2 more chicken broth meals.

  

Craving for certain foods leads to experimentation if you are denying yourself the good things in life, like noodles. Could I use my low carb spaghetti as a viable substitute for noodles in Chow Mein? Why not give it a go? So, I boiled some spaghetti and fried it in peanut oil for 2 minutes.

 The sauce for this adventure utilised some of the leftover chicken from the broth making in a previous post.

recipe

1/4 cup leftover cooked chicken

1/4 cup cabbage, finely sliced

2 garlic cloves. minced

1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced

2 spring onions, sliced thinly

3 Swiss chard leaves, finely shredded

1 tbsp dried prawns, soaked for 20 minutes in a little boiling water

handful bean sprouts

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp Chinese wine

1 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp hot sauce

1/2 tbsp shredded bamboo shoot in chili oil

1 tbsp peanut oil

• Heat the peanut oil in a wok or frying pan until hot and stir-fry the garlic, ginger and spring onions for 1 minute.

• Add the prawns, cabbage, Swiss chard and chicken and fry together until cabbage and chard are wilted.

• Add the soy sauce, wine, sesame oil, sugar and salt and stir together until coated and syrupy.

• Add the beansprouts, hot sauce and bamboo shoots and serve over warmed fried 'noodles'

Result: the flavour was not exactly authentic, lacking some taste element that egg noodles generally have, but the mouth-feel just wasn't right, the 'meatiness' of Chinese or Japanese noodles that is so satisfying once fried was missing so that this really just felt like spaghetti with Asian flavours instead of being incorporated as a complete meal. Still, better than noodles made from sliced crepes and I got to use up the chicken from the broth.

Lamb shanks stew

  

First, an apology. The picture above is the only time you will see the actual shanks as I (stupidly)  in my eagerness to devour the meal, forgot to take a picture of the finished dish. Seeing these shanks in a local supermarket at a reasonable price I snapped them up at once as lamb is often difficult to come by here, especially fresh shanks like these. After a flick through some cookery books for inspiration, I decided to once again unpack the slow cooker from its back of the cupboard home and make a long, slow cooked stew rendering the meat so tender as to fall off the bone and filling the kitchen with savoury, citrus-y aromas.

 Recipe:
2 lamb shanks

1 red onion, cut into quarters

4 cloves garlic, left whole

1/4 cup chopped fresh mint leaves

4 sprigs of thyme

6 mushrooms, halved

1 cup chicken stock (home-made from previous post)

1/4 cup dry sherry

1 orange, cut into segments

6 tomatoes, halved

salt and pepper

• First, sear the shanks in 2 tbsp oil in a frying pan until browned. Remove to the slow cooker.

• Add the onion to the frying pan and stir around over medium heat to absorb the juices from the meat. (If there are lots of little brown bits in the pan still, add some water to de-glaze and add to the slow cooker).

• Add the onions and all other ingredients to the slow cooker, turn to high, cover and cook for 3 - 4 hours. The meat should be falling off the bone and the vegetables soft with a rich, meaty juice, smelling slightly citrus-y from the orange and herbal from the mint and thyme.

• Remove the meat to plates and keep warm. If you want you can transfer the sauce to a saucepan and boil for 10 minutes until thickened or just spoon a little over and use the rest for a soup the next day as I did. (see below). Serve with mashed potatoes or asparagus and a little mint sauce with vinegar to freshen and sharpen the rich meat.

This made the most delicious soup the next day, heated through with a little extra mint sauce, it was deeply savoury with a meaty flavour and zing from the mint.