How to cook....

Big Mouth

I'm just learning to cook and want to get cook some nice Asian dishes particularly sweet and sour chicked with fried rice and chicken curries.

Anyone got any good tips for simple, plainish dishes?

Drake66

Asian dishes thrive on simplicity. You can be as creative as your ingredients allow you to be. I did a nice simple pork dish the other day which was roughly based on a recipe I saw somewhere else. You can use a different combination of veg if you want.

What I needed was 4-5 pork loin chops, some peppers, 2-3 thinly sliced carrots, spring onions, a courgette, a chili or two, chinese five spice powder, cornflour, an egg and a little bit of vegetable stock.

Slice the chops into strips. Add two tablespoons of Chinese five spice powder and three tablespoons of cornflour to a bowl. Add an egg and mix. Throw the pork in there and give it a good mix. Set it aside in the fridge and chop up the vegetables.

Heat up your wok and add your oil. Throw the pork spice mix in and let it cook rapidly for a few minutes. Keep working it with the wooden spoon so the meat does not burn. When the meat is cooked whip it out and put it on a plate with a sheet of kitchen paper on it.

Throw some more oil into the same pan as you cooked the meat in. Now add the chopped carrot and peppers seasoning well with some soy sauce. After a few minutes cooking add the sliced spring onion and courgette. Add the chopped up chili as well.

Let them cook for 2 or 3 minutes before adding the pork back into the wok. Let it cook for a minute or two before adding a ladle or two of vegetable stock (or just water if you want) to the wok to make a sauce.

I served it with some rice noodles which are simple to cook. Add the pack of noodles to a saucepan with some boiling water. Season with a pinch of salt and let them cook for a few minutes until the noodles are soft. Don't overcook them as they get gooey and horrible.


Chicken Kormas are very easy to cook and so much better than the jarred muck in the shops.. I do mine based on something I saw Anjum Anand do.

Slice a few boneless, skinless chicken breasts into even chunks. Get a large full carton of plain natural yogurt and add to a bowl. Grate up a thumb sized chunk of ginger into a fine paste and add to the yogurt. Do the same with a few cloves of garlic and add to the yogurt. Throw the chicken into the yogurt mixture and mix well. Put the bowl in the fridge for a few hours to let the chicken absorb the flavours.

Heat up the wok and add some oil. Crush a few cardamon pods and add to a pan along with some cloves. Add a half teaspoon of ground nutmeg and half teaspoon of cumin powder. With the mixture sizzling and a large sliced onion to the pan and let it brown off for a few minutes- don't let it burn. Add two whole chilies to the pan, prick them with a knife, just to give a little more flavour.

When the onions are soft and brown you can now add the chicken mixture to the pan. Add a ladle of water to the pan and bring it to the boil. Now cover the pan, turn down the heat and let it cook slowly for 20 minutes. Add half a can of coconut milk to the pan and let the sauce cook for a few minutes more. You can add a little bit of sugar to lift it a bit if you want. Serve it with some Naan bread.

rgiller

Real easy chicken satay recipe here:

http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_detail.aspx?rid=14082

S.R.F.C.

rgiller wrote: »

Real easy chicken satay recipe here:

http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_detail.aspx?rid=14082

You had it? Nice?

rgiller

Yeah it's great. The sauce you make using excess marinade and coconut milk is great.

Plastikman_eire

Big Mouth wrote: »

particularly sweet and sour chicked with fried rice

Not really asian, but howsever.

1 Chicken breast- Cubed
2 cloves of garlic. - finely Chopped
1 inch of fresh Ginger - Finely Chopped
1 small Onion - Roughly chopped
1/2 Tin of pineapple - Juice resevered
1/2 Red or green pepper. - chopped
Chilli (Fresh or dried).
Vinegar.
Cornflour.
Soy Sauce.
Tomato puree (or even ketchup)

Prep eveything before you start cooking.

Heat a wok on the highest heat you can until smoking, and heat a tablespoon of oil.

Add the garlic and ginger, then the chicken immediately. Keep the chicken moving so it doesnt stick.

Once the chicken is cooked through, add the onion and the red or green pepper. After maybe a minute add the pineapple chunks and the tomato puree. Cook out the puree for a minute or so and add the reserved juice from the tin of pineapples.

Boil hard for a few min to reduce, the add vinegar and soy and chilli to taste. Once you're happy with the taste, mix a heaped tea spoon of cornflour with a few tablespoons of water and add it to the wok and continue to boil for a couple of minutes. This will thicken up the sauce for you.
(This will serve one multiple amounts as needed)


Fried rice is easy.

Cooled cooked rice.
Egg
Oil
Soy sauce.

Heat oil in a wok until smoking and chuck in a beaten egg, break it up as it cooks.

Throw in some cooled, cooked long grain rice. Fry for a few minutes until starting to colour a little. Then add soy sauce until you reach a desired taste and colour (The rice will probably take ALOT more soy then you expect)

Drake66

Spicy Sesame Seed Beef
Serve around 6

You need-
2 leanish beef steaks
A fistful of sesame seeds (you can get them in supermarket or health food shops)
A pepper
A couple of garlic cloves
2 or 3 carrots
A bunch of spring onion chopped up
A courgette chopped up
A chili
Soy Sauce
An onion sliced up

Toast the sesame seeds in a hot wok for 2 minutes or until they start to go brown. Remove and set aside.

Slice up the beef steaks evenly; not too thin not too thick. Heat the wok, oil it, when it starts to smoke throw the beef in and cook rapidly for 2-3 minutes turning all the time. When brown and just cooked- don't let it overcook!- take the beef out and set aside on a plate with a sheet of kitchen roll on it.

Slice the pepper up thinly. Peel the carrots and slice it into strips. Oil the hot wok again and throw the carrots and pepper in. Finely slice up the garlic cloves and then crush them with the back of the knife. Finely slice up the chili- leave the seeds in if you want it hotter. Throw the garlic and chili into the hot wok with the peppers and carrots. Season with soy sauce.

When the carrots and peppers have softened, 3-4 minutes, throw the chopped spring onion and courgette in along with the beef. Cook for 2 minutes. Throw the toasted sesame seeds into the wok and mix before plating up. Serve with noodles or rice.