Peppered Beef Stir-fry

I made this for the Cooks Club Challenge over on Taste. This month it has been recipes from the 30 Minute Meals collection. There is still some time left in the month so if you are an Aussie pop on over, make a recipe and post a photo. This month the prize is a copy of the Sydney Seafood School cookbook by Roberta Muir. I am not really big on seafood but I am sure there is someone out there that would love the book.

I am going to admit to being a food magazine snob. When I search for a recipe on Taste I tend to bypass recipes from Super Food Ideas. I have found that so many of them call for a jar of this and/or a packet of that. Some of them really aren't recipes at all as far as I am concerned just combining pre-prepared items. I have found the occasional good one and this Peppered Beef Stir-fry is one of them. I actually had some char siu sauce in the fridge, who know how long it had been there, so it was definitely time to use it up. I would suggest that 1/3 cup is too much though. I think that 1/4 cup would be plenty. I also didn't put the left over marinade in as there was enough still on the meat. I used snow peas, asparagus and spinach for the vegetables and served with noodles. I really enjoyed this. The pepper came through nicely even with the strong flavours from the char siu sauce and soy sauce. It was nice and quick for a mid-week meal. I would definitely make it again. 

Noodle salad with wasabi vinaigrette

Noodle salads are one of my favourite things to make in summer. They are quick and easy to make. You can put anything you want in them. Plus you can use different dressings to change the flavours. 

Some time ago I purchased a bottle of Pukara Estate wasabi olive oil which I hadn't used. I have previously made a rice salad that had a wasabi dressing (using wasabi paste) so I decided that the oil would work well in a vinaigrette. It really did too. It had just the right amount of bite to it. I didn't make quite enough dressing for the amount of salad that I made but I could still taste the dressing. 

For the noodle salad I just soften some thin rice noodles and then add whatever finely chopped veg that I have and finally add a dressing. It is best to leave in the fridge for a while for the flavour of the dressing to penetrate.

The dressing was just:

wasabi olive oil 

white wine vinegar 

pinch salt 

Whisk until emulsified and pour over salad and toss to combine.

I served it with a grilled lime & herb chicken. Most of the time I just put shredded chicken in the salad or I cook some steak and serve with some slices of that. 

January 2012 - Pork skewers with peanut noodle salad

Wow, it is nearly the end of the month already. It seems to have both flown by but dragged at the same time. I have a new accounting system to learn at work which has been keeping me busy. So I have been doing easy meals this month.

As usual this is a double issue so I had already made something for it for December. In previous years the December/January issues have been filled with Christmas recipes but this year there was a nice variety of other recipes. I did just realise though that both the recipe I made for December and the one for January were from the same feature by David Morgan. A variety of different menus. December was Moroccan, for January I went with the Vietnamese. These were both very good recipes. I particularly enjoyed the pork skewers. They were supposed to be barbecued but since I don't have a gas bottle for my barbecue I just grilled them instead. It was also a very thrifty meal since I had everything to make it in the house including pork fillet in the freezer. 

Pork Skewers 

Ingredients: 

• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/4 red onion, very finely chopped
• 1 tbsp fish sauce 
• zest & juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar 
• 1 red chilli, seeds removed and finely sliced 
• 500 g pork fillets, sliced into 3 cm pieces. 

Method: 

• Combine everything in a non-reactive dish and leave to marinate for at least 1 hour. 
• Remove pork from marinade and thread onto skewers. 
• Cook under grill for 3 - 5 minutes each side or until cooked. 

Peanut Noodle Salad

Ingredients:

• 100 g dried thin rice stick noodles
• 1/2 cucumber, roughly chopped 
• 100 g snow peas, sliced
• 1/4 red capsicum, sliced 
• Handful mint and parsley leaves, chopped 
• 50 g peanuts, roughly chopped (I used cashews) 
• zest & juice of 1 lime
• 2 tsp soy sauce 
• 1 tsp brown sugar or palm sugar 
• 2 tsp olive oil 
• 2 drops sesame oil

Method: 

• Soak rice noodles in boiling water until soft. Drain. 
• Add cucumber, snow peas, capsicum, herbs and nuts. Toss to combine. 
• In a small dish combine zest, juice, soy, sugar and oils and mix well. Add to salad and toss to combine. 

Pork & noodle salad with pomegranate vinaigrette

I am so very tired tonight. I really haven't been sleeping very well lately and it all does catch up with me after a while. Hopefully I will get some better sleep tonight. Although one night of decent sleep really doesn't make up for multiple nights of bad. So perhaps I should wish for a week of good sleep. 

I made this dish on the weekend. It was very loosely based on a Jamie Oliver recipe that I made quite some time ago. I had really enjoyed that recipe and had always wanted to make it again. I recently bought a large amount of meat from my local butcher including several kilos of Aussie style spare ribs which I think is really belly slices. I thawed some of those for this recipe. I also changed the base from rhubarb to pomegranate. The rhubarb in my garden is not producing and it is so expensive to buy. I had purchased a bottle of pomegranate juice recently to make a punch but ended up not making it so thought that it would be perfect for this dish. I was really pleased with how this turned out and this and Jamie's original recipe will definitely remain in my mind for making again in the future. 

Pork & noodle salad with pomegranate vinaigrette

For pork:

4 pork spare ribs, skin remove and cut into bite size pieces

100 mls pomegranate juice

1  - 2 tbsp chili garlic sauce 

1 inch piece ginger finely grated 

1 - 2 tbsp honey

Combine all ingredients in a bowl (glass/ceramic is probably best) and marinate, refrigerated, for at least 4 hours but overnight would be best. 

Heat a wok over high heat and add 1 - 2 tbsp peanut or grapeseed oil. Drain meat and cook in batches until cooked through and starting to caramelise. 

For noodle salad: 

200 g packet singapore noodles

1/2 cucumber, strips peeled, de-seeded & sliced 

1/2 red capsicum, de-seeded & thinly sliced 

1/2 red onion thinly slice 

Punnet cherry tomatoes, quartered (I had home grown) 

1/4 c chopped mint & parsley

Alfalfa sprouts (or whatever sprouts you fancy) 

Place noodles in a bowl and cover with hot water & stand for 5 - 10 minutes. Drain, refresh with cold water and then drain well. Combine with salad ingredients. 

For vinaigrette: 

1 tbsp pomegranate juice 

2 tbsp olive oil 

1/2 tsp mustard 

Mix all ingredient until nicely emulsified. 

Add pork to noodle salad ingredients and pour over dressing and toss to combine. Serve immediately.