Homemade Chinese "Takeaway" & Other Tasty Treats

What have I been making to eat?

Well I started with a little baking.

Some leftover puff pastry from the chicken pies was made into tuna rolls for lunches.

A small onion was chopped and fried till soft in a little of the oil from the tuna. The drained tuna was put into a bowl and grated cheese added. When the onions had softened they were added to the tuna and cheese. The pastry was rolled into a rectangle and the tuna mixture placed down the centre.

 

The pastry was rolled over the filling and sealed, then it was cut into four pieces, brushed with milk and baked.

I also decided to make some scones, this time I decided on wholemeal apple and cinnamon scones.

Scones and Tuna Rolls 

For tea I had a hankering for Chinese food, so I made a "takeaway" On the menu was:

Chicken & Sweetcorn Soup (Chicken Noodle for Dave as he doesn't like sweetcorn.)

Beef with Peppers in Oyster Sauce

Chicken and Mushroom Curry

Prawn Chow Mien

Egg Fried Rice

&

Prawn Crackers

The Recipes

Beef & Peppers in Oyster Sauce

Thinly sliced beef ( I used about 8oz - sorry I'm too old to do metric!)

1 Pepper Chopped into 1" squares

1 Onion chopped into largish chunks

1 Clove garlic chopped

1 Teaspoon grated fresh ginger

2 Tbsp Oyster Sauce

2 Tsps Soy Sauce

2 Tsps Rice Wine or Dry Sherry (Optional)

2 Tsps Cornflour

1/4 pt Stock (Can be from a cube)

Blend the last 5 ingredients together and set aside. Stir fry everything else, until the beef is cooked through. I just chuck it all in together.  Add the sauce ingredients and stir constantly until it comes to the boil and thickens. That's it!

Chinese Curry Sauce

Simply stir fry your chosen ingredients - the only prerequisites are onion cut into large dice, garlic and ginger  (I also used leftover chicken, some mushrooms, and some frozen peas) and add them to this curry sauce.

1 oz lard (ok you could use oil, but I like lard- it's natural!)

1 Tbsp Plain Flour

1 Tbsp Any bog standard curry powder - I like the co-op medium curry powder for this recipe.

1 Pint stock - from a stock cube is fine.

Melt the lard, then stir in the flour and curry powder and fry while stirring constantly for about 1 minute. Take off the heat and add a tiny amount of stock, only about a teaspoon or so while beating vigorously with either a wooden spoon or a balloon whisk. Gradually add increasing amounts of stock till it is all added, then return to the heat and stirring constantly return to the boil.

Chow Mien 

Normally I would add onion and beansprouts as the main vegetables, but due to the snow situation I was unable to get any beansprouts hence the use of carrots cut into fine strips that you can see in the picture.

Any pre cooked meat/ prawns etc

Pre cooked noodles, drained.

Finely sliced onion

Beansprouts

Chopped clove of garlic

About a teaspoon of grated fresh ginger.

Soy sauce.

Oil for stir frying.

Heat about 1 Tbsp oil then add the garlic, ginger and onion. Stir fry for about 2 minutes then add beansprouts. Stir fry for another 2 minutes and add the noodles. Continue to stir fry for a further 2 minutes then add any meat, prawns etc. Sprinkle generously with soy sauce and stir fry for 1 further minute.

Egg Fried Rice

Cold cooked rice

1 Egg beaten

1 Tbsp oil

Soy sauce

Heat the oil then add the egg. Tilt the pan to spread out the egg thinly then as it's just beginning to set break it up with a fork into small pieces. Add the rice and stir fry for 3 or 4 minutes until the rice is well heated. Generously sprinkle with soy sauce and stir through.

Uncooked prawn crackers can sometimes be bought from either Home Bargains or B & M and are always available from oriental supermarkets. A box will cost you less than a bag of prawn crackers at the local takeaway and will make around 5 -6 times the amount.