Stir Fried Duck

I have made that many stirfry's now that they just come second nature to me. Now I can grab a bunch of stuff off the shelf and out of the fridge, throw it all together and in about 10-15 minutes have a really tasty meal thrown together, it takes longer to cook the egg noodles than it does to do the stirfry! I came up with this one because I had leftover duck and hoisin sauce, throw in some veggies and easy peasy, you have a stirfry, and tasty too. I have started getting more adventurous with ingredients for the sauce, hoisin, blackbean....etc. baby steps though, it's all about baby steps..

Stir fried Duck

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cooked duck breast - shredded

2 handfuls savoy cabbage and leeks

1 scallion roughly chopped

1 handful mange tout

2 portions chinese egg noodles

hoisin sauce

1. Heat a large skillet, add the olive oil, when hot add the duck.

2. Meanwhile cook noodles according to package directions

3. Once duck is lightly crisped add all the vegetables, cook for a few minutes and then add the sauce and the noodles, stirfry for a further two minutes and serve.

The Joys Of Having A Teenage Son

On Thursday night, I got a distressed telephone call from my son, he turns 16 this year, saying that he didn’t want to live with his father anymore, and he wanted to come and live with us. This is all very well and good, but I am not about to rock the boat, so I made some extra phone calls to find out what was really going on. After a long conversation with his father, I discover that he had be grounded, all telephone and internet privileges removed, because he had bunked off school AGAIN!! Fair enough, I would have dealt with it in the same way. The problem was getting my 16 year old son back in the car with his Dad. He was at some woman’s house, I have decided I don’t like her very much. Anyway, I said that if he went home with his Dad, he could come here for the weekend and we would try and sort out the “issues.” In the end nothing got sorted, I did try to help him, but he is a typical teenager, who is NEVER wrong. I did make a banana cake with him though….. Recipe to follow in a later blog..

Now onto my latest recipe, we enjoy a good stir fry and I made this lamb one after having left over lamb…

Stir Fry Lamb With Carrots And Leeks

450g Lamb cut into strips

2 tbsp olive oil
2 leeks cut into rings
1 carrots cut into this strips
2 cloves garlic minced
85ml lamb or veg stock
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce

1. Heat the oil in a hot wok, then add the meat and cook for 3-4 minutes, whilst constantly stirring, with a slotted spoon remove the meat and keep warm.
2. Place the leeks, carrots and garlic in the wok and stir-fry for 2 minutes, then remove and set to one side, discard the oil.
3. Place stock, sugar and soy sauce in the wok, add the meat and stir fry for 2 more minutes.
4. Serve on a bed of rice with the vegetables.

Chinese?????

I made this next recipe because we love Chinese food, and I was feeling tentatively, apprehensive, about cooking something so 'exotic'. I was still at this point 11 months off buying my first and admittedly only 'Chinese cookbook' and it took a further 18 months or so before I had the guts to cook much else other than variations of this dish, which I will get to in another blog. So here you are - Chicken Stir Fry - Wow how exotic, right? Told you I started simple!

Chicken Stir Fry

3 tbsp evoo
4 scallions (spring onions) thinly sliced
3 carrots, julienned
1 yellow bell pepper seeded and cut into long, thin strips
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tbsp port wine mixed with 1 tbsp corn starch
4 chicken breasts cut into strips
½ cup Vegetable stock

1. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a wok or skillet, add the scallions and stir fry for 1 minute

2. Add the remaining oil, carrots and pepper, and stir fry over a high heat for 2-3 minutes add soy sauce, port mixture and chicken strips and stir fry for 3-4 minutes.

3. Add the stock and continue stir frying for 1-2 minutes until liquid thickens slightly.


Our personal preference was that this needed a little more soy sauce - again I am only including the original recipe used, I've said it before and I'll probably say it again, recipes are a guide line we all like different flavours, textures and smells - so all I can do is tell you what I did where and why, you can then make the choice for yourself, more or less, or something else?