Chinese inspired meatballs

I could not "not post" a Chinese inspired recipe. I was fortunate enough to spend about 3 weeks out there and to attend an afternoon cooking lesson. It was interesting seeing what their staple cooking station looks like. As you'd imagine, they rely on woks a lot. The main seasoning ingredients lined up beside the wok were salt, sugar, corn flour, chicken stock, oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice wine and toasted sesame oil. Quite a change from our vinegar and olive oil!
A friend suggested earlier I should post a Chinese recipe but with the lovely weather outside (rain and 10°C), I felt more like a Western dish. After thinking for a while, I decided to make a Chinese inspired broth/soup with veggies, meatballs and some rice on the side. You could easily served this dish with boiled noodles. I didn't have any so I had rice. Clearly a warming up dish for the winter we are having in the middle of the summer!

Ingredients:

For the meatballs (makes about 20 meatballs):
- a pound of minced beef
- 1cm piece of ginger chopped
- 1 tbsp of toasted sesame oil
- 2 tbsp of soy sauce
- 1 tbsp of black bean sauce
- pepper
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp of breadcrumbs (no need to buy breadcrumbs, just put your stale white bread into a food processor)

For the veggies:
- 1 tsp of chilli paste
- 2 cloves of garlic, thinly chopped
- 1 cm piece of ginger thinly chopped
- 1 celery stick cut into thin cubes
- 2 carrots, peeled and cut into thin batons
- 1 small courgette, cut into thin batons
- 1 bunch of sugar snap peas
- 3 spring onions cut into 2 cm pieces
- a pint of stock
- 2 tbsp of soy sauce
- 2 to 3 tbsp of vegetable oil

Some boiled or steamed rice/noodles.

Procedure:

1. Prepare the meatballs: mix the meat, ginger, soy sauce, black bean sauce, pepper, sesame oil, egg and breadcrumbs. Shape into meatballs and leave aside for about 30 min.

 Once rested:


2. Start cooking your rice or noodles.
3. In a wok or large and high frying pan, heat up about 1 tbsp of oil on medium to high heat. Brown the meatballs. Remove the meatballs and set aside.
4. Add the rest of the vegetable oil, about 1 to 2 tbsp. Add the chilli paste, garlic and ginger. Stir fry for 2 minutes. Add the celery and carrots, stir fry for about 4 min.
5. Then, add the courgettes, stir fry for 2 min. Add the stock and the soy sauce. Bring to the boil. Add the meatballs. Reduce the heat, put a lid on and simmer for about 10 minutes.
6. Remove the lid, add the sugar snap peas, cook for another 2 minutes.
7. Serve sprinkled with the spring onions.

-

Pain brun pour les Français

Pour les Français, les ingrédients sont les suivants:
- 1 tasse/mug de farine complète
- 1 tasse/mug de farine type 80
- 1/2 tasse de son de blé
- 1 cuillère à café rase de sel
- 1 cuillère à café bombée de bicarbonate de soude
- 450/500ml de lait ribot ou babeurre (si vous n'en trouvez pas, vous pouvez en faire vous-même en mettant 1 litre de lait dans un saladier avec 1 cuillère à soupe de jus de citron frais, laissez le lait se séparer 15 minutes. C'est prêt!)
- 2 cuillères à café de molasses (du miel marche aussi), c'est facultatif
- des graines

1. Préchauffer le four à 220°C. 
2. Bien mélanger les farines, le son, le bicarbonate et le sel. Vous pouvez y ajouter des graines de citrouille si vous le souhaitez.
3. Ajouter le lait ribot/babeurre jusqu'à obtenir une consistance assez liquide (mais épaisse quand même).
4. Ajouter la molasse. Bien mélanger.
5. Verser dans un moule à pain. Saupoudrer de graines si vous le souhaitez, d'habitude j'utilise des graines de sésame et de pavot.
6. Cuire pendant 35 minutes puis sortir le pain du four, le retourner dans le moule de façon à ce que le dessous du pain soit à la chaleur vive. Remettre au four 10 minutes.
7. Sortir du moule à la sortie du four et laisser refroidir.
Voilà c'est tout!

Answer to Alicia's request - Brown bread

While I was away in China, a friend of mine got in touch via Facebook to ask me whether I had a recipe for Irish brown bread. The thing about China is that Facebook is censored so you cannot get access to it at all. So, although I am back from China and should be posting Asian recipes, well I am starting back with an Irish recipe to answer my friend's request.

I really like Irish brown bread. Despite this, it actually took me years before I attempted to make it. I had presumed that, like French bread and most white breads, it needed a lot of work and attention. I was quite surprised to find out that brown bread is made in 5 min, cooked in 45 min and is pretty much ready to eat in less than an hour. Needless to say, I have now caught up with all those years without making it. I now make it regurlarly.
When I know the bread loaf is not going to be eaten in the next two days, I usually bake the dough in muffin trays, that way I have mini brown bread muffins/loaves that can be used as needed. They can also be frozen that way and it is a lot easier to thaw them than to defrost a whole loaf of bread.

I think my favourite accompaniment to brown bread is probably home cooked ham, boiled eggs, cheese and an assortiment of salads... Great for picnics, rushed lunches and snacking!

Enjoy!


Ingredients:

- 1 mug (cup or other implement) of coarse white flour
- 1 mug of wholemeal flour
- 1/2 mug of wheat bran
- 1 teaspoon (not heaped) of salt
- 1 heaped teaspoon of bicarbonate soda
- About 450-500 ml of buttermilk
- 2 teaspoons of treacle
- various seeds

Procedure
1. Preheat your oven at 220°C.
2. Mix the coarse white flour, wholemeal flour, bran, salt, bicarbonate soda (you can add pumpkin seeds or any other seeds at this stage if you wish) and stir well.

3. Pour in the buttermilk until you obtain a fairly wet dough. The dough should be easy to stir. Stir well.
4. Add the treacle to the mixture, stir well.

5. Pour the mixture into a bread baking tin (I use a silicone one so I don't need to oil it, but if you use a metal one, make sure you oil it and flour it). Sprinkle some seeds on top of the bread.

6. Bake in the oven for about 35 min. Then take the bread loaf out of the tin, turn in upside down and bake for a further 10 min. If you are using muffin trays, your bread will be baked in about 20 min and you won't need to turn the muffins over during the baking process.
7. Take the bread out of the tin or muffin trays and leave to cool on a rack.