Simple chicken stirfry

A couple of days ago I fancied chicken wings. I chopped up and deep-fired a batch to nibble on and for a few quick meals. Today's blog shows one of them.

Ingredients: a few bits of chicken wing, finely chopped garlic and ginger, mushrooms, shredded white cabbage, sweet red pepper and carrot.

Put a dessert spoon of oil into a hot frying pan or wok. As soon as the oil crazes add the garlic, ginger and carrot. Stir for 1 minute. Add the rest of the ingredients, stirring constantly for another 2 minutes then add a healthy dash of light soy sauce. At this point I like to add a sprinkle of sugar and a little chilli powder or flakes just to give it a kick. The sugar helps reduce the burn of the chillis without reducing the 'heat'. As the soy bubbles quickly stir and then tip everything onto a serving dish. If you're like me that means onto a bed of rice.

A simple dish made with what I had to hand -shopping was later that day.

The ingredients aren't special but I could have made this into any number of dishes of varying degrees sophistication by my choice of vegetables, meat and sauces. For instance, a dash of dry sherry or white wine would add depth to it while the addition of some sliced water chestnuts would have added more to the textures. A splash of bean paste or oyster sauce would again enhance the dish.

Enjoy -I did and thanks for looking.

Footnoteof a sort: I must remember to check what things are called around the world. I ended up googling cilantro recently just to find out it's called coriander here.

Soup noodle

Editing some photographs while contemplating making some soup noodles! However, I have already eaten but here is the soup noodles.

clockwise from top left: bits from fridge -shredded chicken and ham; finely sliced  peppers, celery, courgette, green beans and mushrooms; shredded white cabbage; shredded ginger, garlic and carrots; soaked noodles; watercress and sliced tomato.

First image shows the ingredients, second one shows the finished dish. 10 minutes chopping vegetables and shredding some chicken and a couple of slices of ham while the noodles soak in boiled water for about 4 minutes then drained. Quickly fry garlic and ginger (chillis optional)in a dessert spoon of oil for 2 minutes, add carrots and white cabbage for 1 minute then the rest of the vegetables for 1 minute. Add some chicken stock to cover, a little light soy sauce, (half a glass of white wine or sherry, optional), half teaspoon of sugar. As soon as it boils add the noodles, tomatoes, watercress and shredded meat, stir and season to taste then serve.

Quantities vary but this is enough for two people or a hungry gannet like me. As a guide the small bowls are little rice bowls only small amounts. Looking at the finished noodles it looks like I added some finely sliced radish and spring onion when everything was poured into the bowl.

As I have a basic electric cooker at the moment I use a frying pan rather than a wok -prefer woks but I've even done this in a pan on a bbq! At some point I will put together a list of ideas for this dish and its many variations and step by step photographs. Enjoy and thanks for looking.

How? Why? What's the easy way to cook that?

Hi. I'm Hayden, also known as ferall on various sites and forums: ex-chef, now an artist and designer. I worked in various restaurants over the years -different cuisines, different 'posts'. Most of what I cook these days seems to be 'fusion' food as I like to do dishes from all around the world.

A lot of quite simple ( to me anyway) dishes seem to have a mystique about them. There's easy or alternative ways to cook anything especially if you have never tried before or are on a budget. Many will say 'NO that's not right!' For them I say -look at the blog title: Noms Made Easy.

For instance, there are many types of rice and many ways to cook it. Purists insist on the correct methods 

but I think that what ever works for you is best. The process can vary greatly just for simple boiled rice but with a little care and practice the end result is the same. I will mention various methods in forth-coming blogs.

Who likes prawn crackers? Who cooks them? They are very easy: hot oil and a box of what appears to be bits of plastic costing around 60p. Don't do whole box unless you're having a dinner party. Watch out for a post on prawn crackers and poppadoms - I did say I don't just cook Chinese food.

Noodles? Loads of different types and styles so I should also mention pasta as many of the dishes I will give recipes and instructions for, will include quick and/or budget dishes and meals.

As I write the roughly planned blogs I'm sure I will stray if asked for hints and tips on some things. 

This another reason for starting this blog. eldest daughter has started her degree and wanted me to write down recipes for simple and easy to do budget dishes and sauces to liven up the bland or basic staples. Keep an eye out here for pot rice, soup noodles and my Sticky Sauce recipe.  I make jars of Sticky Sauce which people take home if they pester me enough to make extra.

If you have any questions, suggestions and 'why-is-my-fried-rice-always-stodgy?' type questions please feel free to comment.

(The simple answer to soggy or stodgy fried rice is use rice cooked the previous day. There is another method sometimes called hot-assembly which is easier . . . but not quite fried rice!) 

Oh - I will post information and links to other food 

Crispy chicken with peppers and boiled rice.

blogs as I find them or suggested. Now where did I find Goons With Spoons . . . ?