Oct 12

Cookbook 89: The Australian Women’s Weekly Stir Fries

I have no idea where the AWW Stir Fries cookbook came from, and really I don’t recommend it to you.  There are plenty of other AWW cookbooks that do stir fries better, and plenty of other cookbooks that do stir fries better.

The instructions are well written, the picture with each recipe looks appetising, but overall there isn’t enough going for this book to make it one you must add to your shelf.  You can find better recipes for everything in this book online and for free.  Overall, due to disappointment, I’m going to give this 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Mongolian garlic lamb

Ingredients

  • 1 kg lamb fillets, sliced thinly
  • 1 teaspoon five-spice powder
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 tablespoons cornflour
  • 1/3 cup light soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon black bean sauce
  • 3 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 1 egg, beaten lightly
  • 1/4 cup peanut oil
  • 3 medium onions, sliced
  • 1/3 cup beef stock
  • 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 2 green onions, sliced thinly (spring onions/scallions)

Method

  1. Place lamb in large bowl with combined spice, sugar, cornflour, half the sauces, the garlic, vinegar and egg.  Cover; refrigerate for 10 minutes.
  2. Drain lamb over small bowl; reserve marinade.  Heat half the peanut oil in a wok or large pan; stir-fry lamb, in batches, until browned and tender.
  3. Heat remaining peanut oil in same pan; stir-fry onions until soft.
  4. Return lamb to pan with reserved marinade, remaining sauces, stock and sesame oil; stir over heat until mixture boils and thickens.  Serve sprinkled with onions.

Notes on this recipe:

  • There was FAR too much sauce in this recipe, it was tasty, but ended up very soggy.
  • As mentioned earlier, I’ve got better recipes of this elsewhere and don’t recommend this recipe

Red curry vegetable noodles

Ingredients

  • 500g Hokkien noodles
  • 1 large red onion
  • 1/4 cup peanut oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 2 teaspoons red curry paste
  • 250g small yellow squash, quartered
  • 1 medium yellow capsicum, chopped
  • 1 medium red capsicum, chopped
  • 125g sugar snap peas
  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • 1 tablespoon lime juice
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves

Method:

  1. Rinse noodles under hot water; drain.  Cut onions into thin wedges.  Heat oil in wok or large pan; stir fry onion, garlic, paste and squash until onion is soft.
  2. Add noodles, capsicum and peas to same pan; stir-fry until vegetables are almost tender.  Stir in combined coconut milk, juice, and coriander.  Cook, stirring, until mixture boils.

Notes on this recipe:

  • This was very tasty, and quite simple.  Not truly vegetarian though as red curry paste generally has shrimp in it, so not good for strict vegetarians.
  • I swapped out the squash for pumpkin as we couldn’t find any squash (and I’m not a fan anyway), and pumpkin is pretty much the same family.  It worked quite well.