No, I said Fat Lass, not fatless. As I have mentioned before, the Mrs Portly title has become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Witness the tea towel sent to me for Christmas by a former good friend in the US:
There’s an awful lot of cheese and cream still in the fridge so I’m not yet – as my father in law used to say – banting.
But this stir-fry is low in calories and handy for anyone who may, like me and Spring, be busting out all over.
If you want to bulk it out you can add some noodles but it’s more filling than it looks.
The Fat Lass Stir Fry
Ingredients:
My sophisticated cooking notes
A large thumb (about 3-4″) of root ginger, peeled and very finely chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
A bunch of spring onions, the white parts finely sliced, the green tops sliced on the diagonal and retained for a garnish
1 stalk of lemongrass, outer leaves discarded, white centre part very finely chopped
1/2 to 1 chilli, deseeded and finely chopped (you want a buzz of heat but it shouldn’t dominate)
4-5 chestnut mushrooms, wiped and sliced
1 x 140 g tin of mixed water chestnuts and bamboo shoots, the water chestnuts sliced in half horizontally
Half a red pepper and half a yellow pepper, deseeded and sliced thinly
Two big handfuls of bean sprouts
150 g raw king prawns
Light soy sauce
1 tbsp of Malay chilli and shallot oil or olive oil with a dash of sesame oil
A quantity of noodles (optional), cooked according to the directions on the packet, rinsed in cold water
Method:
Make sure all the ingredients are prepared and to hand.
Heat the oil in a wok and throw in the ginger, garlic, the white part of the spring onions, the chilli and the lemongrass. Stir fry briskly for one minute.
Add the prawns and stir fry until turning pink.
Throw in the peppers and mushrooms and stir fry for one minute.
Add the beansprouts, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots and stir fry until heated through but still crisp.
Add the noodles at this point if using and heat through.
Throw in a dash of soy sauce and a dash of sweet chilli sauce, allow to bubble up briefly, stirring, then garnish with the spring onion tops and serve.
If you want to increase the heat quotient, supply a small dish of Chillies in Soy or make it fresh by simply chopping some chillies into dark soy sauce. Him Outdoors contends that eating chillies makes you feel more full. Well, it’s worth a try.
How very rude! This looks nice and fresh – we’ve also been eating a whole lot of stir-frys in the last week.
Your stir fry sounds good. It has a nice mix of flavorings and I like the crunch that water chestnuts add.
Thanks ladies. I reckon once you’ve got the holy trinity of garlic, ginger and spring onions the world is your oyster, so to speak.
Oyster sauce that is?
😀
I love this. I did some dry fried salt and pepper prawns last weekend in an effort to reduce the lard quotient. It didn’t work. Not when I am responsible for ‘portion control’.
Best,
C
Not my strong point either. And I really do still have a fridge full of cheese and cream. It’s a tough life.
This looks fabulous. I particularly like the idea of 45 garlic cloves … (keeps people at a distance?)
That should read as 4-5 as in four to five! Are you wearing your reading glasses, dear?
This looks really delicious.. I’ll definitely try this now that I’ve re-discovered my wok (‘misplaced’ during 2 house moves).. As ever, thank you, Linda!
As ever, thank you, Arax! One of the best gadgets we ever bought (and we’re suckers for gadgets) was an electric wok. Our excuse was that we have an Aga which doesn’t keep a consistently high heat. I have to say it’s an extremely useful bit of kit.
Ah, my mistake. Maybe I was wishing it … Sorry!
Have you ever cooked that chicken with zillions of cloves of garlic? It’s fabulous.
Not yet, but standby for this weekend, then …
There’s what looks like a lovely version at Smitten Kitchen:
http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2007/11/chicken-with-forty-cloves-of-garlic/
Looks oh-so-good: thanks. I expect the garlic goes a bit like … OK, dull story coming up. When I was working in China about 20 years ago (yaaaawn) the food (certainly in the northern part where I was) was almost inedible; BUT, the one thing that was edible and tasted good was the roasted whole garlic bulb: it was sweet, caramel-ly and succulent; it had lost all its thuggishness. So I guess the referenced recipe would have the garlic cloves a bit like that?
And then, of course, there’s the Madeiran garlic cloves tucked into a plate of chips, to go with the squid sautee’d in crumbled Oxo cubes, but that’s another story ….
Squid sauteed in Oxo cubes??!!
Weird, I know, but we watched them do it in Madeira where it worked well, and then tried it here, and lo! – it worked equally well. Throw your scruples to the four winds, let your hair down … and get out the Oxo cubes!