Know what you’re doing

It’s been a while since I last posted, my excuses for that. I had to hand in an essay that was more challenging than I had expected. As goes with essays and other deadline-commitments, there was little time (not to speak of inspiration) left for cooking, and I lived off the weekend’s leftovers and bread.

However, essays always call for a reward, and in my case, a reward nearly inevitably means a new cookbook. I strolled of to a budget bookshop where a friend of mine had two day earlier bought a book we needed for uni – you see, I still needed an excuse to go there. I entered the shop, slowly and sheepishly made my way towards the cookery shelf, and what did I see? Tessa Kiros’ Falling Cloudberries for less than half the original price.

Seriously, I have waited for years for this moment to happen. The one check that I have always had on my cookbook-spending was price. It’s silly enough to buy so many cookbooks if you don’t use them (sufficiently), but buying expensive books to make your shelf look nice would be sheer insane. Well, I suppose it’s not even so much about how the shelf looks than about how I feel having another cookbook, but it would be insane all the same.

Unfortunately, though, there were many other cookbooks calling for my attention, so many cookbooks begging me to give them a home – I felt like standing in a animal cookbook shelter. I couldn’t help myself but buy another cookbook, The Good Housekeeping Institute’s Step-by-Step Cookbook. And it’s not something I have regretted so far. (Actually, I am secretly planning to go back to the bookshop, buy the other books as long as they are reduced/in stock, wrap them in paper and wait for my next essay. Would that work? I’ve never looked forward so much to an essay…)

The downside of these marvellous cookbooks is that few of the recipes are really feasible if you have little leeway. I don’t necessarily mean cooking utensils – I could live with that – but as I’ll probably only be staying in London for six months, I am little inclined to buy too many ingredients I know I will not be able to finish. In other words: I’ll keep it simple during the next few months, but after that…

Today’s recipe is from the The Good Housekeeping Institute’s Step-by-Step Cookbook – I couldn’t have gotten away with any source other than one of these two newbies, could I? I slightly adapted it to suit my needs, and my supermarket’s offerings, e.g. using sweet chilli sauce (not in the original recipe) before I went back to the supermarket and discovered that they actually did have red chillies.

 

Pork and Noodle Rice Stir-fry

1 tbsp. sesame oil
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. fish oyster sauce
1 tbsp. chilli sauce
1 red chilli
a large chunk of fresh ginger, finely sliced
250 g pork, in strips
some sugarsnaps
2 red bell peppers, in bits
some babycorn (eg. one can, if your supermarket doesn’t offer any fresh ones), in halves
beansprouts
noodles rice

Mix the top seven ingredients (the pork and those above) and leave to marinate for at least 10 minutes, preferably longer (but not longer than one day, believe me!).

Prepare the rice. Heat oil in a wok, add the pork with as little marinade as possible, and stir-fry until just done. Add the sugarsnaps, stir-fry for several more minutes, then add the marinade and the rest of the veggies and give it two more minutes. Toss in the rice, and done. Sprinkle with fresh coriander, if desired.

Serves hungry 2; adapted from The Good Housekeeping Institute’s Step-by-Step Cookbook.

Saffron Rice with Chorizo

Just a very quick post today. Our freezing compartment is overflowing with food we don’t need, so I decided to clean up and use up at least one item from the freezer. Like for instance one of the two (still unused!) packets of peas.

 

Saffron Rice with Chorizo

200 g Chorizo
2 onions
325 g yellow rice
750 ml bouillon
300 g peas
2 tomatoes

Roughly chop the Chorizo and the onions and fry until golden (that is, if you can discern any colour other than the red the Chorizo will discharge). Add the rice, fry for another minute or so and then add the bouillon. Perhaps I should already mention at this point that my rice was overcooked, but that I had to wait until all liquid was evaporated, so I’d rather recommend to cut back on the bouillon. Boil gently for about 10 minutes. In the meantime, skin and de-seed the tomatoes, and then add them and the peas. Season with pepper, if you think it necessary. Cook another 5 minutes, cover and let rest for another couple of minutes. Serve with fresh parsley.

 
Notes:

I was a bit disappointed by this one. On the one hand it was fun to make, it made me think of some kind of mini-paella, and it was easy. The taste, however, was nothing like a paella; the chorizo was overpowering, and the yellow rice is just not comparable to the taste of real, good rice with saffron. If I were to try this recipe again, I’d really take care to use good ingrdients (normal rice with real saffron, and perhaps a other kind of chorizo), and in general I’d rather go for the original next time (unless I’m really in a hurry…).

Serves 4-6; adapted from a recipe provided by my local supermarket.