Vegetable Stir Fry with Crispy Pork | You've Got Meal!

We are posting the recipe knowing that it might mean the beginning of the end for a lot of Chinese take away restaurants. Yes, people, YOUVEGOTMEAL is showing you how they make it so you can just do it yourself. Well, us and a lot of other people online, but why would you listen to renowned chefs? Now, modesty and everything behind us let’s get cracking.

For the vegetables you will need : 

• 1 red bell pepper, 
• 2 medium carrots, 
• 1 medium onion, 
• 1 thumb sized ginger, 
• 1 tbs. of five spice, 
• 1 medium hot chili, 
• 2 tbs. of dark sugar, 
• 1-2 tbs. fish sauce, 
• 2-3 tbs. soy sauce, pepper, peanut or sesame oil. 

For the meat : 

• 150 grams of pork (we had some meat from a shoulder cut that we cleaned the fat from), 
• salt, 
• pepper, 
• vegetable oil, 
• 100 grams of corn starch.

As per usual, a couple of notes before starting this dish. The title does  say crispy pork, but you can choose to just add the meat to the veggies in the stir fry and be done with it. I honestly think that cooking it separately and keeping the crunch factor brings a more special note to the whole dish.

The way we did this was by making the pork 1^st because it was a little more time consuming (compared to a stir fry, not a lot of things aren’t). Cut the meat into equal strips, and this is important because when you are dealing with quick cooking you want everything to be done at the same time and not have pieces of the same meal differently cooked. Next, season the pork with salt and pepper – easy on the salt. Run the meat through the corn starch, making sure the strips are well coated. Shake off any excess starch (it will burn badly in the oil) and cook the meat in a heavy base pan in which you have heated some vegetable oil to the blazing hot point. Cook for 3 minutes on each side or until it gets a golden color. Remove the meat from the oil onto some paper towels.  

Next, cut the pepper and carrots in sticks making sure they all have the same size. Slice the onion julienne style, clean and grate the ginger, slice the chili. Heat a couple tbs. of oil in your wok and fry the all the cut vegetables for 1 minute, until the carrots barely start softening. Next pop in the sugar, 5 spice and some grinded pepper and mix everything for another minute, making sure the vegetables are covered in the sugar and spice.  Add the soy and fish sauce, coat the veggies for another 30 seconds and remove from heat. You can add the meat to the vegetables at this point, but keep in mind that it you won’t get the same crispy outcome.

Serve the meat and the vegetables on top of some basmati rice, sprinkle some more soy sauce on top if needed.

Enjoy,

Thai Chicken and Salad with Rice and Caramelized Onions | You've Got Meal!

Sticky, full of flavor chicken/ Infused Thai rice/ Balsamic Caramelised Onions/ Thai salad with pears

 The most complicated thing about this recipe is actually coming up with the name – and what a fine job that was! This recipe lets shine that beautiful Thai combination of sweet, spicy and sour, each one of them underlined by one of the components:  the meat, the rice and onions and the salad. So this is how it goes!

For the meat:

·     1 piece of deboned breast (let’s say 400 grams) cut into equal pieces of about 3 cm,

·      the juice of 2 limes,

·      half a  thumb size ginger,

·     1 mighty powerful chili,

·      garlic (5-6 cloves),

·      honey (4 tbs.),

·      salt, pepper,

·      mint,

·      vegetable oil.

Quick note here: the idea is to get a spicy-sweet taste to the meat and we had a sublime chili jam (you can spell it confiture if you’re feeling French) that did exactly that. If you have such a thing (which is made of chili, sugar and vinegar, no spices) tone down the use of honey.

1.       Start of by making a marinade for the meat by mixing, well, everything in a bowl. Cover it and let it rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour and then give the meat 20 minutes to get close to room temperature.

2.       Cook the meat (get rid of any excess marinade before cooking, otherwise the honey will burn fast) on medium high heat, in a few drops of vegetable oil, for 5 minutes on each side- you might need to cook the meat in batches.

3.       When all the pieces are done pop the remaining marinade in the pan, throw the chicken in there and coat it with the glazing marinade. Be careful not to burn the honey or whatever sugar you are using, shouldn’t be more than 2 minutes.

4.       Garnish with a couple of coriander leaves and you’re done with the meat.

For the rice and onions:

§  125 grams of Thai/Basmati rice (that’s enough for 2 people),

§  star anise, ginger, coriander stalks, salt, pepper,

§  400 grams of cleaned, small, red or yellow onions,

§  balsamic vinegar (4-6 tbs) and

§  sugar (1-2tbs.)

The idea here is that we are going to use the rice like a pretty neutral base (neutral in the Thai sense of the word) and we are going to bring a fantastic Italian touch with the “cipollini agrodolce” – sour and sweet onions.

1.       Infuse salted water with the star anise, some roughly cut pieces of ginger, coriander stalks (reserve the leaves) and pepper corns. Give 15 minutes for the water to really steal the flavors from the spices then cook the rice in it. A good idea is to either use the kind of rice that you can buy in a special cooking bag or use a tea satchel to keep the condiments in it.

2.       Meanwhile, boil the onions on medium heat for 20 minutes. Be careful when cleaning the onions, don’t cut too much out of the ends of the vegetable, you need that for them to stay intact while cooking, otherwise the layers will pretty much get loose.

3.       Remove the onions from water, let them steam for a minutes then cook them in a couple tbs. of olive oil, on medium low heat for another 10 minutes.

4.       Add the vinegar and sugar and mix well, to make sure that the cipollini are all covered in the sour and sweet goodness, shouldn’t take more than 3-4minutes.

5.       Plate the onions on top of the rice, with some of the cooking juice from the vegetables and some soy sauce for saltiness.

For the salad: roughly chopped iceberg salad, 2 carrots cut into strips with a veggie peeler, a medium red bell pepper cut into sticks, 3-4 tbs. coriander leaves, 1 pear also cut into strips with the veggie peeler, tiny, adorable, delicious and incredible cherry tomatoes (try and get as many colors as you can, it will bring a nice touch to the presentation), salt, pepper, lime juice.

1.       How to: just mix everything and you’re done. J

The idea behind the way we presented this (these) recipe(s) to you was that we started off with the sweet and we went from there to sweet & sour to just sour. All 3 components really stick together and the combination delivers a great dining experience that will make your day or bedazzle any friends that need reminding from time to time that you are a God in (your own ) kitchen. 

Enjoy,

Rice-filled Pumpkin | You've Got Meal!

It took for us to make our own blog in order to start cooking pumpkin, but the wait was worth. Growing up the only way we actually ate pumpkin was in (a very nice) pie, that, I have to admit, is one of the best smelling dishes I’ve ever seen. But bringing this seasonal ingredient to a salty dish was something I wanted to do for a very long time and I started with the stew posted last time. This time, the dish is a little flashier and it can certainly make you feel badass in front of your guests. Honestly, bringing a neat looking pumpkin filled with a spicy, creamy rice to the table has to score some points with the company you keep. 

Let’s start of with the ingredients that I used for filling a pumpkin about 1,3-1,5 kilo pumpkin: 
about half a cup of risotto rice, 
1 medium onion, 
3-4 cloves of garlic, 
1 medium beet, 
4 tbsp capers 
1 chilli, 
cinnamon, ground cumin and cardamom, 
salt, pepper, 
75 grams of butter, 
olive oil and 
100 grams of grated Parmesan. 

And of course the above said pumpkin and its insides. A couple of things about the ingredients: I decided to fill the pumpkin with a risotto style rice and, also, add cheese to this combination, but you can easily turn this recipe in a vegetarian star by using soy or coconut milk/cream, in which case a slightly more oriental touch of aromas could be in case. For the pumpkin, pick a healthy, sturdy one, with no visible marks or soft areas – those can give you trouble in the oven. You need to remove the insides of the “beast” before beginning, but don’t throw it away, you’ll integrate it in the rice. Also, make sure you don’t throw the top of the pumpkin, you’ll use it later.

• To start things of, cook your beet in the oven. First wash the root vegetable, pat it dry, place it on a piece of tin foil, splash a small amount of olive oil on the beet, some salt then close the foil on the vegetable, creating a wrapper that still holds enough room for the steam to build in there. The cooking time depends on the size of the beet, in this case it took 45 minutes. The vegetable is done when you can easily stick your knife through it. When the beet is done, remove the foil, let it cool down then finely cut it -  set aside. 
• Next, start making your risotto by cooking the finely diced onion and garlic for a bout 4 minutes on high heat, in some olive oil. Next add the beet,  the capers and the pumpkin insides (you won’t be able to use all of it, so keep around 1 cup of the finely diced pumpkin “entrails”). Cook the vegetables for another 3 -5 minutes. Add in the rice and all the spices and cook them for a minute before adding the liquid – use only stock or add wine, if you feel like it (1 part wine to 3 parts stock, make sure you simmer the wine down before adding the rest of the liquid).You need to cook the rice to about 90% done, so make sure you taste your rice -  it should take around 20 minutes on a medium high heat. 
• Remove the rice from the stove, add in the butter and mix things. 
• Next, start filling the pumpkin with the creamy rice – add a couple of tbs. of rice and top those with a heavy layer of cheese. Keep going until you’re almost at the top -  don’t completely fill the pumpkin up t the top, it will need some space to bubble up when the insides  start cooking. 
• Place top on the pumpkin and put in an oven tray, with some oven proof paper, on medium heat and cook for about 30 minutes. 
• You can choose to serve the pumpkin whole and cut it at the table or slice it yourself before plating, either way make sure to add some green to the dish with some chopped  parsley or oregano or basil or thyme or mint. Pick one already. And then eat, you’ll like it. 

Oh, and I can’t end this recipe without making this point: you can always use bacon in cooking the rice, just saying, no pressure……

Chorizo, Cauliflower and Porcini Risotto| You've Got Meal!

Cooking rice is something that doesn’t happen nearly enough in our kitchen, so, when we had to plan a meal for a couple of guests coming over, this risotto dish came to mind. Maybe I was influenced by the fact that we had all in the ingredients in our pantry or fridge, but who knows?

So, a nice piece of spicy chorizo sausage, about 200 grams, cut into slices, 

200 grams of cauliflower florets, 

300 grams of porcini , cut into big chunks (that’s the way I like them, feel free to change it), 

1 large onion diced, 

3 cloves of garlic, diced, 

about 220-250 grams of rice (use a risotto appropriate variety), 

100 grams of a good quality dry white wine, 

400 ml of vegetable or chicken stock, 

100 grams of butter and 

your heart’s desire of parmesan, salt, pepper and olive oil.

 Start of by cooking the onion and garlic on high heat for a couple of minutes, until they start softening. Add the meat and cook it for another 3-4 minutes, after which add the mushrooms and give those another 4 minutes, making sure that they are coated in the chorizo infused oil in the pan. Throw in the cauliflower and cook that for another 3-5 minutes. Add the rice, salt and pepper and cook it without liquid for 2 minutes, constantly stirring so that it mixes with the rest of the ingredients. Add the wine and reduce it on high heat down to about a third. Add the stock, reduce heat to medium-low and cook until the liquid has reduced enough and the rice has a creamy rich consistency. If necessary, add more stock.

Right at the end, put in the butter and whisk it in so that it melts and mixes in uniformly. Remove from heat and add the grated parmesan, whatever quantity you feel like and some parsley (optional, our guests didn’t need it). If you feel that the chorizo doesn’t hold the spicy kick you need in this risotto, add a diced red (for visual purposes) chili with the onion and garlic.

 To serve as a salad for this risotto, I opted for a very nice lemony, crunchy blistered  broccoli. I already explained how to make that in this recipe, the difference in this instance being that I didn’t add garlic but only lemon, some more olive oil, salt, pepper, chili and some tomato tiny cubes. If you have some nice salad leaves (some lola rosa works nice for taste and it brings a nice visual upgrade) you can mix them in for a more salad-ish feel to this broccoli.

  

Enjoy,

Caramelized Chicken with Coconut Rice

The way I imagined this dish to look was a red/yellow color combination, but I didn’t have enough time to follow through on my initial plan to cook the chicken into red, so  I opted for a caramelized version of the meat, still in contrast with the coconut rice, that had a powerful yellow color from using turmeric. All of this combined with a fragrant green from using chives makes a lovely dish, with a gorgeous visual appeal, that also packs some great taste.

Follow us on Instagram to see everything we eat/cook and other fun bits.

5 Spice Beef and Chinese Fried Rice

Initially I was thinking of going for a Thai based rice, with some coconut milk and saffron, but in lack of a proper main dish to go with it, I decided I wanted to show you that Chinese takeout can be done in your own kitchen without a lot of fuss. Now, this recipe requires a lot of fuss… What? No, just kidding, it’s a super easy recipe that you can cook in a flash and impress any Chinese food lover.

For the rice (and this is where I kinda screwed up) make sure you use a type of grain doesn’t stick to one another. Use basmati or jasmine, make sure you don’t try this with Arborio or carnaroli, typical risotto rice. I have to admit that I was too lazy to actually go and buy a bag of basmati so I used the package of Arborio that I already had in my pantry. The taste is good, but it makes things difficult to actually fry the rice. For 1 cup of rice, use 2 cups of water, cook the BASMATI (final warning) rice until it is done or the liquid is absorbed, and set it aside to cool a little.

You will also need: 1 medium onion, diced, 2-3 cloves garlic, 1 thumb sized ginger, diced, some crunchy veggies (peas, beans, water chestnuts, baby carrot, baby corn, etc.), 1 or 2 eggs (depending on how much rice you have), spring onions or chives(optional), soy sauce, sugar, pepper, peanut or sesame oil. You will have to do this in batches, in a wok, so start by cooking the ginger, onion and garlic for 3 minutes in a tsp of oil, set it aside. Next, add in the crunch (you can either get them fresh or frozen, the cooking time is different for each), and stir fry those for another 4-5 minutes tops with the sugar, until they are cooked enough but still hold some serious crunch. Set aside. 

Mix the egg(s)  with 2-3 tbs of soy sauce, beat them together, and cook the eggs like an omelet or scrambled, 2-3 minutes. Set that aside as well. Now, in a tbs of oil add the rice and stir fry it for 2 minutes, then add the other already cooked ingredients and mix them together, add more soy sauce if you feel like it needs salt.

For the beef, again, super easy, just rub the meat with some sesame oil, salt and 5 spice condiment and cook in a hot searing pan for 3 minutes on each side or for how long you want, depending on what degree of rare you want. I used a piece of tenderloin that I cooked roughly 3 minutes on all sides for a medium rare outcome.

Plate the meat, sliced, the rice (with some chives or spring onions on top), and, if you care for it, some wasabi paste to kick things up.

Enjoy, 

Black Rice Mushroom Risotto (Vegetarian Recipe)

We made this dish during the last week of this year’s Easter fast, when we wanted to try something substantial but also smooth. 

For this recipe we used:

• 1 ½ cups of rice (black rice also known as Emperor's rice or forbidden rice), 
• 150 grams of honey agaric mushrooms, 
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped, 
• 1 medium eggplant, diced and 
• parsley (about one handful). 

You can always add some butter and parmigiano in the end and give this dish more depth, but I works just fine in its vegetarian version. Honey agaric is a wild type of mushroom, similar perhaps to the Chinese Mun mushrooms. You can substitute these with black chanterelle or golden chanterelle.

Start up by heating up 2 tbs of olive oil in a heavy base tall, pan, and saute the onions on high heat for 3-4 minutes, and add the diced eggplant, cook for another 3-4 minutes, and then add the mushrooms (i didn’t  chop or dice them, i liked to use them whole).  Let the mushrooms cook until they remove part of their water, then add the rice and cook it on high heat, for another couple of minutes, stirring ocasionally so the rice doesn’t stick. After this, add salt, pepper, 3 cups of water (or vegeatble stock), cover the pan, reduce the heat to a medium and let it cook for 15 minutes, checking from time to time so the rice doesn’t burn (feel free to add more liquid if necessary). After the rice is done, sprinkle the chopped parsley on top of it and serve.

We loved the taste of this black rice, fit for an emperor indeed. :)

Enjoy!