Oven Baked Sweet Potato Noodles With Garlic Butter

I have discovered the delights of a spiralizer in the kitchen over the school hols, I have managed to get s silly amount of veggies into the boys with no one complaining!!!

These noodles were a great success and let’s be honest, garlic butter makes everything better!

Serves 4.

Ingredients

1 kg sweet potato, spiralized

30g butter

3 garlic cloves, finely spiced

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

Salt and pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Centigrade.

Place the butter and garlic in a roasting tin and slide into the oven , just until the butter has melted.

Now add the parsley, salt and pepper, swirl around to combine.

Finally add the spiralized sweet potato and then using tongs, move it around the roasting tin to cover in the butter.

Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, turning once or twice if you have time.

Asian Beef Salad

I love the idea of a one plate dish and this pretty much covers it with the meat, noodles and salad all in one bowl.

Cook the steak the way you like it, I’m a rare to medium rare kind of a girl!

Serves 4.

Ingredients

2 large thick sirloin/porterhouse steaks

1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

1 clove garlic, grated

1 teaspoon 5 spice powder

1 tablespoon gluten free soy sauce

100g rice vermicelli noodles

50g raw peanuts, roughly chopped

150g mixed lettuce leaves

small bunch fresh coriander

DRESSING

juice of 1 lime

1 teaspoon fish sauce

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 teaspoon brown sugar

Method

In a shallow dish, combine the ginger, garlic, 5 spice powder and soy sauce.

Add the steaks and coat completely in the marinade, leave to marinade for 20 minutes.

Heat a frying pan over a very high heat or use a very hot barbecue plate.

Remove the steak from the marinade and wipe off the marinade with kitchen towel.

Add the steak to the pan and cook the way you like it, I’m a rare to medium rare girl!

Set the cooked meat aside somewhere warm to rest.

Prepare the noodles as per the packet instructions and set aside.

Layer up the salad using the leaves, noodles, peanuts and coriander.

Combine the dressing ingredients in a small bowl, add any juices from the rested steaks.

Remove the fat from the steak and then slice, top the salad with the steak slices and then drizzle over the dressing.

Baked Salmon with Noodles and Bok Choy

We all love a stir fry but I don’t think that salmon is the best fish for it so instead I bake the salmon having marinaded it in stir fry flavours and then use the marinade to flavour the noodles.

The boys eat mountains of noodles, the quantity in the recipe is very high, regular appetites might be nearer the 450g mark!

For the gluten free option I use rice noodles.

Serves 5.

Ingredients

5 salmon fillets, boned

50mls gluten free soy sauce or Tamari

30mls dry sherry or Chinese rice wine

Large thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated to give 25g

2 garlic cloves, grated

5 star anise

60mls sesame oil

300g Bok choy, leaves shredded, stalks cut in half lengthways

4 large spring onions, white part, finely sliced

550g dry noodles, cooked

Method

In a dish that will fit the fish snugly, grate the ginger and garlic, add the soy sauce and sherry.

Place the salmon fillets in the marinade and turn to coat, pop the star anise into the marinade.

Refrigerate for 4-6 hours.

Take a large piece of tin foil, lay it out and top with a slightly smaller piece of baking parchment.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade.

Remove the salmon from the marinade, wipe off any excess ginger and garlic. Line the salmon fillets in the centre of the baking parchment and top with a star anise.

Bring the parchment up and over to enclose the salmon and then bring the foil up to help seal it, the fish is to bake in a mini tent.

Pop the package on a baking sheet and place in the oven, bake for 10mins, allow to sit while you finish the noodles.

Heat a large wok or frying pan over high heat, add the sesame oil, once smoking, add the marinade and cook until fragrant.

Next, add the bok choy stems and spring onions and stir fry for 1 minute.

Add the cooked noodles and bok choy leaves and stir fry for 3 mins.

Chinese Spiced Poached Chicken

I know that twenty minutes does not sound long enough to poach such a large chicken but trust me here, as you leave the chicken in the stock it continues to cook and absorb the lovely flavours.

By cooking the chicken this way, it is prepared long before you eat and the moistness of the meat is amazing although, it doesn’t look particularly attractive!

Once you have made this stock you have the bases for many meals to come, just sieve the stock to remove the lumpy bits and then freeze. When you need it again, defrost and add all of the ingredients again to re flavour the stock, it really does get better with every use!

Leftovers the next day? Cook some noodles, top with some baby spinach, leftover chicken and pour over some hot stock.

Ingredients

2.5kg chicken

250mls gluten free soy sauce or Tamari sauce

200mls Chinese rice wine

500mls chicken stock

1 orange, rind and juice

5 spring onions, topped and tailed, cut into 5cm lengths

4 star anise

2x5cm cinnamon sticks

1 tablespoon salt

Water

Method

Combine all of the ingredients, except chicken in a large stock pot.

Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 mins.

Fill and boil a kettle of water.

Wash the chicken and then gently loosen the skin from the breasts and legs.

Add 500 mls water to the stock pot and stir.

Gently lower the chicken into the pot, ensure the cavity is filled with the stock too.

Cover, you may need to add more water to fully immerse the chicken,  and bring the pot up to the boil, turn the heat down and simmer gently for twenty mins only. Do not remove the lid.

Turn the heat off after 20mins and leave covered with the lid for several hours.

Remove once cool enough to handle and chop into your desired serving pieces.

Chicken Chow Mein

Once the chopping is done, this becomes a very fast dinner.

I alternate the veggies depending on what’s in the fridge or freezer, defrosted frozen peas, bak choy, spinach, edamame, pepper or capsicum.

We have a bowl of these plain noodles and the boys then choose sauce to go with them, none of which are authentic but I don’t think the noodles are either! Current sauce choices are sweet soy sauce, from Indonesia, sweet chilli sauce from Thailand and sambal olek, chilli sauce from Indonesia.

To make this gluten free, I use rice noodles and gluten free soy sauce. For my vegetarian option, I omit the chicken and add a couple of extra vegetable varieties. the marinade for the chicken then gets used after the garlic is browned with the vegetables being added to the pan.

Ingredients

250g dry egg noodles

600g chicken breast, very finely sliced

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons rice wine or dry sherry

1 tablespoon sesame oil

3 cloves garlic, finely sliced

150g ham, finely shredded

1 large carrot, finely julienned

150g broccoli florets

3 spring onions, finely sliced

Method

Cook  the noodles as per instructions, set aside.

Place the thinly sliced chicken,  soy sauce, sesame oil and rice wine or sherry in a bowl, combine and set aside.

Prepare the vegetables,  I cut the carrots to matchstick size and break the broccoli into mini florets. I also slice the spring onions at an angle.

Heat a large frying pan or wok over a high heat, add the chicken and its marinade, stir fry for 2 minutes.

Remove and set aside.

Heat the remaining oil, stir fry the garlic for 20seconds.

Add the ham, carrot, broccoli and spring onions, stir fry for 1 minute.

Add the cooked noodles and chicken, with any juices, and stir fry for 2 mins.

Drizzle a little more sesame oil over if you want and serve.

Spaghetti Frittata with Garlic Butter

Apologies, the boys named this one!

If I’m cooking pasta I always cook a little extra for salads and this dish if there is enough. It is the ultimate leftovers reinvented dish and really is simple to throw together.

My garlic butter is made in bulk and then frozen in 50g portions, 200g butter, 7 crushed cloves of garlic and a little salt and pepper. I package the portions in plastic wrap and form the butter into cylindrical shapes, easier to slice for garlic bread and steaks once it has defrosted.

Serves 4-6 depending on appetites.

Ingredients

50g garlic butter

600g cooked spaghetti

4 Roma tomatoes, cored and deseeded

6 medium basil leaves, torn

4 eggs, beaten

60mls sour cream

50g Parmesan, finely grated

Method

Preheat the grill on high.

In a large frying pan, heat the garlic butter.

As soon as it has melted, add the spaghetti and toss well in the butter.

Add the tomatoes and basil, keep tossing until the tomato is beginning to release its juice.

Combine the eggs and sour cream, whisk to mix.

Pour the egg over the spaghetti, mix a little to ensure all of the spaghetti has some egg mixture over it.

Cook, over a medium heat for 3-5 mins until the base is going golden.

Sprinkle over the Parmesan and then slide under the grill.

Bake for 3-5 mins until golden on top.

Allow to cool a little in the pan.

Gently slide out of the pan and onto a chopping board, use a sharp knife to cut wedges.

 

Pad Thai with Tempeh

I am trying to have a few more vegetarian meals as a family which can be a challenge when the boys are picking through their food looking for meat. They delight in chilli sauce challenges so they all have different sauces that they choose to add to these noodles, Thai sweet chilli sauce is popular and so is Indonesian sambal!

Normally Pad Thai would have chicken, prawns and fish sauce in it so in an effort to alter it to a vegetarian and gluten free dish I have used gluten free rice noodles and soy sauce and swapped the chicken and prawns for tempeh, fermented soy beans.

Once the prep is done this dish is prepared very quickly so I often do the prep before school ends to then throw it together later.

Serves 6-8.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons sesame oil

2 red chillies, deseeded and diced

3 cloves garlic, sliced finely

20g fresh ginger, diced very finely

300g green beans, trimmed and halved

6 spring onions, trimmed and cut into 4 cm pieces

200g bean sprouts

70g fresh coriander, leaves and stalks

300g tempeh, cut into small chunks

Juice of 2 limes

80mls gluten free soy sauce

2 teaspoons brown sugar

600g gluten free rice noodles

2 eggs, beaten with 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Method

Prepare the noodles as per instructions, refresh under cold water.

In a bowl, combine the lime juice, soy sauce and brown sugar, set aside.

Heat a large frying pan or wok over high heat.

Add the oil and once hot add the chillies, garlic and ginger, stir constantly.

Once fragrant, add the green beans and spring onions.

Cook for 2 minutes and then add the bean sprouts, coriander and tempeh.

Pour in the lime, soy and sugar mix, stir through and add the noodles. Combine well.

Pour in the egg mix and keep stirring until the egg has set.

Serve with a little more coriander on top.