Monday 5 March 2007

5-a-Day Mixed Vegetables



I have to straight off say how much I LOVE this mixed vegetable stir fry. I bought China Modern by Ching-He Huang 4 weeks ago, and have made this three times as a mid week vegetable accompaniment. On the week I didn’t make it I craved it! It might seem like a bit of work, but after the first time this is something I would easily make when pushed for time. It is 5 minutes of chopping and measuring and about 4-5 minutes stir frying in my wok (my wok isn’t as hot as Hing-He’s I don’t think!). Here is the recipe. 5-a-day was never so easy or good!

2 tablespoons groundnut oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
5 Chinese dried mushrooms soaked for 20 mins in hot water, and water discarded
1 carrot, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
100g baby corn, chopped into 1.5cm pieces
100g mangetout
100g cashew nuts
50ml vegetable stock
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
dash sesame oil
1 tablespoon cornflour blended with 2 tablespoons cold water (optional)
1 spring onion, sliced diagonally
1. Heat wok over a high heat and add the oil. Throw in the garlic and ginger and cook for less that 1 minute. Add the vegetables and fry for 1 minute, add cashews and stir fry for 1 minute.
2. Add the stock, light soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil.
3. Stir in the blended cornflour if you prefer a thicker sauce, Add the spring onions and give a final stir. Serve immediately with noodles or steamed rice.
Serves 2.
My Notes: I have used fresh shitake and chestnut mushrooms in mine and only use a scant ½ tablespoon of cornflour to thicken. Also that I always thought I didn’t like oyster sauce, but I like it here.

8 comments:

Kathryn said...

KJ!! I've been laughing since I saw the title of your post. I bought China Modern yesterday - in my defence, I bought a new electric wok in a household event AND I had a WHSmith token, so it made sense. I tried my first recipe tonight and it was yummy (though am yet to blog it). Are we cookbook twins or what?! What else have you tried? I love the book so far. That 5 a day veggie stirfry looks sooooo good...

Kathryn x

Kelly-Jane said...

Ha! that's funny isn't it? I'm really inspired by it, so many great sounding recipes :)

I've tried a saucy chicken curry (I'll try and post about it later this week), Kung Po chicken and bacon and egg fried rice. The curry was just so very very good! The other two were ok, but not ones I'd do again. The chicken though is like the 5 a day veggies, I just crave the tastes and flavours!

I'll hopefully try another new one this weekend.

KJxx

Joyce said...

Love the colorful mix of veggies.
Good point, that once you've done something a few times, it becomes easy and fast, like second nature.
This would be a main course for me with some nutty brown rice.

Paola Westbeek said...

that looks yummy! i've heard a lot about this book as well. are there a lot of meat dishes? i guess i can always replace it though...oh, and is there a dessert section???

paola

Freya said...

I really enjoy seeing Ching on Good Food so I think I might enjoy her book - the stir fry looks really delicious! My husband would love it!

Kelly-Jane said...

It's a great Chinese cookbook!

Paola, there are not many pure vegetable recipes ( and 5 beancurd ones listed in the index), but there are desserts, three I have marked are a mango pudding (which is a creamy jelly) lychee & vanilla ice cream and lychee & mango trifle.

KJxx

Anonymous said...

Looks fab. I bet my girls would enjoy this one as well... will have to give it a go. (Anything that is cooked quick is always a good thing mid week here!)

Anna's kitchen table said...

Anything that makes me eat more veg has GOT to be good!
It looks delicious KJ.
Will need to check out this book now (Like I need any more, LOL)