Quinoa with Leeks and Shiitake Mushrooms

We got this recipe from My Recipes, Cooking Light. Even though it is "cooking light", the 4 serving recipe could probably serve 8.

Ingredients:

- 1.5 cups water

- 1 bouillon chicken stock

- salt

- 3/4 cup quinoa

- 1.5 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

- 1/2 tbsp olive oil

- pepper

- 1 leek

- 2 cups thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms

- 1 bell pepper

- 1/8 cup white wine

- 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Method:

1) bring water, bouillon and dash if salt to a boil

2) add quinoa, cover, reduce heat and let simmer until liquid is absorbed (30 minutes for the red quinoa, less for normal yellow quinoa)

3) prepare the rest of the ingredients while the quinoa is simmering

4) heat half the oil in a pan and add leek

5) once the leek starts to wilt (approx 6 minutes), add mushrooms, bell pepper and wine

6) once vegetables are tender, add dash of salt and pepper

7) the quinoa should be ready by now, add the parsley, half the oil, and dash of pepper to it

8) mix the quinoa into the vegetables

9) plate and serve with or without Sriracha

Five Spice Portobello and Broccoli Stirfry

Last night we adapted a recipe from kidspot.com http://m.kidspot.com.au/best-recipes/dinner+7/five-spice-lamb-and-brocollini-stirfry-recipe+2342.htm by substituting portobello mushrooms for lamb and made our own Chinese 5 spice powder.

For the 5 spice powder, we used:

Star anise

Cloves

Cinnamon

Fennel seeds

We didn't have Sichuan pepper, so we used chili powder instead. 

For the recipe, the ingredients we used:

4 portobellos

2 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp Chinese five spice powder

1 yellow bell pepper

1 head of broccoli

1 shallot

2 cloves garlic

5cm ginger (grated)

Vegetable oil

1/3 cup hoisin sauce

2 tbsp soy sauce

First we chopped/sliced all the ingredients:

And then we combined the sliced portobello mushrooms and the 5 spice powder in a sealed bag to shake up and coat the mushroom:

Next you heat the wok with some vegetable oil until it starts smoking, then stirfry the mushrooms for 3-4 minutes. 

At this point I added a little more vegetable oil and added all the rest of the vegetables. Stirfry for ~3 minutes. 

We also made instant mashed potatoes, but rice would work also. 

After that, add the hoisin sauce and soy sauce, cook for a couple more minutes, and then serve. If it looks too thick, you can add a splash of water as well. 

And of course a dash of sriracha to finish it off. 

Portobello and Glass Noodle Stir Fry

Tonight's recipe was also from Kidspot. Again, we changed the recipe just a little bit to suit what our grocery  market offers.

Ingredients:

• a package of glass noodles (we just used a package as close to 200 g as possible)
• 2 tsp peanut oil
• 2 tsp ginger, finely grated
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 white onion
• 1 bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into batons
• ~150 g shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 2 portobello mushrooms, sliced
• 4 bunches of bok choy
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp sugar

Steps:

1. While the water is boiling, combine the soy sauce, lemon juice and sugar in a bowl and stir until the sugar dissolves.

2. Prepare the vegetables.

3. When the water boils, add the noodles, stir a big until they are all submerged. Let the noodles soften, then drain and toss in half of the peanut oil so it doesn't stick. Set aside.

4. Heat the remainder of the oil in a pan on medium high heat. Add the ginger, garlic, and onion and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the vegetables and cook for another 3 minutes or until the bok choy starts getting soft and the mushrooms starts juicing.

5. While the vegetable is cooking, you can cut the noodles so it's not as difficult to eat. Then add it to the pan.

6. Stir the ingredients around until they are well mixed.

7. Plate and enjoy.

8. It has enough sauce on its own, but a little sriracha sauce doesn't hurt.

By the way, here is a follow up article to the complaint about the sriracha odour. Little victories.

Steak and Instant Mashed Potato

As I mentioned yesterday, there's a sale at Safeway every first Tuesday of the month. Taking this opportunity, we purchased some meat to barbecue. We used the leftover cilantro from yesterday, a bit of whisky we have lying around, and some olive oil to marinate the steak overnight. Today we just added a bell pepper.

Barbecuing is so easy, just turn on the barbecue, plop the food on, and let it cook. When you're done, brush it up and you can pack it away.

Another meal under half an hour.

Tofu Stir Fry

We had a bottle of General Tao stir fry sauce sitting in the fridge so we decided to put it to use tonight. These stir fry sauces from Superstore are great for a quick meal.

It's the first Tuesday of the month and Safeway has a 10% discount so we saved all our grocery shopping for tonight. Since we had to do the grocery shopping tonight, we had to make a quick dish - stir fry.

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg fried tofu
• 1 small head of broccoli
• 1 leek
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 inch ginger
• 1 clove shallot
• 1 carrot
• handful of mushrooms (about 4 large)
• half a bunch of cilantro
• 1 bell pepper

Steps:

1. If you want to serve it on rice, start the rice now.

2. Chop all your ingredients up and drain the tofu.

3. Cook the onion family first (garlic, shallot, and ginger). Then add the vegetables that take longer to cook (broccoli and carrot). Last, add the vegetables that don't require too much time to cook (cilantro, mushrooms, and bell pepper). Mix in the tofu and sauce.

4. Serve on rice and you're done!

5. Of course for me, no dish is complete without a bit of chili sauce.