Tonight my aunt stayed for dinner, we had left over steak from last nights dinner (I tried a new sauce which I’ll blog next week) and I had some chicken in the fridge. So I decided to make two different chinese dishes; Beef in an Oyster Sauce and Sweet & Sour Chicken with boiled rice. It turned out yummy, my favourite was the beef This will be a long post so beware

Stir-Fried Vegetables
Grab any vegetables you like, I used onions, mushrooms, green pepper, mange-tout and fry with a little oil, salt and pepper until soft. Set aside for use in the two upcoming dishes

Soft Fluffy White Boiled Rice
Heat a large pan of water which has been seasoned with a little salt and bring to the boil. Add in rice (I used 2 cups today) and make sure the water level is approx 1 inch more than the rice level, stir once and then put lid on the pan and turn down the heat and let it simmer away for 15 or until water has evaporated. To check if the rice is ready, get a knife and make little holes in the pan to get to the bottom of the pan, when you take the knife out, if it is sticky and watery then the rice is not ready and should take a few more minutes. Becareful not to stir the rice or else it will become all sticky and yuck! Take off the heat and let it sit for a few minutes before making sure all water has gone from the pan and plate up with the dishes featured below (or any other for that matter!).

Beef in Oyster Sauce
Ingredients:

500g sirlon steak cut into pieces
3 cloves garlic – thinly sliced
1/4 ginger – thinly sliced
1 tbsp sake or soy sauce
5 tbsp oyster sauce
pepper
vegetable oil

Marinate:

1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp corn starch
2 tbsp water
2 tsp vegetable oil
A pinch of pepper and sugar

Method:

1. Mix all the marinate ingredients together in a bowl and add the steak for 30 minutes in order to soak.
2. Heat the oil in a wok (or deep frying pan), saute garlic and ginger until slightly brown.
3. Add the marinated steak along with the leftover marinate juices and cook until cooked (approx 8 minutes)
4. Add oyster sauce, sake or soy sauce, 1/2 of the ready prepared vegetables & season and stir all together for a further 2-3 minutes, then serve.

Sweet & Sour Chicken
Marinate Ingredients:

500g boneless chicken breast sliced into chunks
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp cold water

Sauce Ingredients:

4 tbsp vinegar
4 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp sugar
5 tbsp cold water
5 tbsp pineapple juice
3 tsp corn starch
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vegetable oil

Method:

1. Mix all of the marinate ingredients together in a bowl and let the chicken sit it in for approx 30 minutes
2. Mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
3. Add a little vegetable oil in a wok (or deep frying pan) and put on high heat until you hear the oil cracking. Add in the chicken stirring for approx 4 minutes until golden brown. Remove the chicken from the wok and set aside remembering to drain excess oil away from the wok or else the dish will be too oily.
4. With your now oil drained wok, add a little vegetable oil (yes it doesn’t make sense but it’s fresh oil rather than used oil! Add in the rest of the previous prepared vegetables, sweet & sour sauce and stir until it because very hot, this will take 2-3 minutes.
6. Put the chicken back in the wok with the sauce and stir for a few minutes then serve.

& that’s basically it… the preparation takes the longest but munching into the hot yummy food at the end is great! Since I’ve moved in with my grandfather, I’m cooking much much more so these posts will continue for the near future so I hope you don’t get too bored & I would like some of you to try them out and lemme know how they worked!

This was the dish I was busy cooking when I sliced part of my finger off, it still hurts like a bitch but eating yummy food made it feel worth it, yes I’m weird like that! My aunt bought a Roasting joint of Scottish Topside Angus Beef the other day so I decided to cook it today and this is what I came up with. The recipe and cooking times are based on the weight of the beef I had. Increase/Decrease cooking time depending on weight. If you are stuck, email (comment) and I’ll give you the times based on the weight

Ingredients:
1. 1Kg Roasting Joint of Beef
2. Olive oil
3. Dried Mixed Herbs
4. Salt and pepper
5. Water
6. Beef Stock Cube
7. Corn Starch
8. Potatoes
9. Milk and Butter

Roast Beef:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°c

2. With a knife, make around 6-8 incisions, this will allow the juices to flow around the joint and also for heat to get inside

3. Take a tablespoon of olive oil and dried mixed herbs and rub into the joint along with sprinkles of salt and pepper

4. Get a baking tray with alumninum foil and place the joint in it and cover. Place into the middle rack of the oven

5. Cook for 50 minutes and then take out of the oven and prick the joint with a sharp knife to see what the juice colours are. If it is red it is rare (and probably still raw), you are looking for a clear juice to come out in the end. By now, juices will be at the bottom of the baking tray, so take a spoon and put some of the juices all over the joint and put in the oven for an additional 15 minutes

6. Take out of the oven and let to sit for 10 minutes before carving. This will allow the meat to set and make it easier to cut up.

Herb Gravy:
With the juices left over in the baking tray from the roasting joint, put into a meduim sized pan and put on the heat. Add some water and beef stock (use a cube that has been mixed in water). Dissolve a tablespoon of corn starch in some water and add to the pan. Stir quickly as the gravy thickens up to avoid any lumps (which taste yuck!). Add a tablespoon of dried mixed herbs (and some thyme if you have it) along with salt and pepper to taste. If you feel the gravy is too thick for your liking, keep adding water slowly and mix until you get a consistancy you like.

Mashed Potato:
1. Peel the amount of potatoes you want depending on how many people will eat. I peeled 6 potatoes, along with my finger *cries* and then chopped each potato either into halves or quaters depending on the size of it.

2. Boil water with a sprinkle of salt and once brought to the boil, add the potatoes and boil for 20 minutes or under soft and tender.

3. Once boiled, drain the water and add a knob of butter, a little milk, salt and pepper and mash the potatoes together with one of those masher things (no clue what its called). The potatoes will be nice, creamy and fluffy by this point.

That’s basically everything. It turned out yummy and there are tons of leftovers for tomorrow! I was going to serve some other vegetables but my finger was hurting too much so I just stuck with the potatoes lol and then a scoop of ice cream and peaches to cheer myself up

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I’m currently in the middle of cooking (recipe will follow later) and as I was peeling potatoes for the side dish, I sliced the top of my index finger on my left hand off. Blood started pouring out and I kept running it under the tap but more blood was coming out. I then spent 5 minutes running around my grandfathers house looking for antiseptic cream, bandages and band-aids while blood was dripping all over *cries*

End Result = my finger hurts like a bitch, I’m typing really slowly, I still have to finish cooking dinner and chewy now finds my finger rather fascinating and enjoys licking the bandage lol