Stir fry!

Honey-chilli beef stir fry with homemade fried rice.

Ingredients
750g piece of topside, thinly sliced in bite-size pieces
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp shao xing cooking wine
1 tbsp cornflour
3 - 4 cups Asian greens, such as bok choy or chinese cabbage
8 - 10 bird's eye chillies, deseeded and chopped
3 tbsp honey
½ cup light soy sauce
3 - 4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups jasmine rice, cooked and cooled on a tray (ideally overnight)
1 egg, beaten
½ cup red capsicum, finely diced
6 chinese lup chong pork sausages, steamed and thinly sliced
½ cup shrimp, cooked and peeled
½ cup water chestnuts, diced
½ cup baby corn spears, diced
½ cup baby peas, fresh or thawed
1 cup spring onions, sliced
¼ cup peanut oil

Method
- Place the steak in a bowl with the shao xing wine (dry sherry can be substituted), bicarb soda, a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce and half the garlic. Mix thoroughly with your hands and marinate for around half an hour.
- Heat a wok over high flame until beginning to smoke, then add the oil. Tip the beaten egg into the pan and swirl quickly with a wooden spoon to break the egg up as it cooks.
- As the egg is cooking, tip most of the spring onions into the pan (reserve a small amount to garnish) along with the sausage, shrimp and capsicum. Fry for 1 minute.
- Add the rice to the wok and cook for a few minutes, breaking up any lumps and mixing the ingredients thoroughly.
- When the rice is free of lumps and well mixed, add the water chestnuts, peas and baby corn  and stir well. Season to taste with soy sauce before transferring to an oven dish to keep warm. Clean the wok.
- When the beef has marinated, add the cornflour and mix well to thoroughly coat the meat.
- Heat oil in the wok over high heat, and when the oil is smoking, add the beef in small batches. Flash fry, stirring rapidly, over a very high heat for 1 - 2 minutes.
- Return all the beef to the wok over medium heat and stir fry with the garlic, honey, chilli and remaining soy.
- Once the ingredients are well combined, add the greens and continue frying until they are just wilted. Serve over fried rice.
- Nom nom nom.

Parmalicious

Chicken parmigiana with rosemary roast potatoes and avocado salsa.

Ingredients
Free range chicken breast
1 egg, beaten
Plain flour
Bread crumbs
Fresh napoli sauce
Smoked leg ham, thinly sliced
Vintage tasty cheese, grated
Potatoes, peeled and cut in large chunks
Sprigs of fresh rosemary
Vine ripened tomatoes
Ripe avocado, diced
Spanish onion, thinly sliced
Extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Sea salt and cracked pepper

Method
- Pound the chicken breast with a meat mallet until around 5mm thick. Season lightly.
- Coat the chicken lightly with flour, then dip in beaten egg, then in breadcrumbs. Coat thoroughly.
- Pan fry the schnitzel until golden brown. Drain.
- Spoon a generous layer of napoli sauce over the schitzel, then layer with ham and top with grated cheese. Gratinate or oven bake until the cheese melts.
- Put the potatoes in a saucepan full of cold water over a high flame. Bring to the boil, boil for 3 or 4 minutes, then drain.
- Put the potatoes back in the empty saucepan, hold the lid down firmly and shake to roughen the surface of the potatoes.
- Heat a layer of oil in a roasting pan at around 200ºC. When hot, add the potatoes and rosemary. Roast for 40mins - 1 hour until crisp and golden. Season with sea salt and cracked pepper.
- Slice the tomatoes into wedges or chunks and combine with diced avocado and sliced onion. Dress with a slug of olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Mix well and season.
- Slice the chicken parmigiana diagonally and arrange on a bed of the roast potatoes. Serve with avocado salsa on the side.
- Nom nom nom.

Hurry to the curry

Homemade lamb rogan josh with kashmiri pulao.

I can't share the recipe for the curry as it is not mine, but here's the recipe for the rice dish:

Ingredients
1 cup basmati rice, rinsed
1 medium brown onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp garam masala
Handful sultanas
Handful craisins
2 tbsp dried apricots, roughly chopped
½ cup unsalted cashew nuts, roughly chopped
¼ cup slivered almonds
2 tbsp ghee
water

Method
- Heat the ghee in a large saucepan and fry the onion over a moderate flame.
- When the onion is beginning to turn golden, add the garam masala. Cook for a further 1 - 2 minutes.
- Add the rice and continue frying for a couple of minutes. Stir to thoroughly mix the spices through the rice.
- Add the dried fruit and nuts, fry for another minute.
- Add 1 cup of water to the saucepan, reduce heat to low and place a lid on the saucepan.
- The rice should take about 10-15 minutes to absorb the liquid. Check every 3 or 4 minutes to make sure the liquid has not absorbed too quickly - add more water in ¼ cup increments if needed.
- Nom nom nom.

Shanks for the memories

My wonderful parents bought me a slow cooker for Christmas - and what better thing to make in a slow cooker than braised lamb shanks? I dug through some boxes to find my notebook from first year Le Cordon Bleu (that's 12 years ago now... holy snapping duck shit, Batman!) and found the recipe for Gigotin d'Agneau Braisee, with thanks to my lecturer Urs. I don't think he'd mind me sharing it, last I heard he'd gone to be a missionary in Africa. True story.

Ingredients:

Lamb shanks (2 per person)

3 x medium carrots

2 x brown onions

1 x small celeriac bulb (half a bunch of celery will do)

6 x garlic cloves

2 x tomatoes

3 x mushrooms

4 x parsley stalks

1.5L stock (lamb is best, beef will do)

1 x bay leaf

olive oil

salt & pepper

Method:

- Preheat oven to 180 degrees C

- Trim shanks of skin, excess fat and sinew.

- Heat a metal roasting pan on the stove top, season shanks with salt and pepper and place in pan with oil. - - Brown on all sides.

- When shanks are browned, put the roasting pan in the oven.

- While the shanks roast, peel the celeriac, carrots and onions and cut in a large dice.

- Peel the garlic cloves and cut them in half, quarter the tomatoes and slice the mushrooms.

- Add the root vegetables and the garlic to the roast after 1 hour.

- Stir occasionally, continue roasting until the vegetables take on a light brown colour.

- Add the parsley stalks, mushrooms and tomatoes. Continue roasting until all the liquids have evaporated.

- Transfer all the ingredients to a slow cooker (on high) or a dutch oven with a lid.

- Add half the stock, and reduce until it begins to thicken.

- Glaze the shanks by pouring the liquids through a sieve over the shanks. Repeat another 4 - 5 times as the shanks continue cooking.

- Continue cooking until the meat is soft and beginning to come away from the bone, adding extra stock as needed.

- Remove from the oven, strain juices. Set the shanks aside to rest. Simmer the juices down into a sauce.

- Serve the shanks with buttery mashed potatoes and sauce from the pan juices.

- Nom nom nom.