Best Asian Salad

Here is my favourite and most popular "gourmet" salad. This is a fantastic salad as you can use pretty much whatever you like, and you can make it vegetarian or even vegan, and you can use different meats in it as well. If you have the time, I recommend making this the day before you want to eat it, to allow the flavours to develop and infuse. Fried tofu is my favourite protein for this salad. It tastes totally different when made this way.

For 4 big serves, you need:

1/2 packet of Rice Vermicelli noodles (The very fine dried white noodles)
1/4 of a wombok (Chinese Cabbage)
1/4 small red cabbage
1 small red onion
Leaves of 1 bunch coriander
1 punnet of fresh bean shoots (or 2 tins, drained REALLY well)
1 tin water chestnuts, roughly chopped
Tofu/meat of your choice

Dressing:
1/2 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Kecap Manis
1 Tablespoon Sesame Oil
1 Tablespoon Sesame Seeds
1 Teaspoon Fish sauce (not for vegos though)
1-2 small fresh chillis (to your liking), chopped finely
The stalks of one bunch coriander, chopped finely
1 clove garlic, crushed and finely chopped
2cm piece of ginger, grated
Lime juice
Sugar, to taste

The first thing to do is to make your dressing. Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and put on a medium heat.

For the meat/tofu component, you need to have it cut into reasonably bite size pieces. Cook it to your preference while the dressing is still cooking. When your protein component is cooked, add it straight to the hot dressing. You can serve it hot but it is better if you can leave it to cool and allow the flavours to soak in.

For the salad, put the rice vermicelli in a bowl and pour boiling water over to cover. Allow to stand, and drain when they are soft. You can cool the noodles down by rinsing them under the cold tap.

Cut the wombok and red cabbage as finely as you can, so it resembles coleslaw. Also finely slice or chop the red onion.

Place all these ingredients in a large bowl, along with the bean shoots and water chestnuts. Add the cooled noodles as well. Now place your protein in with the salad, and add dressing to coat everything. Garnish with the coriander leaves and enjoy.Keca

Wonton Soup

One of the easiest, CHEAPEST and tastiest comfort foods you can make.

This will make more than enough for one meal for 6 people. It's another one of those recipes where you can put whatever you like in the mix, so you can use a smaller amount of meat and bulk it out with veges! I have left chilli out of this recipe so that it is a bit more kid friendly, but if you love chilli like I do, you can add it to the pork (sauce or chopped fresh) and also to the soup as you serve it.

250g pork or chicken mince
1 bunch coriander
2cm knob of ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch bok choy
1 small onion
soy sauce
1 packet wonton wrappers (in the fridge with the fresh pasta and noodles at the supermarket)
2 cartons chicken stock
1 Spring Onion
any other veges you have around, eg carrots, zucchini, squash

Finely chop the stems and roots of the coriander, the ginger, garlic and onion. If you have a small food processor, you could whizz it in that as well to make it finer and smoother.

Add to the mince along with a tablespoon of soy sauce and mix it through with your hands until everything is thoroughly mixed. You can also add some finely chopped bok choy stalks to the mince as well, or chopped water chestnuts for a great crunch.

Now, clear as much space as you have on your bench. Separate the wonton wrappers and lay as many as will fit out on your bench.
Take a teaspoon and place a small teaspoon full of the pork mixture into the middle of each wonton wrapper. When they are all done, you need to do them up!

With a bowl of water nearby, dip your fingers in it and go through the wrappers and wet the sides around the pork mixture.
Take the first one, bring opposite diagonal corners together, then squash the other corners in, and use the moisture to seal them up. Repeat with the rest!

To cook the soup, Put a pot on the stove on a moderate heat, and pour in the stock. Roughly cut up the rest of the bok choy and place in the stock, along with any other veges you want to throw in. Place the wontons in the stock (6 is enough for a meal for 1 person). They are cooked when they float to the surface.

To serve: Spoon equal amounts of wontons and veges into bowls, and cover with the stock. Top with the coriander leaves and chopped spring onion stalks.
Serve with soy sauce to allow people to adjust saltiness to their taste. ENJOY!

Wontons that you don't use can be frozen as well. If you have left over meat, freeze it and use it another time. Or you could make meatballs or asian style burgers.

More Pasta - Creamy!

My last post was about making tomato pasta sauce bases more exciting on the cheap. This one is creamy instead.

You can use different types of creams, thickened or pure or sour cream all work well, as do low fat versions.

Different things work better with tomato based sauces than creamy ones. There is hardly any work to be done for creamy sauces. The same principle as before applies. Get a pot of water on to boil for the pasta, and get everything else happening while that is boiling.

You can put pretty much anything in a creamy sauce, but I generally like strong tasting things with cream, as the cream will damp the strength a bit down a little bit.

So, while you pasta is boiling, chop up whatever you want to use in your sauce (again, get whatever is cheapest)and start cooking it in butter or oil. When you are ready to serve it, drain the pasta, and stir enough cream in to draw all your other ingredients together.

Good ingredients for creamy sauces include:

Mushrooms
Chicken
Bacon
Onion
Garlic
Sundried Tomato
Chargrilled Eggplant
Chargrilled Zucchini
Roasted Capsicum
Chilli
Parsley

Remember again, cut your ingredients small so they cook quickly, and you can have dinner ready is 15 minutes!

A super easy creamy sauce can be made by cooking off a tablespoon or two of pesto, then mixing through cream to make it a sauce consistency.