Hello, hello, hello.

Geez, you wouldn’t know that this is a food blog, would you?  I have really lost my cooking mojo of late.  Essentially, we have primarily been focusing on tried and true recipes that have already featured on this blog.  We have tried a few new recipes and I have even snapped photos of them but, to be honest, they weren’t stand outs so I didn’t bother preparing a post.

It is Spring here but you wouldn’t know it.  The weather has been very weird.  It has been bitterly cold and drizzling most days but, alas, there has been no really substantial rain.  It is just wet enough to be annoying.  The weather is really frustrating as there are many jobs that need doing.  We have, at least, pruned, weeded and fertilised the roses and fertilised the citrus and the avocados but we still need to spray the roses and the grape vines.  We also need to collect all the fallen wood and burn off before the end of the fire season.  Every cloud has a silver lining – it is perfect soap-making weather.  I will update you on my soap-making escapades in another post but let me just say for now, I have been challenging myself (and Maus).

The citrus trees are laden with mandarins, lemons, limes and oranges.  They all need to be picked.  And, the vegetable garden is all about avocados and asparagus.  We have been having a lot of salsas featuring avocados and pretty soon it will be soft centred eggs, asparagus and grana padano for dinner.

We still have bags and bags of frozen beans, corn kernels and passionfruit pulp in the freezer and a couple of bottles of pickled snow peas in the pantry from last season.  What to do?  What to do?

This year, I am not sure what to do about the vegie patch.  We have half decided to go to England and Wales early next year and we don’t want a vegie patch in full production when we leave.  Of course, we do have our annual garlic crop.  I might put in a couple of cucumber plants, ONE tomato bush and some quick growing vegetables like rocket, beetroot, radishes and coriander but I think that will be about it.  There will not be kilos and kilos of tomatoes to puree and bottle.

Now to today’s recipe.  In accordance with my lack of cooking mojo, I offered Maus the option of a stir fry or something from the freezer for dinner.  She opted for a stir fry.  I went to Eat Your Books and limited my search to stir fries.  I then typed in chicken and bean sprouts.  Nothing appealed.  I then changed the search to chicken and noodles and this recipe popped up.  When choosing a stir fry recipe, I like it to have plenty of vegies so I don’t have to bother with a side dish.  This one fitted the bill.  It was quick, included vegies and was very tasty so if you have lost your cooking mojo, here is a recipe for you.

This recipe is by Louise Pickford.  It is from Delicious Magazine April 2009.

Serves 4 (yippee, no cooking tomorrow night 🙂 ).

Ingredients:

• ⅓ cup soy sauce
• ¼ cup sweet chilli sauce
• 1 tbs* sugar
• 2 tbs* rice vinegar
• 2 boneless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
• 450g packet hokkien noodles (or whatever noodles you can get)
• vegetable oil
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 2 tsp grated ginger
• 2 bunches broccolini, cut into 5 cm pieces
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 red capsicum, thinly sliced

*These are 20 mil tablespoons.

Method:

1. Combine the soy sauce, chilli sauce, sugar and vinegar in a large bowl. Add the sliced chicken, stir well, then marinate for about 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, prepare your noodles according to the packet instructions then set aside.
3. Drain the marinated chicken and reserve the marinade.
4. Heat some oil in a wok over high heat.  When hot, add half of the chicken, stir-fry until cooked (3-4 minutes).  Remove from wok and set aside.  Repeat with remaining chicken.
5. Add reserved marinade to wok and bring to the boil over high heat.  Allow to boil for 1 minute then set aside.
6. Heat some more oil in your wok.  Stir-fry the garlic, ginger, broccolini, onion and capsicum for one minute.  Add noodles and return chicken and marinade to the wok.  Stir-fry for 2 minutes or until heated through.
7. Serve immediately.