves, very finely chopped celery and grated fresh ginger and couple of pieces of water chestnut, you can add broken off florets of broccoli and cauliflower. The other essential ingredients for me are noodles, the packet instant type and fresh beanshoots.

Extra flavours - you need to experiment with any spices that take your fancy on the supermarket shelf: fennel, coconut, ginger, coriander etc. We’ve decided it is worth crumbling a stock cube, th
e vegetarian and herb flavour ones seem to go best, they are not as salty as traditional beef or chicken ones.

Liquid - a very small shot of sherry gives it a genuine Chinesey flavour otherwise beer or white wine is good. The other ingredient that you can experiment with is ready-made Chinese sauce in small bottles. There are all sorts, black bean, ginger, lemon grass, etc etc. Finding these plus new spices will add some interest to your routine shopping. These bottles of sauce are small for a reason, they tend to be strong flavoured and you don’t need much. The other key thing to avoid, apart from overcooking mentioned above, is making it all too wet, this will wreck the whole concoction and put you right off this style of cooking, it will just go into a mush. The joy is the different flavours and the different textures.

So you have all your raw ingredients ready. The meat ready cut to one side, the rough-cut veg all together in another pot and spices, garlic and ginger separate. They say the secret to success is in the preparation but really it is just that it will cook so quickly you need everything to hand ready to be thrown in. You also need to be ready to eat it straight from the pan, so lay the table ready with a glass of icy lager or chilled white wine.

Cooking – there are all sorts of weird and wonderful oils but we only like olive or sunflower oil, all the fancy ones have too strong a flavour for us. Heat the pan with a little oil in the bottom till a piece of onion dropped in fizzes but without spluttering everywhere. Against all guidance cook the vegetables first and keep tossing and stirring, don’t stop or it’ll all burn. Turn the heat down if it all gets a bit too exciting. After a couple of minutes it should be done, however many you are cooking for. It depends how “el dente” you want your veg, for me cooked, a bit crisp, but definitely not soggy.

Pull the veg aside and add
the spices, garlic and crumbled stock cube, these are the things liable to burn if you are not careful, have a small glass of water to throw in the pan if they look as though about to burn, it will preserve the flavour and steam off anyway. Give it all a toss.

Now add your neat. Keep turning the pieces over, against the side and bottom of the pan to seal them. Keep turning and pressing them against the hot pan till they are just cooked through, again it will all be surprisingly quick, poultry and pork need to be thoroughly cooked, lamb and beef can be veering on the side of rare depending on your taste. You can always cut through a piece with scissors to check and taste. Stir everything up; throw in the noodles, breaking them up, and then the beanshoots.

Now add your bottle of sauce, toss, check how wet it is and add a shot of sherry, white wine beer, or little water. DON’T cook it any more; it will go into that dreaded soggy mush.

Dish it up quick and enjoy this new found cuisine. Genuine homemade fast food. Tempt the children with it too. Experiment with different ingredients. Apart from the bottle of sauce it is all wholesome and fresh. Who needs take-aways?

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