Jan 24 Wing Night With The Bonds!
Jan 26 stir fried thai red rice
I am doing really well using up leftovers and turning them into new meals and that means a lot less waste and that makes me very happy. I made chicken barley stew on Monday (to eat Tuesday) using the leftover chicken and roast carrots from our Sunday night dinner and it was really delicious. This might sound crazy but that is not something I would have bothered with before. I would have most likely thrown those ingredients out after a few days of lingering in the fridge.
Monday was wing night with our friends and neighbours, The Bonds and that is something we try to do at least a couple of times a month and is a treasured family tradition so we never turn down that invitation. We tried a new restaurant in the Beach so even though it was wing night, we still mixed it up a little.
I spent Tuesday baking lemon meringue cupcakes with Dianne for our contribution to Frosting for the Cause - okay, Dianne did the baking and I did the photography and I also did the dropping of the cupcakes onto the floor, meringue side down, into a pool of arborio rice for good measure!
Thankfully, on Tuesday I only had to heat up the stew, slice the pumpernickel cookie (my bread came out totally flat and looked like a cookie but tasted great) up and make some garlic toasts. Dinner was a 10 minute affair from start to finish. Making things likes soups and stews the day before is a wonderful time saver and I plan to add a stew like dish to my weekly menus along with my weekly soup.
Wednesday I wanted to use up the delicious thai red rice from Sunday and I was inspired by Dianne's rice dish from this week so that is what we had for dinner. I used the thai red rice which is so nutty and chewy - very much like a brown rice but a lot more more flavour to the rice itself. I added some white basmati to flesh it out, scrambled egg, some seafood, veggies, a bit of chicken, basil and cilantro, soy sauce, fish sauce, lime and sesame oil to give it a more asian taste.
My Thai Seafood Fried Rice
two slices ginger
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
2 scallions, chopped
1/2 orange pepper, diced
1 small bunch broccolini, chopped
1 chicken breast chopped and marinated in a bit of rice wine, soy sauce and sesame oil
1 cup of mixed seafood (i found a bag of frozen with clams, mussels, octopus, squid, shrimp)
handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
handful of fresh basil , chopped
juice of 1 lime
fish sauce to taste
1 to 2 tbls soy sauce
approx 3 1/2 cups of cold rice, preferably at least a day old
Heat a tbls of vegetable oil in a very hot pan or wok. Add the ginger and stir fry for a minute and then add the chicken and stir fry until cooked, only a minute or so. Remove the chicken and set aside.
If you need a bit more oil (i use a non stick so I don't have to keep adding a ton of oil each time) add it, then stir fry the broccolini, green onions and the orange pepper for a minute and remove and set aside.
Do the same to cook the seafood and set aside.
Now heat up about a tsp of sesame oil and another 1/2 tbls of veg oil, add the garlic, sauté until fragrant and just starting to take on some colour. Add your rice, using wet hands to add it by hand, separating the grains as you add them and stir fry that for a couple of minutes. I then make a well in the middle, pushing all the rice to the outside and pour the scrambled egg into the well. Stir the egg and cook it in the well in the middle and only when the egg is booked, start incorporating the rice back into the middle and mix it up with the egg.
Add all of the ingredients back into the pan and stir it to mix it all together. Now you add a couple of tbls of soy sauce and I like fish sauce so I add at least 1 tbls and up to 2 tbls of fish sauce, the juice of a lime and mix it all up really well. Take it off the heat and then add the fresh cilantro and basil and serve.
I serve it with some sliced cucumber on the side and some more fresh herbs sprinkled over the top.
Total comfort food for us.
Monday was wing night with our friends and neighbours, The Bonds and that is something we try to do at least a couple of times a month and is a treasured family tradition so we never turn down that invitation. We tried a new restaurant in the Beach so even though it was wing night, we still mixed it up a little.
I spent Tuesday baking lemon meringue cupcakes with Dianne for our contribution to Frosting for the Cause - okay, Dianne did the baking and I did the photography and I also did the dropping of the cupcakes onto the floor, meringue side down, into a pool of arborio rice for good measure!
Thankfully, on Tuesday I only had to heat up the stew, slice the pumpernickel cookie (my bread came out totally flat and looked like a cookie but tasted great) up and make some garlic toasts. Dinner was a 10 minute affair from start to finish. Making things likes soups and stews the day before is a wonderful time saver and I plan to add a stew like dish to my weekly menus along with my weekly soup.
Wednesday I wanted to use up the delicious thai red rice from Sunday and I was inspired by Dianne's rice dish from this week so that is what we had for dinner. I used the thai red rice which is so nutty and chewy - very much like a brown rice but a lot more more flavour to the rice itself. I added some white basmati to flesh it out, scrambled egg, some seafood, veggies, a bit of chicken, basil and cilantro, soy sauce, fish sauce, lime and sesame oil to give it a more asian taste.
My Thai Seafood Fried Rice
two slices ginger
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
2 scallions, chopped
1/2 orange pepper, diced
1 small bunch broccolini, chopped
1 chicken breast chopped and marinated in a bit of rice wine, soy sauce and sesame oil
1 cup of mixed seafood (i found a bag of frozen with clams, mussels, octopus, squid, shrimp)
handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
handful of fresh basil , chopped
juice of 1 lime
fish sauce to taste
1 to 2 tbls soy sauce
approx 3 1/2 cups of cold rice, preferably at least a day old
Heat a tbls of vegetable oil in a very hot pan or wok. Add the ginger and stir fry for a minute and then add the chicken and stir fry until cooked, only a minute or so. Remove the chicken and set aside.
If you need a bit more oil (i use a non stick so I don't have to keep adding a ton of oil each time) add it, then stir fry the broccolini, green onions and the orange pepper for a minute and remove and set aside.
Do the same to cook the seafood and set aside.
Now heat up about a tsp of sesame oil and another 1/2 tbls of veg oil, add the garlic, sauté until fragrant and just starting to take on some colour. Add your rice, using wet hands to add it by hand, separating the grains as you add them and stir fry that for a couple of minutes. I then make a well in the middle, pushing all the rice to the outside and pour the scrambled egg into the well. Stir the egg and cook it in the well in the middle and only when the egg is booked, start incorporating the rice back into the middle and mix it up with the egg.
Add all of the ingredients back into the pan and stir it to mix it all together. Now you add a couple of tbls of soy sauce and I like fish sauce so I add at least 1 tbls and up to 2 tbls of fish sauce, the juice of a lime and mix it all up really well. Take it off the heat and then add the fresh cilantro and basil and serve.
I serve it with some sliced cucumber on the side and some more fresh herbs sprinkled over the top.
Total comfort food for us.
Good for you for using up leftovers. Not only will they make delicious new meals, you're going to save some $$$ off your grocery bill.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I am eating a bowl of it right now for lunch and it is soooo tasty. I'm really glad I made it!
ReplyDelete