Woking Good - Stir fried Veg and King Prawns

Recipe Ingredients:

• 1 Punnet of mushrooms
• 1 Punnet of baby corn
• 1 small tin of bamboo shoots
• 1 large carrot
• 1 red pepper
• 1 red onion
• 300grs king prawns (pealed but uncooked)
  
• 1 ginger bit the size of (two garlic cloves)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 large spoon of black bean sauce
• 1 tea spoon of Chinese five spice
• 2 soup spoons of soy sauce (optional)
  
• 2 soup spoon of brown sugar one soup spoon of rice wine (optional)
• 1 large medium chilli
• 1 soup spoon of arrow root (or corn starch)
• 2 glugs olive oil
  

I needed to make a quick dinner and this allowed me to literally take 7-10 minutes to cook it.
I chopped the onions and pepper into (1 inch) squares, chopped the garlic; ginger and chilli very fine mince, cut the carrot in half length ways and then half side ways and finally thinly sliced the from the side to for very thin rectangles, baby corns in half's length ways, mushrooms in quarters. Once all the veg are prepared place some oil in a wok (I used olive oil 2 glugs) but some people prefer nut oil, place over the flame once the oil starts to smoke, throw in the garlic, ginger, chilli, carrot, onion and pepper, let it cook for about 3 minutes then add the soy sauce, Chinese five spice, mushrooms, baby corns and bamboo shoots let it cook another 3 minutes then finally add the prawns, black bean sauce arrow root mixed with about 1/4 of a glass of water, the sugar and the rice wine, cook until the prawns turn completely orange as the uncooked colour is Gray, then you are done.
you can serve this with plain rice, Noodles or on it's own it's up to you...i had mine with Egg Noddles, actually was the best one I ever made as I tweak with the recipe every time I make. Like use some different vegetables like pak choi, or spring onions even cabbage or broccoli shoots, the only limitation is your imagination. Hope you like this one...

Turkey Curry and / or Quorn Curry

Receite em Português AQUI (com pequenas diferenças)

Pictures above illustrate the Turkey dish (and the rice was boiled with turmeric)

Endeavouring to do something quick but at the same time good enough for vegetarians (as my wife is one) and also for meat eaters as I wanted to use some turkey I decided to do a Curry to feed 6 people.

Recipe Ingredients:

• 2 large carrots (thinly sliced)
  
• 1 & 1/2 onions (diced)
  
• 1 large courgette (diced)
  
• 1 large red pepper (diced)
  
• 10 medium mushrooms (quartered)
  
• 1 chilli (de-seeded and thinly sliced)
  
• 3 large garlic cloves (thinly sliced)
  
• 1 big bunch of coriander (chopped)
  
• 1 & 1/2 tin of tomatoes
• 2 soup spoons of tomato paste (diluted in a little water)
  
• 1 large soup spoon of cumin powder
• 1 large soup spoon of garam masala
• 2 large soup spoons of turmeric
  
• 1 large soup spoon of coriander seeds powder
• 1 large soup spoon of sweet paprika
• 6 glugs of olive oil (half per pan)
• 300grs Turkey
  
• 300grs Quorn
  

I mixed all the powders together than divided it in half, on two seperate pans I poured 3 "glugs" of olive oil, once hot added the powders and let it cook for a little time once it formed a paste and cooked a little I added theonion, garlic the chilli and the meat/quorn (please notice I divided ingredients all the way through in half, for each pan appart from the meat and quorn which is one 300grs for each pan) cooked this until the meat/quorn was cooked through adding a little water when a little dried, then i added the pepper, the courgette the mushrooms the and carrots cooked this for about 5 minutes and added the tomato (again half to each pan) and let this cook for 10 minutes then added the tomato paste (half each) and let this cook for a further 10 minutes.
While this was doing I boiled some rice with 4 crushed cardoms, 2 crushed garlic, a tea spoon of cumin powder and a tea spoon of turmeric (if you want the rice to be white don't use turmeric), once the rice is cooked drained it rinsed with boiling water removed the cardoms and put it in a pan drizzled with a little olive oil (optionally you can stir in some chopped coriander and some green raisins) put a lit and let it rest for 2 minutes.
Once the curry is one minute away from being cooked add a generous bunch of coriander (half each) and garnish each plate with a fe coriander leaves on top see picture...this one was really tasty.

These Pictures bellow illustrate the Quorn Curry (and rice was boiled without turmeric)

Vegie Bulgar & BBQ Chicken Wings

Trying to impress my sister, I wanted to do something special but did not have the time to go shopping so I ravaged through my cupboard to find something to go with my chicken wings. Hurrah, found some Bulgar Wheat so I done the following:


Recipe Ingredients:

• 1 mug of Bulgar Wheat
• 1 large courgette
• 1 large onion
• 1 red pepper
• about 6-8 mushrooms
• 1 fresh chilli
• 1/2 can of tomatoes
• 1 spoon of tomato paste
• 1 garlic clove
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 soup spoons of olive oil
  

Dice into small cubes the onion the pepper the courgette and thinly slice the mushrooms.
I used a Wok... so put the olive oil in the Wok add the pepper the onion and the garlic (minced) let it fry for about 5 minutes then add the (chopped & de-seeded) chilli, the courgette and the mushrooms, let it cook for another 3 minutes, then add the tomato and the tomato paste, and let it cook for about 10 minutes (or longer if you wish)
As to the Bulgar wheat just boil it in water as if it was rice for about 10-12 minutes, then once cooked drain it and rinse it with boiling water, let it drain until has no remaining water then add to the sauce and cover it with a lid.
As to the chicken wings, was very simple, I cut the tips off and cut the wings into two parts, placed them in a bowl and added the following, 1 crushed garlic, a spoon of smoky paprika, salt and pepper to taste, a couple of spoons of honey a pinch of chilli powder (put more if you like it spicy), a lid of sherry, and finally a squirt of smoky BBQ sauce. Left it to marinade for about 30 minutes, then laid them on a tray previously smeared with olive oil, gas mark 200 c and let it cook for about 25 minutes until crispy (times may vary depending on oven), then served it with the Veggie Bulgar. It was very nice, first picture was my sisters serving the next picture was my serving LOL.

Left over Egg White Cake

I bake quite a few cakes to sell, but I am always left with the egg whites which really upsets me to throw them away, it feels wrong, however my sister has come to live with me here in England and I asked her to find me some recipe where I could use the egg whites in a cake so she found an excellent way to to save them in the cake recipe given bellow, which we have made some alterations to the original recipe.


Recipe Ingredients:

• 125grs baking margarine
  
• 250grs sugar
• 190grs flour
• 1 tea spoon baking powder
• the juice and zest of one orange
• 8 egg whites

Preparation:

Very simple indeed, soften the margarine and mix with the sugar until a creamy pale paste, add to this the flour premixed with the baking powder, then add the juice and zest of the orange. Once this is done beat the eggs whites until they peak and add to the previous mixture with a folding action. Rub some margarine is a cake pan and dust it with flour adding covering the bottom with grease proof paper, the cake containing egg whites will stick a lot.
Bake it in a medium oven for 35 minutes (gas mark 180 c) and that's this simple is done.
I didn't do this but I think it could be really nice to warm up the juice of an orange with a measure of Cointreau, stabbing the cake all over with a fork and letting the Cointreau sauce soak into it. yum yum!! (but of course is just an idea)
But anyway now you can save all your egg whites with no fear of high cholesterol giving cake :)