Beef Stir-Fry with Rice Noodles

Posted on August 9, 2010 by The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress | Leave a comment

I was feeling really uninspired at work today while thinking of what to cook for dinner… In between my hectic periods of actually working of course! 😉
A very handy site that I love looking through is taste.com.au. It seriously has thousands of recipes of every type of meal. There’s even handy recipe collections which allow you to select a type of meal, for example, curries or stir-fries, and then it brings up all the different types of meals in that category.
I was feeling like a healthy stir-fry as we had a massive eating weekend celebrating our anniversary. Lots of delicious, very special food… and we definitely ate alot!

This is the stir-fry I made tonight and it was so good! My lovely husband was very impressed and kept on saying how much he loved the flavour. We both agreed that this would be added to our favourite meals as it was also very cheap to buy all the ingredients! Highly recommended! The photos just don’t do it justice as it looks bland and colourless here… it looked very bright in real life with the vegetables and noodles providing lots of colour!
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/5688/beef+stir+fry+with+rice+noodles
Also, make sure you check all the ingredients properly if you’re celiac, but I’m pretty sure this is also gluten free! Instead of soy sauce they used Tamari sauce. Otherwise, soy sauce works perfectly.

(Please excuse the photos – the quality is pretty shocking as my good camera had run out of battery!)

Cashew Nut Chicken and Coconut Rice

Posted on May 12, 2010 by The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress | 1 Comment

Poppit’s Creative Cooking – Tuesday Night

Poppit – Even though we only had Thai on the weekend (Mum’s choice for Mother’s Day), I really felt like making something stir-fry to have with rice. This is a favourite dish of mine and although I have made it before, I changed a few of the ingredients. Also, I didn’t make the coconut rice this time but it’s very easy to make and I’ll include the recipe for that as well.

Cashew Nut Chicken Recipe:

– 500g chicken breast, cut into cubes
– 1 capsicum, cut into strips
– 2 garlic gloves
– 4 red chillies (only 2 if they’re particularly hot)
– 2 tbsp oil
– 2 tbsp oyster sauce
– 1 tbsp soy sauce
– 1 tbsp brown sugar
– 2 green onions, sliced thinly
– 1/2 cup cashews, roasted
– 1 small brown onion, chopped finely
– 2 tbsp lemon rind
– 2 tbsp lemon juice
– Fresh lemon grass stick, chopping finely
– 230g can whole water chestnuts, rinsed and drained
– 300g broccoli, cut into pieces

Method:
1. Have all ingredients ready and cut up. Stir-frying in a wok is a quick process so you don’t want to be chopping while you’re cooking. You’ll burn everything!
2. Combine the chicken, sauces, rind, lemon juice, sugar and lemon grass in a medium bowl (can let this marinated for a few hours but don’t need to).
3. Heat half the oil in the wok and stir-fry the chicken until browned before removing from wok.
4. Heat remaining oil and stir-fry brown onion, garlic and chilli until onion softens.
5. Add broccoli, capsicum and chestnuts and stir-fry until broccoli is tender.
6. Return chicken to wok and stir-fry until hot.
7. Serve on plate with rice and sprinkle with green onion and cashews.

Coconut Rice:

– 250ml water
– 2 cups coconut milk
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 2 tbsp sugar
– 2 2/3 cups Jasmine Rice

Method:
1. Wash the rice until the water runs clear.
2. Put water, coconut milk, salt and sugar in heavy pan.
3. Add Jasmine Rice. Cover tightly with a lid and bring to the boil over medium heat.
4. Reduce heat to low and simmer gently, without lifting the lid unnecessarily for 15-20 minutes until the rice is tender.
5. Turn off heat and let sit for 5 – 10 mins.
Hint – Don’t have the heat too high as it will burn easily on the bottom of the pan.