This is a diet dish but is packed with flavour and you get a decent bowl full to really fill you up. The recipe is by Tom Kerridge and the ingredient list is long, but it’s easy to put together and other than the fresh veg you probably have most of the ingredients in the cupboard.
Chinese Meatball Stir-fry – serves 4
- vegetable oil
- 2 onions, very finely chopped
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 750g lean beef mince
- 1 ½ tsp Chinese five-spice powder
- 1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 large red onion, cut into thin wedges
- 200g carrots, thinly sliced on an angle
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2.5cm piece of ginger, finely grated
- 1 large red pepper, diced
- 1 large yellow pepper, diced
- 300ml fresh beef stock
- 120g Asian mushrooms or chestnut mushrooms, sliced
- 1 ½ tbsp hoisin sauce
- 1 ½ tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- 80g mangetout
- 4 scallions, thinly sliced on an angle
Heat the vegetable oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Add the chopped onions and cook for 5 minutes or until softened. Remove the pan from the heat and add the soy sauce. Leave to cool.
Put the beef mince into a large bowl and add the cooled onions, Chinese five-spice, bicarbonate of soda and plenty of salt and pepper. Mix well with your hands, then divide into 16 equally sized meatballs. Chill in the fridge for 2 hours to firm up.
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.
Put a large non-stick wok/frying pan over a high heat. When hot, add a splash of vegetable oil. Add the meatballs and cook for 5-6 minutes, or until browned on all sides. Transfer to an oven tray and bake for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, return the wok/frying pan to a high heat. Add the sesame oil, red onion and carrots and cook for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 2 minutes stirring continually. Add the peppers and cook for 4 minutes, add a dash of the beef stock at any point if things start to stick.
Add the mushrooms, meatballs and half of the beef stock to the pan, then add the hoisin and oyster sauces and the rice wine vinegar. Stir well and bring to a simmer.
Mix the cornflour to a paste with 1 tbsp of the remaining beef stock and pout into the pan, along with the rest of the stock.
Add the mangetout and scallions and stir-fry for 4-5 minutes or until the mangetout are just cooked and the meatballs heated through.
(Original recipe from Lose Weight for Good by Tom Kerridge, Absolute Press, 2017.)
We’ve just had a sunny Easter weekend, so we cooked lots of Spring side dishes from Ottolenghi Simple. These potatoes are lovely and fresh and tasted good with some barbecued lamb gigot chops. We’re binge eating Jersey Royals while we can get them.
Jono & Jules do food & wine 