Thai inspired stir fry

Just got back from a fabulous holiday in Thailand. The food was incredible, cheap and everywhere, day and night.....

....the ultimate destination for the lazy cook!!
But sadly, I live in France, where they don't really do takeaway except for Macdo....so I have to try and make it myself. Have a fabulous book full of Thai recipes, trouble is they're very faffy so not suitable for inclusion here.

But here's something Thai-ish that I made up for my dinner earlier:

Chop some shallots and lemongrass, fry. Add some chopped chicken. Then add chillies (of course!), fish sauce, ginger, lime juice, bit of sugar, chopped mushrooms. Stir fry til cooked, serve with rice or noodles, add coriander to taste.

I didn't go mad with the chillies and even the kids ate some!

Duck au curry......

Just invented a delicious curry, using what I had in the cupboard, namely a tin of duck confit. We may not be able to get decent supplies of chilies and coriander out here, but there's more tinned duck products than you know what to do with in south west France.

So I put my tinned duck legs in the pan and fried them for a bit. They are really fatty, so I drained the fat off a few times as they fried, never throw this stuff away, keep it in the fridge and use it to roast spuds in, it's delicious!

In a seperate pan I fried up sliced onions and peppers in a bit of oil so you get that nice charred flavour, the duck is too fatty to fry all the stuff together really (I know, TWO pans, extra washing up, sorry!!)

Then I removed the bones and skin from the confit which had kind of dismantled itself anyway during cooking so not as faffy as it sounds. Drained off the fat yet again and added a large dollop of my trusty favourite curry paste, I used the hot stuff but I'm sure it'll be just as good for those of you who are chilli wusses and have to use mild curry paste ;-)

Then in go the onions and peppers and a tin of chopped tomatoes, and voila, curried confit. Leave it to simmer for ages, stir occasionally, add water if necessary,

Really Easy Cheesecake

A recipe from my friend Marie, she said it was easy and she was right......

Get a packet of ginger biscuits, crush them up. Remove small child from kitchen having a tantrum because she wanted to eat the biscuits. Melt some butter, mix with biscuits, press into cheesecake tin, chill.

Whisk up tub of Marscapone and tin of condensed milk (which I have managed to find in France, hurray!!) with juice & zest of some lemons or limes for a good 4 minutes. Apparently if you don't do this for long enough, it won't work. Not being prepared to take that chance, I whisked it for ages........

Pour into tin, chill

And that's it. Chuck on some chocolate curls if you're feeling really extravagent - we didn't have any chocolate :-(

My dinner guests loved it, the kids ate 2 lots each, I finished what was left for breakfast the next day, fantastic.

Trifling Trifle

I've never even attempted to make trifle before as it's one of those desserts that seem to have far too many things in it. However, last month I got roped into helping a friend make 170 of them for an English meal we were doing for the locals, and I realised quite a bit of cheating can be done.

So you need:

Sponge fingers (they call them boudoirs over here for some reason)
Jelly
Carton of Ambrosia ready made custard (to be found in the "Exotic Foreign Food" section of the supermarket over here along with such delights as Marmite and lemon curd)
Tin of mixed fruit cocktail
Tub of thick cream (best substitute over here is Marscapone mixed with single cream, the French just can't do proper cream)
Hundreds & thousands

Break up the sponge fingers, put them in the bottom of the bowl, chuck in the mixed fruit cocktail, make the jelly up (this usually involves pouring over boiling water and stirring, not too arduous), pour it over and leave to set in the fridge. Then pour over the custard, leave in the fridge a bit longer, then add a layer of cream and top off with hundreds and thousands to keep the kids happy. Or if it isn't for the kids, don't forget to chuck sherry over the sponge fingers before you add the rest.

Easy! And the French seem to love the stuff and think it's incredibly difficult to make so you can pretend to them that it was......

Easy fajitas

This is something I make all the time. Just made it this evening as I found out the French student staying with us loves them. It's really easy.......

Get some chicken breasts, cut them into strips. Also cut a couple of onions and peppers into strips, (even better, get someone who really likes fajitas to do all the chopping for you) chuck them into a wok or frying pan with some olive oil, lemon juice, dried oregano and chilli flakes or some of that very lazy chilli stuff they sell in jars for people like me.

Mix together. Fry. Stir occasionally.

Serve with tortillas, grated cheese, creme fraiche or sour cream and salsa (from a jar, obviously)

Job done!

Sphagetti a la Carbonara

Just made a recipe for spaghetti a la carbonara sent to me recently. Never actually made this before, I mean, you can get it in jars, right? Still it looked easy enough, although separating an egg comes close to triggering the faffometer. Still, here's the recipe:

"Ingredients:

spaghetti
cream (I use a 20cl carton of semi épaisse)
shredded ham (instead of using bacon bits or having to chop the ham yourself!)
parmesan (ready grated)
salt & pepper to taste
1 egg yolk

Whilst cooking the spaghetti, heat the cream gently in a pan, then add the shredded ham and the parmesan and salt & pepper if needed. Drain the spaghetti and serve on to plates. At the last minute add the egg yolk to the cream mixture, blend in and serve over pasta.

This is for two people.

It's really quick and doesn't involve frying bacon and what not."

Well, it was really quick, didn't have parmesan but used emmental instead, and allumettes de jambon (that's diced ham to you and me). Fed it to the kids for tea and the verdict was "better than the stuff you get in the jar".
 

Reckon it'd be really good with a nice mature cheddar too.... if only it were readily available over here for anything less than an extortionate price *sigh*

Ersatz Italian Sausage Primavera

Was given this recipe:

"Ersatz Italian Sausage Primavera"


I love Italian sausage simmered in a yummy tomato sauce, loaded with veggies & served over pasta or polenta or mashed potatoes or any other starchy side dish. I've never actually found real Italian sausage in France, so any French sausage will do nicely (Toulouse, garlic, chipolata, even merguez). This is SUPER EASY - I like the polenta with it (1 minute polenta is readily available). It's a great way to throw in those healthy veggies, esp. for kids!
Ingredients :

Any sausage
olive oil
bottled pasta sauce
garlic powder
dried basil and/or oregano
bit of sugar
BALSAMIC VINEGAR (a must!)
frozen or fresh, cut-up veggies of your choice (leftovers are fine)
mushrooms (fresh or frozen), optional
red chili pepper flakes, optional (for those who like it fired up)

Drizzle olive oil into a somewhat deep frying pan w/lid (I like using the non-stick type). Heat & put in ALL ingredients together. Add a bit of water, as well - this should be nice & saucy. Seasoning is to taste - the addition of the sugar & balsamic vinegar will give it a rich, slightly sweet & tangy taste. I like to add the extra garlic & herbs, too, to jazz up the bottled sauce. You could use red wine, instead of the vinegar, but save that for drinking!!

Simmer for @ 45 min. minimum, even longer on a very low flame. Stir occasionally. That's it! Serve with pasta, naturally, or polenta, or any other starch. You could also add chunks of potato to the cooking sauce  then you'll have a true one-pot meal!

Made it with those yummy little herby sausages they do in Lidl but I bet it'd be brilliant with proper British sausages like you can't get here *sigh*. Chucked in some lardons (that's small bits of bacon to us Brits) I found in the freezer too. Having no idea what Polenta is (check it out on Wiki here if you're as ignorant as me) I did it with what my youngest calls "spiral pastas" and the kids hoovered it up, broccoli, carrots and all! Very easy, very tasty. Nuff said.

Oh, never heard of "Primavera" either but I have an excuse for that, apparently it's an American thing. More info here.