Foodie Friday: Mixed Vegetable Chow Mein

Serves 4
Ready in about 15 minutes

Ingredients:
300g dried egg noodles
200g Quorn Chicken Style Pieces
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1 large carrot, cut into matchsticks
1 large courgette, peeled and cut into matchsticks
100g mangetout, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into thin strips
150g shiitake or chestnut mushrooms, thickly sliced
12 spring onions, cut diagonally into 1in/2.5cm pieces
200g water chestnuts, drained and rinsed
50g beansprouts
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1cm piece fresh root ginger, finely grated
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
Fry Light
A handful of fresh coriander leaves, chopped

Method:
1. Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions, drain well and then set aside.
2. Meanwhile, spray a large, non-stick wok or frying pan with Fry Light and place over a high heat. Add all the ingredients except the noodles, soy sauce, wine vinegar and coriander, and stir-fry for 8-10 minutes, or until just tender.
3. Stir in the noodles, soy sauce, vinegar and coriander and toss together to mix well. Serve.

Cook’s note: For a Thai-style variation on this recipe, use dried flat rice noodles instead of the egg noodles and add 1 level tbsp of sweet chilli sauce if you like.

Wordless Wednesday: Burns Night supper

Music Monday: Latinas

Over the weekend I got to listen to two Putumayo releases from several years back, Latinas: Women of Latin America (2000) and Women of Latin America (2004). Like the vast majority of the Putumayo material I have heard, they are both overall excellent albums, showcasing the best from several Latin American countries, especially those that we don’t get to hear much from, over here in Europe. Everyone knows about the Cuban, Mexican and Brazilian music scenes, but what about Peru, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic… You get my drift.

These are only a couple of my favourites from each album; if I posted everything I loved, I’d have to have two dozen videos up here. There’s more on YouTube, though, so go sample, and then go buy before the sale ends!

The Mass of Shadows (part 2/2)

“Catherine Fontaine felt that she was under the observation and the influence also of her mysterious neighbor, and when, scarcely turning her head, she stole a glance at him, she recognized the young Chevalier d’Aumont-Cléry, who had once loved her, and who had been dead for five and forty years. She recognized him by a small mark which he had over the left ear, and above all by the shadow which his long black eyelashes cast upon his cheeks. He was dressed in his hunting clothes, scarlet with gold lace, the very clothes he wore that day when he met her in St. Leonard’s Wood, begged of her a drink, and stole a kiss. He had preserved his youth and good looks. When he smiled, he still displayed magnificent teeth. Catherine said to him in an undertone:

“‘Monseigneur, you who were my friend, and to whom in days gone by I gave all that a girl holds most dear, may God keep you in His grace! O, that He would at length inspire me with regret for the sin I committed in yielding to you; for it is a fact that, though my hair is white and I approach my end, I have not yet repented of having loved you. But, dear dead friend and noble seigneur, tell me, who are these folk, habited after the antique fashion, who are here assisting at this silent Mass?’

The Mass of Shadows (part 1/2)

This tale the sacristan of the church of St. Eulalie at Neuville d’Aumont told me, as we sat under the arbor of the White Horse, one fine summer evening, drinking a bottle of old wine to the health of the dead man, now very much at his ease, whom that very morning he had borne to the grave with full honors, beneath a pall powdered with smart silver tears.

“My poor father who is dead” (it is the sacristan who is speaking,) “was in his lifetime a grave-digger. He was of an agreeable disposition, the result, no doubt, of the calling he followed, for it has often been pointed out that people who work in cemeteries are of a jovial turn. Death has no terrors for them; they never give it a thought. I, for instance, monsieur, enter a cemetery at night as little perturbed as though it were the arbor of the White Horse. And if by chance I meet with a ghost, I don’t disturb myself in the least about it, for I reflect that he may just as likely have business of his own to attend to as I. I know the habits of the dead, and I know their character. Indeed, so far as that goes, I know things of which the priests themselves are ignorant. If I were to tell you all I have seen, you would be astounded. But a still tongue makes a wise head, and my father, who, all the same, delighted in spinning a yarn, did not disclose a twentieth part of what he knew. To make up for this he often repeated the same stories, and to my knowledge he told the story of Catherine Fontaine at least a hundred times.

Foodie Friday: Scandinavian-Style Meatballs

Serves 4
Ready in about 40 minutes
Freezable (meatballs only)

Ingredients:
650g extra-lean minced pork
1 shallot, finely cubed
3 garlic cloves, crushed
400g dried spaghetti
200ml vegetable stock
200g fat-free Greek yoghurt
Fry Light
A large handful of fresh dill, finely chopped, reserving some to garnish
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Steamed mixed baby vegetables, to serve

Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4. Place the minced pork, shallots, garlic and most of the dill in a bowl and mix together, using your hands, until well combined. Season well, then divide the mixture into 32 portions and roll each into a ball.
2. Spray a large, ovenproof frying pan with Fry Light and place over a high heat. Add the meatballs and gently stir-fry for 4-5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for 12-15 minutes, or until the pork is cooked through.
3. Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti according to the packet instructions, then drain well. Next, make the sauce by bringing the stock to a rapid boil in a large saucepan. Remove from the heat, whisk in the yoghurt until well combined, then season. Add the meatballs to the sauce and toss together to coat.
4. Divide the spaghetti, meatballs and sauce between four plates and garnish with the reserved dill. Spoon the steamed baby vegetables into a side dish, finish with a twist of black pepper and serve with the meatballs.

Wordless Wednesday: Kushiel’s Dart

By noriyuki89@deviantart