Chilli Beef Stir Fry

OK, here's the best thing I've done with left-over roast beef. Apart from sandwiches, that is.

Get yourself a really sharp knife and slice the beef as thinly as you can, like shavings. Stick the shredded beef into a bowl and drench in soy sauce mixed with a little cornflour - as much as you like, to be honest. Then add some finely chopped garlic, dried chilli flakes and some five-spice. Again, just use as much as you like.

Next, heat some sunflower oil in a wok and bring some salted water to the boil in a large pan. I usually just grab a bag of stir-fry veg from the supermarket because I can't be bothered cutting up bits of carrot, cabbage, mushrooms and whatnot. It makes the whole process much quicker.

Anyway, get a couple of sheets of dried noodles (I use Sharwoods medium egg noodles) into your boiling water for 4 minutes, using some tongs after about 30 seconds to make sure the noodles are separated.

Then chuck your veg into the hot wok and toss them about in the hot oil. After a couple of minutes, tip the beef and the marinade into the veg and toss the whole lot about.

When the 4 minutes is us, drain the noodles in a colander and add them to the wok. Toss the whole lot around and that's your lot.

Divide up into warmed bowls and serve. As that meerkat off of the telly says, simples!

By the way, you don't need left-over beef for this. You can use very thinly cut steak or chicken or prawns for this. Just remember you may need a minute or two more for chicken to cook through depending on how thinly you've cut it.


The Bloke

Back To (Proper) Work - Well, Almost

It was a return to my day job today. Well, not quite. Today was the start of the PHM Taxi Show in Coventry's Ricoh Arena where displays of all things taxi are, well, displayed.

As in my real job I'm charged with flogging taxi insurance online, I was down there shaking hands, taking details and handing out goodie-bags.

Needless to say, lunch wasn't up to much however the pastrami, cheese and mustard sandwich was surprisingly tasty.

And so home and dinner. The left-over beef I mentioned in an earlier post made a cracking stir-fry and I'll give you all the details in a minute or two.

It just remains for me to say that I'm enjoying a nice cold pinot grigio while watching the latest round of upper-class twits being incompetent on The Apprentice.

T'ra for now.


The Bloke

Half-Term Holidays

Well, it's half-term and we've had a nice day out.

First to the Odeon at Liverpool One to see Night at the Museum 2. I'm not sure it was as good as the first one but still quite entertaining. Steve Coogan riding a squirrel was rather amusing. Pooky liked it anyway.

Then it was a mooch round town where I picked up some reusable ice cubes and a chef's candle from Lakeland along with a Smiths guitar tab book from Dolphin.

Finally, lunch at Zizzi in Liverpool One. We had a decent antipasto with meats, olives, bread, oils and mozzarella, followed by linguine gamberi with tomato and chilli. It was pretty good and I'll try to recreate the recipe some time, probably next week. As soon as I do, I'll post it here.

Anyway, I'm just settling down to a glass of white Merlot and it's been a busy day so I'll sign out for now.


TTFN


The Bloke

Boiled Eggs With Asparagus Soldiers

Very simple but classy breakfast.

Two fresh, free range organic eggs per person - freely available from supermarkets, farmers markets or good butchers.

Asparagus spears - as many per person as you feel like. In season at the moment and best used as fresh as possible.

Pancetta rashers - bought from Tesco. Again, get as many as you need - one rasher per two asparagus spears.

OK, here goes. Cut each rasher of pancetta length-wise then wrap each asparagus spear with a piece of pancetta. When you've done them all, place the asparagus in an oven-proof dish and drizzle over a little olive oil. Place the dish in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees (gas mark 4) while you get on with the eggs.

Now, there are many theories about boiling eggs and I've struggled in the past but I've finally found a fool-proof way of getting perfect boiled eggs every time.

First thing is to have good, fresh eggs and make sure they're at room temperature before you start.

Next is to get yourself an Egg-Perfect Egg Timer. This little gadget is absolutely brilliant (unlike those floaty egg poaching pouches which are completely useless).

You put the eggs into a pan with room-temperature water along with the Egg-Perfect Egg Timer and bring to the boil. The Egg-Perfect Egg Timer changes colour and indicates when the eggs are perfectly cooked and amazingly it works a treat.

Serve the eggs in a cut-up egg box for a bit of rustic charm along with the asparagus soldiers and a sprinkle of sea salt. Classy!


The Bloke

Bank Holiday Bliss

Well, it's been another lovely day here on Merseyside. I've watched our yearly visitors, the housemartins (nothing to do with Paul Heaton and Norman Cook) who have a mud nest on top of our alarm box. They arrive every spring and dazzle us with their aerobatic displays.

After a lovely breakfast of boiled eggs with asparagus spears wrapped in pancetta (recipe to follow) it was in to the garden for a bit more gardening and more fun and games with the girls.

We nearly had a disaster when a shuttlecock nearly took The Missus's eye out but there was no (real) harm done.

The weather took a bit of a turn mid-afternoon so we retreated indoors where the roast beef was already in the oven (recipe also to follow).

Dinner was followed by a bit of Pikimin 2 on the Wii. Pooky has just gone for her bath with The Missus so I'm taking the opportunity to do a bit of blogging while watching Sky Sports News. Congratulations to Burnley, by the way and genuine heart-felt commiserations to The Blades.

I think Owen Coyle is a great manager and should, heaven-forbid Mr Moyes gets tempted by Celtic or United, then Coyle would be a good tip for the Goodison hot-seat.

Anyway, those olives I marinaded earlier (once again, recipe on it's way) will do just fine later tonight and I there's half a chicken in the fridge which will go just nicely, thank you very much!

TTFN


The Bloke

Ups and Downs on Survival Sunday

Everton claimed fifth spot with a 2 nil win against Fulham - their first win at Craven Cottage since 1966 (not 1066 as I originally typed...)

Villa beat Newcastle to condem them to a season in the Championship but it wasn't enough for the Villains who finished sixth.

Boro compounded the North East's miserable day with their defeat to West Ham who have just missed out on Europa League football next season.

Well, it's not over for Everton with the FA Cup final against Chelsea next week. I was at the semi final when we defeated Manchester United on penalties but due to the FA's lovely ticketing policy, I've not been able to get a ticket for the final.

Anyway, all I can say on the subject is 'COYB'!!

The Bloke

It's a Sunny Day...

Well, what can I say?! The weather has taken a turn for the better and there's been tears at bedtime in the Premier League.

It finally stopped raining long enough for me to mow the grass and it was a good opportunity for me to move my sprouting plants from the conservatory to the garden.

I've planted the courgettes, leeks, Brussell sprouts and tomatoes, along with Pooky's broad bean which she started growing in school and has come on leaps and bounds. I'm still half hoping that I'll be able to climb up it and bag myself a couple of golden eggs, but I'm not holding my breath.

Anyway, the roast beef got the elbow in favour of a barbecue - well, you have to take the chance when it presents itself in these here parts.

We started with the obligatory burgers, followed by a couple of nice Lincolnshire sausages and finished off with some haloumi on the griddle pan. We did have some steaks on standby but with the panini and salad, we'd already had our fill.

There was probably more I wanted to say but there's always tomorrow.

I'm just settling down with a nice Chilean Chardonnay and the latest episode of the brilliant Come Dine With Me. Narrator Dave Lamb is a comedy genius.

More tomorrow. TTFN.


The Bloke

Bloke In The Facebook

I finally managed to get the blokeinthekitchen Facebook page up and running.....


The Bloke

The Bloke Is Back!

Well, it's been a while but The Bloke is back.

After a bit of a do with my previous hosting company over the registration and hosting of http://www.blokeinthekitchen.com/, along with other work committments and suchlike, 'bloke' had to take something of a backseat.

Now though, through the miracle of the social network, blokeinthekitchen is reborn - bigger, better and, most importantly where I'm concerned, free-er (if that's really a word).

Anyway, for those of you who remember the original blokeinthekitchen, there'll be more great recipes written in a plain and simple way that anyone - any bloke - can understand. No poncey words or fancy terms - just easy, straight-forward cooking.

Right, I'm still in the process of setting up my various profiles. Please follow my updates on Twitter at http://twitter.com/blokeinkitchen and I'm almost done with my new Facebook page.

Watch this space!


The Bloke