Cooking Fresh Food - breaking the jar/can/bottle habit...

[Olive]

i use mince to make stir fry with!! tastes yummy!

[briggsy's girl]

my bro makes an awesome mince stirfry with noodles and veg - no idea what he puts in it though! DH makes fantastic chow mein - but again, no idea what he uses! i love that the men in my life enjoy cooking!

[alioops]

Netix - Cornflour is good for thickening sauces, try that

I use heaps of mince too, I often make them into hamburgers and bolognese is a staple food here - we eat it at least twice a week

[Netix]

I'll try the cornflour... Thanks.

I don't think I have ever thought of using mince in stir fry.. I make a pretty good stir fry, but it just seems so different to 'chow mein'. Maybe its just me...

Something else I'm going to have to get out of using from a jar, is mayonnaise. Since the Man is now taking his sandwiches to work, we use it a lot more than we used to, so at least homemade stuff without all the preservatives of the bought stuff won't go off before I get the chance to use it. Pretty sure I have a recipe for that, or at least I have seen on BB too.

[KatieRabbit]

Kylie Kwong has a recipe for mince in a stirfry. It is called Mongolian beef and I made it a week ago. Very yummy and actually easy if you have the ingredients ready:

For the marinade –
2 tablespoons rice wine
1 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon cornflour
1 tablespoon ginger, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, finely diced
? teaspoon sesame oil

600g good quality beef mince

1 head Chinese cabbage, finely shredded
2 teaspoons sea salt

50 mls vegetable oil
2 tablespoons rice wine
2 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon Oyster sauce
1 teaspoon malt vinegar
? teaspoon Sesame oil
1 small carrot, peeled and finely sliced
1 small red pepper, finely sliced
1 bunch spring onions, finely sliced

To serve -
Steamed rice
Sliced red chilies

METHOD:
Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a large bowl.
Add in the beef and leave to marinate in fridge for 30 minutes.

Put the cabbage and salt into another bowl and mix well to combine.
Leave to stand for 15 minutes then rinse under cold water and drain.
Squeeze out any excess liquid with your hands.

Meanwhile steam the rice.

Now when you are ready
Heat 2 tbs of the oil in a wok until the surface starts to shimmer slightly.
Add half of the marinated beef and stir fry for 30 seconds, breaking up any lumps with a wooden spoon.
Remove from the wok with a slotted spoon and set to one side.
Add the remaining oil to the wok and cook the remaining beef for 30 seconds before returning the reserved beef to the pan.

Add in the rice wine, hoisin and oyster sauce, vinegar and sesame oil and
cook for a further 30 seconds.
Toss in the cabbage, carrot and pepper and stir-fry for a further minute.
Stir through the spring onions, reserving a few for garnish and remove from the heat.

[Sair]

I was doing so well making everything from scratch until about a month ago, I am just so exhausted that I don't have the energy to do it all any more. I said to Juz this week that carcinogens are back on the menu until this pregnancy is over. He was happy with that as now he can help make dinner on occasion without poisoning us Hmmm that didn't make much sense did it?

[Rouge]

I made Jamie Olivers Mince Wellington last week, it was a great success, if anyone is interested in the recipe let me know, it also uses mince.

LOL Sarah, don't fret hon sometimes you do need to take the easier root. What sort of things have you been cooking? There might be corners you can cut whilst still being able to eat from scratch. I cut lots of corners at times but still don't cook from jar or packet.