Cooking Crusade

I absolutely love getting snake bean dishes at Chinese restaurants, but often find it difficult to find places that make it without pork mince (since I don’t eat pork;) so I thought I’d have a whack at trying my own version. I love the sweetness of the sauce with the beans and the added tofu is a lovely combination and adds some protein. Try this one as a side dish, or throw in some noodles at the end for a lip smacking taste sensation It would also be great with some rice and works well for leftovers the next day. This recipe also works well for some vegetarians or even vegans who are looking for a super yummy easy weeknight meal to throw together.

Tofu and Bean Stir Fry
serves 2.
prep time about 5 minutes
cook time about 10 minutes

Ingredients
1 bunch of snake beans
1 package of tofu (in this instance I’m using the Soyco Asian honey soy pre-marinated package you can buy from the supermarket, e.g. Coles, etc. However if you can’t find this, you can still use firm tofu plain or marinate it yourself in some soy, honey and garlic.)
1 clove of garlic
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce or regular soy will do just fine (the dark soy adds a nice sweetness.)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

If marinating the plain tofu, dice the firm tofu into small cubes and marinate in a small bowl in the fridge overnight (1 teaspoon of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of honey + 1 clove of grated garlic).

If using the Soyco brand, dice into small cubes and set aside. Wash and cut snake beans into segments, grate/crush/dice ginger and garlic. Heat vegetable oil in a non stick fry pan over high heat and add the garlic and ginger. Allow it to sizzle and release that delicious scent. If using plain/marinated tofu, add to the pan now and fry for about 5-10 minutes to brown (the Soyco brand doesn’t need this since it’s already cooked – just needs to warm through.) Add snake beans to the pan and fry for another 5 minutes until their skins start to look a little shriveled and puckered (you want this! that means deliciousness!)

If using Soyco tofu, fry ginger and garlic and add beans straight to the pan until cooked as above. Add Soyco tofu and cook for a further 5 minutes or until tofu is hot. If you want to add some noodles, add them now! You can also add some extra vegies, cashew nuts, serve it on some rice or whatever else takes your fancy, but it is just lovely as is.

 
I tried these beans with some sticky hoisin marinated salmon and steamed corn and it was juuust lovely

Check out more pics of this dish on my Facebook page by clicking here. Hit the like button and I’ll be your friend foreeever!

xoxoxo

Hope you are having a fab week!
Christine

Heyhey.

It’s been awhile.. as usual!

I’ve finally gotten myself one of those facebook-fan-style-thingymajiggy pages, so if you feel so inclined, give me a like by clicking here. It’s totally cool because I will be posting up some better quality pics, more info on posts / pics, and you comment, say hi, and all that bizzo fun stuff

Now that’s out of the way, here’s a great weeknight meal to whip up for your loved ones.

It’s corned beef with lemon garlic potatoes, broccolini and sesame honey dutch carrots – good for a weekend dinner and great for leftovers.

Corned Beef
1 kg corned beef cut
2 T brown sugar
2 T apple cider vinegar
6 cloves
1 bayleaf
6 peppercorns
1 cut up onion
(optional: 1 carrot, 1 celery stick).

Place corned beef in a big pot and cover with cold water. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to the boil and simmer on medium for about 3 hours or until corned beef is tender. Slice and serve. Great cold, for leftovers, or on buttered bread! Mmm.

Lemon/Garlic Potatoes
1/8 cup melted butter
juice of two lemons
teaspoon garlic powder
teaspoon dried parsley flakes
seasoning
1/2 kilo – 1 kilo of washed potatoes, diced

Blend together melted butter and lemon juice. Add garlic powder, dried parsley flakes and seasoning. Place diced potatoes into a lined baking dish and pour over lemon/butter mixture and toss to coat potatoes. Bake in a hot oven (180 degs) for about 1-1.5 hours until potatoes are cooked through. Serve.

Honey Sesame Carrot recipe from Taste.com
1 bunch of baby dutch carrots
1 T sesame seeds
2 T honey

Rinse and trim carrots, place in a saucepan with cold water and bring to the boil until cooked. In a separate saucepan, toast sesame seeds until lightly browned and add honey. Pour over cooked carrots to serve.

Assembly:
Slice corned beef (serve with seeded mustard if desired). Add potatoes, carrots and steamed/blanched broccolini. Serve

xoxox
Christine

Hmm. It’s been awhile between posts! I promised myself I wouldn’t abandon my blog with the mad craze of the wedding plans. Plus for some reason I decided to start a wedding blog, which y’all can read here. It taint nothing fancy, and it’s called Christine Wedding Notes.. haha. Mainly a space for me to keep all my ideas and thoughts in one place!

I was waiting to post this recipe for awhile until I got some decent pics of me making it, but I haven’t had the time lately. All I can promise is that once you make this.. you will never go back!

Here we go!

Did you know, dear readers, that I used to hate cous cous? Yep. I despised it. Why, I pondered, would anyone make the decision of cous cous over rice? I couldn’t understand why so many people loved it. It just seemed so, well.. tasteless and completely bland.

Until I tasted this cous cous. My job often involves organising catering for meetings at work – and this is one of the recipes that is regularly in use. As soon as I smelled that wonderful scent of coriander and garlic infused into the cous cous, I knew I had to have the recipe! Luckily the caterer is very generous and lovely with her recipe-sharing, so I finally got my hands on it! And I’ve been making it ever since. I asked for her permission to put the recipe on my blog and she agreed – but she asked me not to put her name up for credit, since she said she got the recipe from a Sanitarium booklet. Good job, Sanitarium. Good. Job.

Shall we begin?

Ingredients: To serve 4 people (as a side-dish.)
1 cup cous cous
1 cup vegetable stock (plus another cup handy in case you need it – I have found that I often need a little more. I usually use Massell Chicken Stock. Plus instead of making actual chicken stock, I just add hot water and sprinkle the stock powder over.)
1 diced onion
2 cloves of garlic, diced, minced, grated – whichever takes your fancy.
1/2 red capsicum, finely chopped. (I usually omit this cos .. me and capsicum aren’t great friends. But feel free to add it – it adds lovely colour to the dish.)
1/2 a cup of currants (Sometimes I go overboard and add a whole cup. I just love the couscous studded with the yummy currants.)
1/4-1/2 cup of pine nuts (These can get a little expensive, so you can add as little or as much as you want to this dish. But I would encourage you to add them – they add a lovely nuttiness to the dish)
1/2 bunch of coriander, finely chopped
olive oil

Heat oil in a large pot over high heat. When the oil is nice and hot, add your diced onion, garlic and capsicum (if using.) Sautee until soft. Add parsley flakes if you like (which I always do!)

Add the vegetable stock to the pot and bring to the boil (or like me, add hot water and sprinkle over stock powder.)

Add cous cous and stir until all the liquid is absorbed. You may need to add a little more hot water/stock powder – taste the cous cous. If it is still gritty, add more water. If it is soft and fluffy, it’s all good.

Stir in pine nuts, currants and coriander and a little olive oil if it is dry.

Super-delicious and super-easy… my two favorite things! I love how quickly you can make this – soo much faster than rice! It also microwaves really well (important factor for leftovers. lol). I love making a batch of it to take to friend’s houses for dinner – it’s a great versatile dish that goes with lots of other dishes. Of course, it goes without saying that it goes perfectly with Crispy Moroccan Chicken .

Enjoy the conversion to cous cous!

xx Christine