Under the Choko Tree By Nevin Sweeney

Recipe - Stir Fry

This recipe came about as a result of peasant thinking. Supermarket thinking is “what do I want for dinner”, peasant thinking is “what do I have to make dinner”. I wanted to make something easy, that tasted good and used what we had. The dish breaks down into three main components – noodles, veggies (hopefully at least some home grown) and protein.

Noodles

While I am fan of fresh hokkien style noodles and usually get hold of some when planning a stir fry we had none, but we did have some plain “instant” noodles. They come quite cheaply in a 10-pack and I have been using them in the soup noodles that I make so we had a stock. (Yes, homemade noodles are still on the to-do list!)

Home grown veggies

Obviously this will depend on the time of year and what you are growing. In this case we had zucchini, bock choi, carrot, beans and onions. We also had some leftover cauliflower left over from a visit to the markets a week or two ago.

Protein

Carrying on with my theme of using what was available, I searched through the freezer and found some minute steak which was still there from out last big freezer buy of pasture fed beef. It has been at least a year but we vacuum packed the meat and it is lasting well. I have also made this dish with tofu, using a similar process to the meet and I suspect I could serve it with boiled eggs and the protein and it would still go over well.

Method

1. If you are using meat, cut it into thin strips across the grain, for the two of us I used about 300gms of minute steak, and place into a bowl. Add in 3 teaspoons of Chinese char siu sauce, a glug (technical term equal to a slosh and a half) of soy sauce and 2 teaspoons of cornflour. Mix it all around with a fork and leave to marinate for at least 15 minutes.

2. We have two 200mm Chinese bowls and they are excellent for serving, so get them out and place a cake of dry noodles in the bottom of each one. Put some water on to boil.

3. Heat up the wok and add a tablespoon or two of oil and place it on the heat. When to wok is starting to smoke add in the meat a couple of pieces at a time and cook until all surfaces are seared and the meat is just about cooked through, remove from the wok as they are done and replace with fresh pieces.

4. Put boiling water into the bowls sufficient to cover the noodle cake

5. Stir fry the onion (add garlic or ginger as wellat this point if desired for three minutes until translucent.

6. Stirfy the other veggies, starting with the harder veg like carrot and ending with the softer more quick cooking veg like the bok choi. Add in a couple of teaspoons of char siu sauce and a similar amount of soy sauce. Distribute the sauces evenly while stir frying the veg. When the veg is almost cooked return the meat to the wok and reheat.

7. Pour the hot water off the noodles and separate them with a fork, add in a teaspoon of soy sauce if desired and use the fork to distribute the sauce.

8. Ladle the meat and veg mixture from the wok into the bowls on top of the rehydrated and heated noodles and you are good to go!

There is a bit of preparation required but the cooking itself goes fairly quickly. It is a quick, cheap and nutritious feed which tastes great and is worth including in your family’s repertoire of favourite dishes.

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