Sometimes I’ll go home for lunch as I only live 5 minutes from work. I usually do this when I feel like saving a tiny bit of cash or if I just need to chill for a little while before returning to the daily slog.

Earlier this week, I whipped up these noodles in about 10 minutes using my bit-of-this and bit-of-that cooking technique which actually turned out quite nice.

If I can recall correctly, the dish consisted of:

• wide rice noodles
• a bit of chicken
• a bit of choy sum
• a bit of zucchini
• a bit of fried tofu
• some shitake mushrooms
• 2 eggs.
• a chilli
• a splosh of dark soya sauce
• a splash and dash of light soya sauce
• a smidgen of sugar

Fry the rice noodles with dark soya sauce. Remove from heat.

Fry everything else until soft, add noodles and light soya sauce. Move everything to the side of the wok, crack the eggs into the gap and let it cook for a bit. Stir fry everything together until nice and sexy. Eat.

Too easy, too tasty and quicker than waiting at the KFC drive through, I kid you not.

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Today I depart from my Japanese affair and prepare something a little closer to my Vietnamese belly. This dish is one of my favourites, the lovely taste of lemongrass, so popular with my Vietnamese fellows, combined with kecap manis and fish sauce is a delight for the tastebuds (something tells me I am going to run out of adjectives really quickly in this blog).

The cows will never be safe while this recipe exists. Moo moo.

Preparation time: 5 minutes plus 10 minutes marinating time
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
• 4 stems lemongrass (white part only), finely chopped
• 2 1/2 tablespoons oil
• 600g lean rump steak, thinly sliced across the grain (don’t be lazy now!)
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 - 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons kecap manis (sweet soya sauce)
• 1 large red onion, cut into small wedges
• 200g green beans, cut into 5cm lengths (Hint: blanch it before frying to increase visual appeal and reduce cooking time)

Method

1. Combine the garlic, ginger, lemongrass and 2 teaspoons oil in a non-metallic bowl. Add the beef then marinate for at least 10 minutes, the longer the better.
2. Combine the lime juice, kecap manis and fish sauce in a small bowl. I like having more juice so feel free to increase the amount to your discretion.
3. Heat wok until very hot and add 1 tablespoon oil, swirl to coat. Stir fry the beef in batches for 2-3 minutes or until browned, don’t cook it through though because nobody wants to eat tough overcooked beef. Remove from wok
4. Reheat wok to very hot, add remaining oil and add onion and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add beans and cook for a further two minutes. Return the beef to wok. Pour in the sauce mixture and cook until heated through. Serve piping hot with rice.

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I picked up a cool Japanese yoshoku (Japanese food with a western twise) cookbook on special for $9.99 at the bookstore yesterday. Quite a score if you ask me. After reading it I discovered there weren’t a whole lot of recipes in it (compared to some of my other books anyway), however the photos are rather gorgeous which we all know makes the food at least 10 times more delicious.

First recipe I decided to try from the book was caramel chicken. It’s sweet with a hint of sourness and hotness from the chilli. That equals yummo in my book.

Preparation time: 3 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Makes four small servings

Ingredients

• 1tbs vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced lengthways
• 2 small red chillies, seeded and sliced thinly
• 4 x chicken thigh cutlets or 4 x 150g chicken breast fillets, skin on
• 60ml (1/4 cup) rice wine vinegar
• 60ml (1/4 cup) mirin
• 60ml (1/4 cup) water
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar (normal sugar seems to work nicely too)
• 1/8 teaspoon dashi powder
• 2 teaspoons soya sauce
• 4 shiso leaves, finely shredded (substitute with basil if you can’t find it, which is what I did. I reckon you could even leave out this bit all together)

Method

1. Heat the vegetable and sesame oils in a large frying pan over low heat. Add the garlic and chilli and stir fry until the garlic is evenly golden (about 2 - 3 minutes). Remove and set aside.
2. Increase the heat to medium high and place chicken, skin side down, in the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes. Turn over and cook for a further 3-4 minutes, or until just cooked through. Remove and set aside.
3. Combine the rice wine vinegar, mirin, sugar, dashi powder and soya sauce with 60ml water and slowly add to the pan. Stir to dissolve the sugar, then add the garlc and chilli. Bring to the boil and cook for 3-5 minutes or until the sauce thickens and has a nice glaze to it.
4. Return chicken to the pan and add the shredded shiso, coat the chicken well with the sauce. Place the chicken on a serving plate, drizzling with any sauce left over from the pan.

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