Monday 17 October 2011

Hey guys! Today it's been raining pretty hard in Scotland (when is it never?) so most of my afternoon has been spent cooking and being cosy. 
As halloween is nearing I thought it would be fun to decorate my room a little bit to try and get myself in the Halloween mood. I cut out little bats and stuck them on my wall and I think they turned out really nice! I saw the idea here



I also bought some super comfy socks yesterday in preparation for the cold. They are so comfortable that I even wear them over my jeans! 




This is what I made on my rainy day. 



What you need: 

450g/1lb pork OR 350g/.7lb of lamb
3 tbsp of soy sauce
1 tbsp cornflour
250ml/9fl oz of hot chicken stock
2 leeks
2 cloves of garlic
2.5cm/1inch of root ginger
100g/4oz of unsalted cashew nuts
salt and black pepper

I got the recipe from one of my mums old cook books that I technically stole from her and took to university with me. Don't worry, she doesn't use it much anymore! The book is called 'Warming Winter Favourites' and I think it was part of a collection. The recipe adds in 100g of button mushrooms for those who are a fan, however, I am not so I chose to leave them out.
For the stock I used a stock cube in boiling water and although the original recipe suggests pork I decided to use lamb. I like lamb better.

Note to self:
As much as I liked this I think the sauce could have done with an extra something. I personally would have added a little bit of chilli or something to give that little extra bite. In saying that, I still enjoyed it.


















Step 1.
Cut the lamb up and set it aside for later. I chose to cut the lamb into cubes for this, but I was given stewing lamb on my online shop instead of pre-diced lamb. The choice is yours!
In a bowl mix together the soy sauce, cornflour and stir in the stock.

















Step 2. 
Cut up the leek into thin slices. Peel, crush and chop up the garlic. Peel and grate the ginger.
Heat oil in a large pan until it is medium high (hot but not smoking)

















Step 3. 
Add cashew nuts to the pan and stir-fry until golden. Remove them from pan and set aside on some kitchen paper to drain.

















Step 4.
Add a little more oil to the pan and start to cook your lamb (or pork). Stir-fry for 3-4 minutes, or until it is no longer pink. Remove from the pan and set aside. 

















Step 5.
Add the leeks to the pan and stir-fry for 1 minute, then add the garlic and ginger. stir-fry for a further 2-3 minutes.

Step 6. 
Return the lamb(or pork) to the pan and add in the soy sauce and cornflour mixture. Bring it all to the boil and then simmer for about 2-3 minutes, whilst stirring, until the lamb is super hot. Add cashews and season!



xcx