Tenderstem and Tofu Sesame Stir Fry

Tenderstem Broccoli and Tofu Sesame Stir Fry

 

Well that was a lot of alliteration for one blog post title!!! My family of primary school teachers would be very proud – but they’re all too busy focussing on school work now that it’s the beginning of term!

My parents have been home from their holiday for just over a week now and so the two weeks Mr KG and I have spent “playing house” have come to an end.

Playing house with Mr KG has been lots of fun – and as I pointed out in my last post – he’s certainly had me cooking up a storm in the kitchen. I see it as all good practice for when we finally make the big move together. We’ve shared the house chores, we’ve menu planned and managed to buy our food on a budget! So all in all it’s looking good – we may well survive living together yet!

 

 

This was one of my favourite recipes from the two weeks together. Despite being a LT vegetarian, Mr KG has never really been a big lover of tofu. I’ve tried all sorts including marinating it myself for DAYS but he still said it lacked much flavour. (Lacked much flavour?! An insult if ever I heard one.) Vegetarian brands Quorn and Cauldron have both got better with their tofu offerings and you can now buy pre-marinated and smoked tofu.

For this recipe we used the marinated tofu but we’ve also used the smoked and I can assure you both tastes just as good.

Sweet and Spicy Pork Stir Fry

Ever since Chinese New Year I have become obsessed with perfecting my own Chinese recipes!

You may remember, I posted recipes for Steamed Prawn Won tons and Crispy Spring rolls – two recipes which taught me about some rather exciting new ingredients (won ton and spring roll wrappers) and new techniques (such as how to fill and cook them!) I also posted a recipe for Sesame Chicken with Green Beans which is fast becoming a favourite in my house!

I’ve always enjoyed cooking Oriental dishes, for years I’ve had a go to special fried rice recipe, and a lovely recipe for Asian Salmonwith Cucumber and Red Onion dipping sauce, but I’m keep to keep on trying out new ideas.

The idea from this recipe came from two main sources of inspiration: firstly, whenever we order Chinese in, we always get one chicken, one pork, and one beef dish (at the very least!) and as I am yet to perfect a Chinese pork recipe, pork had to be my ingredient of choice; secondly, one of my favourite Chinese flavours is that sticky yet spicy sauce that covers ribs, I’m not talking about BBQ sauce, something a bit more oriental. And so this dish was born!

Celebrate Chinese New Year with Sesame Chicken and Green Beans with Egg Fried Rice

Happy Chinese New Year!...Still! only another 14 days of celebrating to go! Though I'm afraid this will be the last Chinese themed post from me in a while!

Though, I am proud to say that this dish is perhaps one of the tastiest Chinese dishes I have ever tasted. It's my interpretation of the sesame chicken at The Regent Cottage (a lovely restaurant I'm sure you're all tired of hearing about!)

If you want something that is really vibrant and fresh - no where near as stodgy as a deep fried spring roll, then this is the dish for you! I highly recommend that you serve it with my Egg Fried Rice too! (And I think you will find this recipe a little lighter on the waistline than most!)

Spicy Prawn Noodles

When I first started this blog, I posted a delicious vegetable stir fry! This is a fishy variation of! It is delicious, simple and super healthy!

I love cooking stir fry's so much because they taste so authentic, with the right ingredients you can create a Chinese dish that could have come straight out of a chinese restaurant!

Enjoy!

Freshers Food Tip #2 - Learn the basics

The second piece of advice that I have is quite simply, learn some basic cooking skills.

Burnt scrambled egg will cost you £15.52. 52p for the eggs you burnt. £15 for having to order dominoes because that was all you had left in the fridge!

Chopping your finger off while slicing onions will cost you £8. £4 for the taxi journey to the hospital, £4 for the taxi journey back! (Hopefully by the time you get home a house mate will have used the onions to cook you dinner though...otherwise add on an extra £15 for dominoes!)

You can see my Top 10 Tips for Beginngers here.

The tips include: what basic equipment you will need, heating oil, defrosting food safely, cooking pasta, dippy eggs, jacket potatoes, basic stir-fry, omlette, cheese sauce and gravy!

I hope they help!