Cashew Nut Risotto

A simple risotto made with white basmati rice, chopped onion, red pepper, mushroom, carrot, chives, red chilli, and cashew nuts. 

Prepare the vegetables while the rice is cooking (around 9 nine minutes). Par-boil them for ten minutes while the rice is drained and cooling. Drain the vegetables. Then add both the rice and the vegetables to a saute pan or wok and stir-fry for six or seven minutes at a medium heat. Decant onto a serving plate with a spiral of dark soy sauce. Quick and nutritious!

Cashew Nut Risotto

Hoisin Chicken

Hoisin sauce is a thick sauce often used in Chinese cuisine as a glaze for meat, for stir fries (as here), or as dipping sauce. It is dark in appearance with a sweet and salty taste. There are of course regional variants across the vastness of China, but hoisin sauce usually includes soy beans, ketchup, maple syrup, red chillies and garlic. I bought mine ready made from the local Aldi store (cheap and ready to go). 

This is a very simple dish to prepare.  Cut breast of chicken into chunks and stir fry in sunflower oil at a medium heat until the chunks begin to go golden brown (twelve to fifteen minutes depending on the heat applied). After around seven minutes I added chopped spring onion to the chicken. Stir often to prevent burning. 

Add the hoisin sauce to the wok, and stir in thoroughly. Cook for three to four minutes at a medium heat. Serve with boiled basmati rice. Delicious!

Hoisin Chicken

Sea Bream Fillets with Mushrooms, Butter and Ginger

Two Sea Bream fillets from Sainsbury's supermarket, served with butter, ginger and soy sauce, and accompanied by mushrooms cooked in sunflower oil,  a dash of rice wine, and a half teaspoonful of Squid brand Nam Pla fish sauce. 

The finely sliced mushrooms (four altogether) were cooked first in a saute pan at a moderately high heat, so they would brown slightly. Altogether they were in the pan for no more than four minutes, occasionally being turned. The mushrooms were then decanted onto a warmed plate. 

The hob was turned down to a moderate heat, and the Sea Bream fillets were lowered into about 15ml of sunflower oil skin side first, and cooked for three minutes. After a minute the pan was lidded. The fillets were turned, and cooked for another three minutes at a moderate heat, also under the glass for two of those minutes, to ensure thorough heating. 

The fillets were decanted onto the serving plate, skin side down, and butter, soy and ginger were melted together in the saute pan, before being drizzled onto the fish. 

A fabulously tasty dish, quick to prepare and cook. The flesh lifted easily from the skin and was entirely boneless. 

Sea Bream Fillets with Mushrooms, Butter and Ginger

Vegetable and Noodle Stir-Fry

Because of the noodles, this dish is not gluten free. Cut various vegetables cut into strips. In this case I used carrots, green beans, courgette and mushrooms. Stir-fried along with some crushed garlic, diced root ginger, and decapitated green chillies. At the same time the egg noodles were soaking in a pan of boiled water (ten minutes until soft). Shortly before the stir-fry was ready, the noodles were drained and added to the wok, and quickly stirred into the mix.  A spiral of dark soy sauce was added to the plate before serving, along with a sprinkling of black pepper. 

Vegetable and Noodle Stir-Fry