Cookbook 30: Quick ‘n’ Easy Asian Wok & Stir Fry

So I cooked from the Uncle Ben’s and Kan Tong, and Masterfood sponsored Quick ‘n’ Easy Asian Wok and Stir Fry by Robyn Martin.  This book is out of print, and really that’s probably not an unfortunate occurrence.  It is true that the recipes are quick and relatively easy, but they’re just not very interesting. I have attempted to cook the coconut rice from this recipe book about 4 different times since my husband purchased it many years ago, and it’s never worked for me.  Overall I give this recipe book 2 out of 5 stars.  It’s just not all that interesting or tasty.

Coconut Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 onion
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 1 cup Uncle Ben’s Wholegrain Rice
• 1/4 teaspoon Master Foods Ground Turmeric
• 1/2 cup water
• 400g can coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Masterfoods Sweet Thai Chilli Sauce
• 56g can anchovy fillets

Method:

1. Peel onion and chop roughly.  Heat oil in a saucepan and saute onion for 3 minutes or until clear.  Add rice and fry for 2 minutes.  Add turmeric.  Pour in water, coconut milk and add salt. Bring to the boil then simmer for 45 minutes or until coconut milk is absorbed.
2. Pack rice into half-cup moulds and turn out onto plates.  Top with chilli sauce and an anchovy fillet.

Notes on this recipe:

• It just turns out like porridge.  Mostly tasty porridge, but porridge.  I didn’t make little individual serves for this, and I was feeding vegetarians, so I skipped all of step 2.
• I’m pretty sure I’ve followed the recipe exactly, so I don’t know what is wrong with it.  Weigh in at the comments if you can think of a step that is missing.

Mushroom Mix

Ingredients:

• 350g mixed mushrooms
• 3 spring onions
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped root ginger
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Masterfoods Chilli Sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey

Method:

1. Prepare mushrooms depending on type, cutting into thick slices if large or leaving whole if small.  Wash and trim spring onions.  Cut into 1cm pieces on the diagonal.  Crush, peel and chop garlic. Heat oil in a wok or frying pan and stir fry spring onions, garlic and ginger for 2 – 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and water and stir fry for 1 minutes. Add soy and chilli sauces and honey and heat through.  Serve immediately.

Notes on this recipe:

• I don’t like mushrooms myself, so I didn’t try any of this.  It smelt good.  Those who ate it said it tasted good.
• It was really quick

Stir Fried Broccoli with Orange and Ginger

Ingredients:

• 500g broccoli
• 1 tablespoon peanut oil
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped root ginger
• 1 teaspoon grated orange rind
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 teaspoon MasterFoods Stir Fry Seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• 2 tablespoons chopped chives

Method:

1. Trim broccoli and cut into florets. Heat oil in a woke or frying pan.  Stir fry broccoli and ginger for 2 – 3 minutes.  Add orange rind, juice, stir fry seasoning and Tabasco sauce.  Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until broccoli is just tender and liquid evaporated.  Toss through chives and serve immediately.

Notes on this recipe:

• It was quick and tasty and I’d definitely make it again.  Though 500g of broccoli florets is a lot of brocoli.

Chilli Tomato Chicken

Ingredients:

• 3 boneless skinless single chicken breasts
• 3 tablespoons cornflour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon MasterFoods Chinese Five Spice Powder
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons MasterFoods Chilli Sauce
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup peanut oil
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped root ginger
• Tomato slices
• Snow pea sprouts

Method:

1. Cut chicken into thin strips.  Mix cornflour, salt and five spice powder together in a plastic bag.  Toss chicken in bag to coat with cornflour mixture.
2. Mix chicken stock, chilli sauce and tomato paste together.  Crush, peel and chop garlic.
3. Heat two tablespoons of the oil in a wok or frying pan.  Stir fry a quarter of the chicken at a time until brown and cooked.  Remove from wok. Drain on absorbent paper and set aside while cooking remaining batches of chicken, adding more oil as necessary.
4. Add garlic and ginger to the pan and stir fry for 30 seconds.  Add tomato paste mixture to the wok. Bring to the boil.  Return chicken to woke to heat through.
5. Serve garnished with tomato slices and snow pea sprouts accompanied by Uncle Ben’s Rice.

Notes on this recipe:

• It’s really really sticky.  My pan was a mess by the end of cooking this and I soaked it for almost 24 hours so I could get all the chicken off that had glued itself to the pan.
• It wasn’t anything particularly special, it was edible, but it wasn’t interesting.