Vegetarian Stir Fry - Take 2 with Tamago

About a month ago I made Vegetarian Stir Fry and I was not impressed.

Later on I found a recipe for Beef Stir Fry and while I wasn't impressed with the beef, I felt the base recipe would be good for a vegetarian stir fry.

Vegetarian Stir Fry

Serve 4

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 6 tbsp apple juice
• 2 tsp sugar
• 4 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 2-3 carrots
• 500g broccoli florets
• 2 heads of pak choi/bok choi
• one and half cups of rice, unboiled

1. Boil the rice until cooked through and set aside.
2. Mix the soy sauce, apple juice, sugar and 4 tbsp water in a small bowl. Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok, add the onion, broccoli, carrots and pak choi to the pan, stir-fry for 1 min, then add the soy mixture. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer until tender
3. Serve with the rice and tamago (optional).

Tamago (Japanese Egg Omelette)

Serves 1

• 1 egg
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 tsp vegetable oil

1. Combine the egg, soy sauce, sugar and water in a small bowl and whisk throughly
2. Heat the oil in a frying pan or wok
3. Tip the egg mixture into the pan and cook until the bottom has set
4. Fold half of the omelette over and then again and serve

Modified from http://justbento.com/handbook/recipe-collection-mains/1-egg-tamagoyaki-japanese-omelette

I don't recommend making tamago in a pot. If you use a frying pan, it looks more like a rectangle than a sad mess of egg.

That looks better

 The vegetables here were not as good as they were in the beef stir fry. Clearly the beef broth had something to do with the taste of the vegetables.

The tamago was good if messy - I don't have the skills for making it pretty. The rice was bland as usual but I need to use it up. If the sauce had worked like I was expecting, I would be recommending this dish with all my heart. Since it did not, I am forced to keep looking for a good stir fry recipe.

Vegetable Stir Fry
2 large heads of broccoli: EUR 1.18 at Tesco
Red Onion: EUR 0.25 at Tesco
Carrots, 1/8 of a bag at EUR 0.99/bag = EUR 0.13 at Tesco
Pak Choi, EUR 1.99 at Tesco
Apple Juice, 1/8 of a carton at EUR 1.49/carton = EUR 0.19 at Tesco
Soy Sauce, 1/10 of a bottle at EUR 2.20/bottle = EUR 0.22 at Tesco
Sugar, 1/30 of a bag at EUR 0.75/bag = 0.03 at Tesco
Rice, 1/5 of a bag at EUR 1.49/bag = EUR 0.30 at Lidl
Vegetable Oil, 1/20 of a bottle at EUR 1.99/bottle = EUR 0.10 at Lidl
Total cost: EUR 4.39 for four servings or EUR 1.10 for one serving

Tamago
Egg, 1 of 6 at EUR 2.09/carton = EUR 0.35 at Lidl
Sugar, 1/30 of a bag at EUR 0.75/bag = 0.03 at Tesco
Soy Sauce, 1/20 of a bottle at EUR 2.20/bottle = EUR 0.11 at Tesco
Total Cost: EUR 0.49 for one serving

Total Cost: EUR 1.59 for one serving

Winter Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese

Winter Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese

Serves 3

Ingredients

• butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 carrot , chopped
• 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 75g tomato purée
• 750ml vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp creamed horseradish (optional)
• 75ml double cream
• 4 slices of bread
• 4 slices of cheese like cheddar or Gruyère, sliced or grated

Melt a knob of butter in a pan and cook the onion and carrot until softened. Add the tomatoes, purée and stock then simmer for 15-20 minutes, till the veg is soft. Blend until smooth, serve in bowls and top with the horseradish and cream. To make the sandwiches, butter the bread on both sides and put the cheese in between. Fry on each side until the cheese has melted. Cut into pieces.

Modified from http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2672639/winter-tomato-soup-with-grilled-cheese-sandwiches

In my last post I said I wasn't going to use cream in dishes again. I then immediately go out and make another dish with cream. But this is different! Here the cream doesn't go in until the soup is about to be eaten. It's a garnish, not a necessity. I portioned out the soup into containers and added the cream only to the bowl I was about to eat. For the others, I waited until they had been microwaved.

This made a great lunch. The soup was full of good vegetables that blended together well. The sandwich were toasty and went well with the soup.

The day I made this soup, I was disappointed because it didn't taste like 'real' tomato soup. 'Real' tomato soup is creamy and smooth to taste. This soup was a good winter soup with a tomato base, but it wasn't a 'tomato' soup. I thought that the stock could be cut down to 500ml.

Imagine my surprise upon microwaving the first bowl of leftovers when the soup proceeded to be creamy! It tasted just like I thought tomato soup should taste like. The soup tastes better the day after. Neat, isn't it?

In the pictures I used slices of cheese for one sandwich and grated cheese for the other. I think the grated one came out better. If you don't have a grater, you can always dice up the slices for a similar effect. 

Winter Tomato Soup

Onion: EUR 0.25 at Tesco

Carrot, 1/10 of a bag at EUR 0.99/bag = EUR 0.10 at Tesco

400g Roma chopped tomatoes: EUR 1.09 at Tesco

75g Roma tomato puree: EUR 0.46 at Tesco

Kerrygold Butter, perhaps EUR 0.30's worth at Tesco

Double Cream, 75ml of a 250ml bottle at EUR 2.75/bottle = EUR 0.83 at Tesco

Vegetable stock cubes, 2/12 at EUR 1.25/pack = EUR 0.21 at Tesco

Total Cost: EUR 3.24 for three servings or EUR 1.08 for one serving

Grilled Cheese

Rosemary and Olive Oil Bread, 1/5 of a loaf at EUR 1.50/loaf = EUR 0.30 at Tesco

Cathedral City Mature Chedder, 1/10 of a block at EUR 3.50/block = EUR 0.35 at Tesco

Kerrygold Butter, perhaps EUR 0.30's worth at Tesco

Total Cost: EUR 0.95 for 1-2 servings

Total Cost: EUR 2.03 for one serving

Creamy Sausage and Rocket Penne

Creamy Sausage and Rocket Penne

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 6 pork sausages
  
• 250g penne
• 100g rocket (arugula) 
• 150ml single cream
• 2 tsp olive oil

1. Squeeze the sausage meat out of the skins, breaking into grape-size chunks. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Fry the chunks for about 8 mins until crisp and golden.
2. Meanwhile, cook the pasta and chop most of the rocket. Tip in the cream and chopped rocket. Season and heat until the rocket has just wilted.
3. Drain the pasta then mix the pasta through the sauce with a splash of cooking water. Top with remaining rocket.

I am always apprehensive about cream-based dishes. Will it keep? Will it spoil? I can never tell. 

I didn't really like this dish and it's not worth making again. I don't think the cream works well with the other ingredients and while there were leftovers, they were not as good as the day it was made. 

Sausages: EUR 2.00 from Tesco

Penne: EUR 0.99 from Lidl

Rocket: EUR 1.47 from Tesco

Fresh Cream, 3/5 of a bottle at EUR 1.99/bottle = EUR 1.20 at Tesco

Olive Oil, 1/20 of a bottle at EUR 3.99/bottle = EUR 0.20 at Aldi

Total Cost: EUR 5.86 for two servings or EUR 2.93 for one serving

Stir Fry Beef with Broccoli

Stir Fry Beef with Broccoli

Serve 4

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tbsp sherry apple juice
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 300g beef steak, cut into thin strips
• 300g broccoli florets
• handful of spring onions
• one and half cups of rice, unboiled

1. Boil the rice until cooked through and set aside
   Mix the soy sauce, apple juice, sugar and 2 tbsp water in a small bowl. Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok, add the onion and beef, then stir-fry quickly until the beef is lightly browned. Tip out onto a plate.
2. Add the broccoli and spring onions to the pan, stir-fry for 1 min, then add the soy mixture. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 5 mins until the broccoli is just tender.
3. Tip the beef and onion back into the pan and heat through briefly before serving with the rice.

Modified from http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5072/stirfried-beef-with-cashews-and-broccoli

The internet tells me I can substitute apple juice for sherry so that is what I did. The beef came from the local butchers. It's expensive but at least I know it's not horsemeat.

It's easier to cut the broccoli before frying the onions

Frying the broccoli

Cooked beef and onions

Everything together

One of three servings of leftovers

I think I left the meat cooking too long - it was a bit tough. I wanted to make sure that it was cooked through but I over did it.

The soy sauce/apple juice mixture tasted fine, there was nothing wrong with it. The meal just didn't have the special 'oomp' that I've come to expect from beef and broccoli. It wasn't bad and I've definitely have worse from my college's cafeteria, it just wasn't extraordinary. 

If I substituted the beef out for chicken or tofu, or left it out entirely, and then added carrots, water chestnuts and bok choy or fennel, it might make a good stir fry dish. Possibilities...

300g of beef precut into strips: EUR 5.86 at the local butcher's
1 large head of broccoli: EUR 2.05 at Tesco
Apple Juice, 1/15 of a carton at EUR 1.49/carton = EUR 0.10 at Tesco
Red Onion: EUR 0.22 at Tesco
Green Onions: EUR 0.79 at Tesco
Soy Sauce, 1/20 of a bottle at EUR 2.20/bottle = EUR 0.11 at Tesco
Sugar, 1/30 of a bag at EUR 0.75/bag = 0.03 at Tesco
Rice, 1/5 of a bag at EUR 1.49/bag = EUR 0.30 at Lidl
Vegetable Oil, 1/20 of a bottle at EUR 1.99/bottle = EUR 0.10 at Lidl
Total cost: EUR 9.66 for four servings or EUR 2.42 for one serving

Apple Yogurt Pots

Apple Yogurt Pots
Serves 1
Ingredients

• 185 g Greek yogurt
• 1 apple, cut into chunks
• 1 tbsp dark brown sugar
• 10g walnuts, smashed

Dollop about 1 tbsp apple into the bottom of a small glass. Add a layer of apple, then some more yogurt. Repeat the layers until the glass is full. Scatter over the sugar and nuts, then leave in fridge for 20 mins until sugar has dissolved.

Modified from http://curtainsandcoathooks.blogspot.ie/2013/03/banana-yogurt-pots.html

This is another good breakfast idea and half as expensive as the raspberry and blackberry one. I used a small Gala apple and it was just the right size so that the yogurt didn't overflow the glass.


Yogurt, 1/3 of a 500ml bottle at EUR 1.75/bottle = EUR 0.58 at Tesco
Apple, 1/8 of a bag at EUR 1.79/bag = EUR 0.22 at Tesco
Dark Muscovado Sugar, 1/50 of a bag at EUR 1.65/bag = EUR 0.03 at Tesco
Walnuts, 1/10 of a bag at EUR 3.89/bag = EUR 0.39 at Tesco
Total Cost: EUR 1.22 for one serving

Friday March 1: Tuna Sweet Potato Jackets
Saturday March 2: Banana Yogurt Pots
Sunday March 3: Grilled Sausages with Tomato and Sweet Potatoes
Monday March 4: Smoked Salmon, Leek and Potato Soup
Tuesday March 5: Raspberry and Blackberry Yogurt Pots, Black Bean and Vegetable Rice
Wednesday March 6: Sticky Honey and Mustard Sausages
Thursday March 7: Sausage, Bean and Mash Pie
Friday March 8: Apple Yogurt Pots

Sausage, Bean and Mash Pie

Sausage, Bean and Mash Pie

Ingredients

• 4 to 6 sausages
• 5 potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 tin of baked beans
• Vegetable oil
• Can of Sweetcorn
• Can of Peas

1. Boil the potatoes till tender. Drain and mash well. (Add butter, milk, salt and pepper if desired.)

2. Meanwhile, cook your sausages through in a frying pan or under the grill.

3. Add the cooked sausages to a pie dish or casserole pot. Cover with the beans leaving a little bit of bean sauce to use in case it is a bit dry. Cover with the mash.

4. Place in a 180 C / Gas 4 oven till mash is golden and bean sauce is bubbling, about 7-10 mins.

From http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/30877/sausage--bean-and-mash-pie.aspx

I was not too impressed by this dinner. It tasted almost bland. The sausages were good but with the potatoes and beans it wasn't... I don't even know. I think it was the beans. I was using Heinz-brand beans which are a higher quality than I've used in the past, but they aren't Bush's. If I could have found Bush's beans, I think it would have tasted better.

The peas and corn were for some servings of vegetables. They didn't taste like much but they were store-brand canned goods so I wasn't expecting much from them. Feel free to substitute whatever vegetables you want.

If I had stretched this out to three servings, it would be 2 euros instead of 3 euros.

6 Rudd's Sausages: EUR 2.00 at Tesco
5 Rooster Potatoes: EUR 1.48 at Tesco
400g of Heinz baked beans: EUR 0.95 at Tesco
Vegetable Oil: 1/10 of a bottle at EUR 1.99/bottle = EUR 0.20 at Lidl
400g canned peas: EUR 0.65 at Tesco
200g canned corn: EUR 0.69 at Tesco
Total: EUR 5.98 for two servings or EUR 2.99 for one serving

Friday March 1: Tuna Sweet Potato Jackets

Saturday March 2: Banana Yogurt Pots

Sunday March 3: Grilled Sausages with Tomato and Sweet Potatoes

Monday March 4: Smoked Salmon, Leek and Potato Soup

Tuesday March 5: Raspberry and Blackberry Yogurt Pots, Black Bean and Vegetable Rice
Wednesday March 6: Sticky Honey and Mustard Sausages
Thursday March 7: Sausage, Bean and Mash Pie

Sticky Honey and Mustard Sausages

Sticky Honey and Mustard Sausages

Serves 3

Ingredients

• vegetable oil, for frying
• 8 sausages
• 2 teaspoons prepared mustard, such as French's® or English mustard
• 3 dessertspoons clear honey
• 3 medium onions, finely chopped
• 300ml (1/2pt) chicken or vegetable stock
• 500g potatoes, peeled and diced
• 3 carrots, sliced

1. Boil the potatoes in a large saucepan and heat a little oil in a wok or large frying pan, over a medium heat. Add the sausages and prick them so they don't burst.
2. When the sausages begin to sizzle, add 1 teaspoon of the mustard and 1 dessertspoon of the honey.
3. When the potatoes are tender, drain and mash. While the sausages are frying, boil the carrots for two minutes or until soft.
4. Gently fry the sausages in the honey and mustard mixture until they are lightly browned all over, then add the chopped onions and stir-fry until the onions are tender and just beginning to brown.
5. Add the stock and the remaining 1 teaspoon mustard and 2 dessertspoons of honey. Increase the heat to medium high and simmer, stirring, until the stock has reduced to a thick, sticky sauce, about 10 minutes. Serve immediately.

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/23443/sticky-honey-and-mustard-sausages.aspx

Potatoes, ready for boiling

As I was cutting the onions, I thought that three onions was too many. They did cook down enough later on that the taste of onions wasn't overpowering.

The package of sausages I used had 6 - feel free to use 8 as directed.

The stock didn't boil down enough in 10 minutes but the sausages were cooked through. The sausages in honey and mustard were not as sticky as I was led to believe.

It seems very yellow

I added potatoes and carrots to the recipe for some vegetables but any serving of fresh, frozen or canned vegetables would be a good addition to this meal. The taste of English mustard here was not overpowering as it had been in the past and it blended well with the sausages and honey. I do think I should have used more vegetables or potatoes but those are side dishes. This recipe by itself was pretty tasty.

6 Rudd's Sausages: EUR 2.00 at Tesco

3 Medium Onions: EUR 0.74 at Tesco

Vegetable Oil, 1/10 of a bottle at EUR 1.99/bottle = EUR 0.20 at Lidl

English Mustard, 1/10 of a bottle at EUR 0.45 = EUR 0.05 at Lidl

Honey, 1/8 of a bottle at EUR 1.99/bottle = EUR 0.25 at Lidl

500g floury potatoes at EUR 0.69/1kg = EUR 0.35 at Tesco

Carrots, 1/5 of a bag at EUR 0.99/bag = EUR 0.20 at Tesco

Total Cost: EUR 3.79 for three servings or EUR 1.26 for one serving

Friday March 1: Tuna Sweet Potato Jackets

Saturday March 2: Banana Yogurt Pots

Sunday March 3: Grilled Sausages with Tomato and Sweet Potatoes

Monday March 4: Smoked Salmon, Leek and Potato Soup

Tuesday March 5: Raspberry and Blackberry Yogurt Pots, Black Bean and Vegetable Rice
Wednesday March 6: Sticky Honey and Mustard Sausages