Christmas Dinner Burritos

One thing my girlfriend and I have tried to do each year is make Christmas Dinner a little different. I've yet to complete a post about Christmas 2016's festive Salmon En Croute with Mixed Veg, which we prepared for my folks when we stayed with them for a couple of nights over the festive season, and last year's turkey burgers were a bit of a disaster because I'd foolishly assumed that a burger should be 100% meat, regardless of the type of meat.

This year, we didn't need much discussion to decide on our alternative Christmas meal style. I'd been considering burritos for some time before Courtney even brought up the subject of making Christmas dinner plans, so that was my first suggestion... and she agreed straight away. I then started researching options for Christmas-appropriate rice as part of the filling, while Courtney looked into seasonal 'slaw recipes. She opted to use What The Cluck? from The Vegetarian Butcher, while I picked up a couple of packs of Bernard Matthews turkey chunks. In place of a salsa, we both agreed that a dollop of cranberry sauce would be reasonably appropriate, and so the plans were in place.

For the rice, I came up with a shortlist of three existing recipes from around the internet:

• Puerto Rican Rice with Pigeon Peas, from Saveur.com
• Festive Rice, from Taste of Home.com
• Christmas Pilaff, from DeliciousMagazine.co.uk

After due consideration, the Festive Rice option was selected, but was prepared in a pan, on the hob, rather than by baking, the 1/4 cup of butter and the mint were both entirely omitted, while the Feta was added to the burrito rather than incorporated into the rice mix. Courtney's 'slaw was a mix of red cabbage and red onion (both sliced quite thinly) with pomegranate seeds, as well as lime and orange juice, seasoned with a little salt and pepper. She'd intended to also add some chopped Brussels sprouts - which she'd bought especially - but it slipped her mind at the time.

Now, since we all know that turkey tends to be a bit on the bland side, and mixing up some gravy for the purposes of a burrito seemed rather pointless and wasteful, I figured I'd heat it up in a pan after coating it with Peri-Peri Salt. This involved just dumping a bit of sunflower oil into a small frying pan and then chucking the coated turkey chunks in once it was heated up and stirring them about till they started to brown in places. I somewhat underestimated how much oil I'd need, which led to small pieces of turkey adhering to the pan, but it worked well enough aside from that.

Assembling the burrito was a simple case of serving out a portion of rice onto a tortilla (warmed for 10 seconds in the microwave to ensure they were flexible enough for filling and rolling), crumbling over some Feta, scooping over some cranberry sauce, then adding some of the slaw. Courtney further embellished her burrito with some jalapeños and coriander, but neither are particularly agreeable to me, so I just had to make do with the basic ingredients. As a finishing touch, the burritos were returned to the pan for a bit of browning, and to help seal the seam.

The end result turned out really well - we're both fans of burritos, but have previously tended to rely on supermarket-bought sets for making them, and we tend to omit staples like the rice, focusing instead on the seasoned meat (or meat substitute), packed-in salsa, some sour cream and, at most, a home-made guacamole. Having a somewhat seasonal rice recipe, further spiced up by the Peri-Peri Salt, then sweetened by the fresh pomegranate, it was a comparatively light and sweet burrito, but filling nevertheless. This was also probably the first time we - or I, at least - have tried to properly roll our burritos rather than turn them into makeshift tubular pockets. I had to look up a couple of YouTube videos for the technique, and still got a bit confused, to be honest.

All in all, this is one of the most successful 'alternative Christmas' ideas we've had so far, yet it's still ripe for exploration into alternatives. I'm particularly keen to try the Puerto Rican Rice option - I felt that was probably the best fit for a burrito, albeit at the risk of overpowering everything else, but that was a risk I was willing to take with Bernard Matthews turkey chunks - and, having thought about it a little more, I'm wondering if mixing up a little gravy for the turkey wouldn't be such a bad idea after all.

We have sufficient leftovers of the rice and slaw for a decent dinner tonight, as well... I'm considering some Boxing Day 'sushi' using some sliced salmon I picked up a few days back, along with some Christmas spiced streaky bacon acquired in Iceland... Hopefully will be adding a few photos of that in the next few days.

I'll leave you with a Binging With Babish-inspired cross-section, with apologies for the quality of the photo, as it was taken quite hurriedly, on my phone:

Crispy Tofu Katsu Curry

Hot on the heels of the shop bought Wasabi dish - and because I just haven't shut up about how good it is compared to supermarket own-brands - my girlfriend decided to look into katsu curry sauce recipes. The original intention was that she'd cook something to accompany it but, the moment she mentioned it, I told her I was basically honour-bound to do it myself - partly because I've done so little cooking recently aside from the occasional Gousto boxes we've ordered.

In all honesty, this was probably a bit more advanced than I'm used to, and the instructions were a little vague (not great when my grasp of my own hob is still a little shaky) and weirdly presented, so I'm going to detail it all here in my usual style...

Ingredients:
Kombu Dashi stock

• 500ml water (approx. - a little more won't hurt)
• Dashi Konbu dried kelp (1 section of approx. 10x10cm)

Preparation Time: About 30-45 minutes

Katsu Curry Sauce

• 30ml Sunflower Oil
• Red Onion (one should be sufficient - meant to be white, but we ordered Morrisons' Wonky Onions, and that's basically pot luck)
• Ginger (for convenience, I used ready-chopped, frozen ginger - about 1 teaspoon)
• Garlic (2 cloves, crushed)
• Mild Curry Powder (1 tablespoon)
• Plain Flour (2 tablespoons)
• Kombu Dashi stock (made earlier, using ingredients above!)
• Light Soy Sauce (2-3 tablespoons)
• Honey (1 tablespoon)
• Rice Vinegar (1 tablespoon)
• Garam Masala (2 tablespoons)

Preparation Time: About 30 minutes

Crispy Tofu

• Tofu (I used Cauldron's - a 396g pack)
• Egg (ended up using 2)
• Plain Flour (about 100g will be more than sufficient)
• Panko Breadcrumbs (about 75g will be more than sufficient)
• Salt & Pepper (a pinch of each)
• Sunflower oil (sufficient to fill a frying pan to a depth of a little over 1cm)

Preparation Time: About 10-15 minutes, once the tofu is drained

Additionals:
Rice (for convenience, I used a 250g pack of Morrisons long grain rice, microwaved)
Spring Onions (to garnish)

Tools Required:

• Sharp Knife
• Garlic Press
• Grater (if using fresh stem ginger)
• Chopping Board
• Frying Pan
• Saucepan
• Measuring Jug
• Funnel
• Coffee Filter
• Receptacles for all the ingredients
• Stirring Implements (several required!)
• Heavy Book (to aid the draining of the tofu)
• Kitchen Roll (also to aid the draining of the tofu) 
• Tongs (to get the tofu into/out of the frying pan)

The Process:
First and foremost, the Kombu Dashi must be prepared. Cut a section of the kelp, about 10cm², and wipe off any salt residue with a damp cloth. Pour about 500ml of water into a saucepan, immerse the kelp and heat on a low setting on the hob - the idea is to get the water hot, but not let it boil... you're essentially brewing a weird, kelp-based tea - and simmer for about 25 minutes. Scoop off the froth that will start to build up every so often. After about 25 minutes, you should have a yellowish liquid, which you then need to filter into a jug for the time being. The easiest was is to stuff a coffee filter into a funnel and pour the liquid through. Set this aside to drain while you proceed with the other steps.

Next, the tofu will also need to be drained - it's generally packaged with a lot of water and absorbs quite a bit, but will need to be reasonably dry for this. Take the tofu out of the packaging and set it on a plate covered with some kitchen roll or a dishcloth. Cover the tofu itself with more of the same, then put something heavy on top (with some kind of non-absorbant barrier if you're using a book like I did - I used a small chopping board under a copy of How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman). Leave this to squeeze the water out of the tofu, and move onto the sauce.

Start by dicing the onion, crushing the garlic and, if using a chunk of ginger, chop or grate about a teaspoon's worth. Add 30ml of sunflower oil to a saucepan and heat over a medium setting on the hob. Add the onion, ginger and garlic to the saucepan and cook for 2-3 minutes, by which time the onion should start to become tender. Add the curry powder and stir thoroughly, allowing it to cook for about another minute - a wave of curry scent will let you know it's ready. Slowly add the flour, stirring constantly to blend it into the mixture, but try to avoid letting it cake on the sides of the saucepan.

Next come the first of the liquid ingredients: slowly add the Kombu Dashi, mixing in the soy sauce and honey as you go. Allow to simmer so the sauce thickens, stirring occasionally to avoid a skin developing on the top. Finally, add the rice vinegar and garam masala and cook for about another minute. This now needs to be set aside - but kept warm - until the tofu is sorted. The aroma will start to whet your appetite, so it's best to move quickly from here on...

By this point, the tofu should have had most of the water squeezed out of it, so slice the block into strips about 1cm thick. Sprinkle or grind over a little salt, and leave them aside for about 10 minutes, on a sheet or two of kitchen roll. During this time, start preparations for the Panko crumb coating.

You'll need two plates and two shallow bowls. Pour the flour onto the plate and mix in a little salt and pepper for seasoning. Break an egg or two into the first bowl and beat it - adding a little salt here, if you wish. Into the last bowl pour the panko crumbs. Take each slice of tofu and first coat it in the flour. Next coat it in the beaten egg as evenly as possible, then quickly transfer it to the panko crumb bowl and try to ensure it's thoroughly coated. Put the coated strips onto the second plate, then fire up the hob with a frying pan filled to a level of about 1-1.5cm with oil. Once it's hot, transfer in as many of the crumb-coated tofu strips as you're comfortable frying at any one time (I managed three, though my frying pan could probably accommodate a couple more!). Fry each batch until they're nice and golden (depending on the temperature, it'll be about 1-2 minutes), then transfer out and allow to rest on some kitchen roll to dry out a little.

Stick the rice into the microwave and cook according to the pack's instructions - you'd generally be looking at 2 minutes but, obviously, if you prefer to cook your rice the traditional way, you'll need to start that a little earlier in the process, in another saucepan, and have it set aside for this step. Add half the rice to each of a couple of bowls, top with the fried tofu strips and pour over the sauce. If you're feeling fancy, you could add some sort of topping, like spring onion or grated carrot. Serve up, and scoff down.

The Results:
This was probably one of the more involved processes I've tried, but still reasonably easy to break down into stages so I didn't have to split my focus between two tasks. Having to make the Kombu Dashi stock was quite frustrating, and I'm not convinced that worked properly - the photos I saw online showed a clear, yellowish liquid but, even after filtering, mine was quite cloudy. Additionally, the packaging recommended steeping the kelp for 6-8 hours before heating it. Since neither Courtney nor I had seen or anticipated this instruction, we ended up using a 'plan b' method which took only half an hour... It's entirely possible this method wasn't as effective, so I may try to make another batch of the stock by the recommended method at some point.

Everything else is pretty straightforward - the sauce is really easy to make, though it does use quite a lot of different ingredients that have to be added at specific points. Personally, I'm always wary of adding any powdery ingredients into a pan containing very little in the way of liquid ingredients, since it tends to just stick to the sides of the pan and become really difficult to wash up afterward, but this one worked out OK. Once the sauce had thickened up, the rest of the recipe was quick enough that I was able to take the sauce off the heat entirely until just before serving up. It stayed warm, and needed only a little stirring now and then to prevent a skin forming. Admittedly, I put it back on the hob briefly just before serving, but only to ensure it was piping hot rather than just warm.

I'm still not used to working with tofu, and I'm not convinced I drained it sufficiently... but it's a difficult judgement call: it has to be able to pick up the flour, but it shouldn't immediately soak through the flour. The egg part was very frustrating, because it should apparently only need one large egg... but I ended up beating a second because, with nine strips of tofu to crumb-coat, I'd run out of egg by the sixth or seventh, even though some of the strips weren't as thoroughly coated as I'd have liked. The egg didn't bind very well with the flour-coated tofu, but ended up getting my fingers very sticky. Consequently, I ended up with more panko breadcrumb on my fingers than on the tofu strips... or so it felt. As it happened, I think they were all sufficiently coated. Frying them was nice and easy, though I ran out of sunflower oil and had to supplement it with some Crisp'n'Dry... which, upon reflection, would probably have been the better oil to start with, as we'd just got a new bottle that morning. Since I'm also not used to shallow frying, there was quite a range of shades in the finished crispy tofu strips - from slightly anaemic through to "Oh, shit! I'd better get that out of the frying pan now, or it's gonna burn!" - as the last batch seemed to need less cooking time than the previous batches.

Now, clearly I'm quite fussy about my katsu curry... While I certainly enjoyed this - particularly the delayed kick of spiciness in the sauce - I'm not entirely convinced it was actually katsu. Maybe it was the use of red onion rather than white, maybe I needed to add a bit of additional seasoning to the sauce (I was quite conscious of the salt being added to various things already!). Not to say it wasn't nice - I really liked it... but something about it wasn't quite according to what I think of as 'katsu curry' flavour. I think the quanity was just about as perfect as it could be for two people - enough to cover the tofu strips and rice without utterly swamping it. What was interesting - both to me and to Courtney - was that there's nothing especially unusual or unique about the curry itself: it uses a standard mild curry powder and garam masala. Perhaps using both is a little odd, but even the use of honey in something that's meant to be savoury isn't without precedent.

What I don't enjoy is wastage... and if wasting most of the second egg used for the crumb coating wasn't bad enough, the original recipe specified 125g of plain flour and 100g of breadcrumb. Frankly, I think one could easily get away with half that considering how much was left over - which is why I've reduced the quantities above and noted that they'd be "more than sufficient". I'm guessing the original quantities were given more to ensure sufficient volume of flour/crumb to roll the tofu around in rather than as any indication of actual usage within the recipe. One of the reasons I'm not used to shallow frying is that I really hate working with that much cooking oil. We've taken to filtering and recycling ours but, obviously, it has a limited lifespan (unless you want to turn it into biofuel for a car). Additionally, putting this together also piled up an awful lot of washing up even before the food was served up and eaten.

Still, if you can put up with that, it's actually quite a fun recipe and I'm definitely going to try this again sometime, perhaps ensuring I use white onion and truly fresh ginger, maybe adding some salt to the curry sauce... Certainly trying to do better with the crispy tofu.

Wasabi Chicken Katsu Curry with Rice

Since I've not posted in a few months, I figured it was about time to put something up... and, in the absence of any new cooking (other than what's been going up on Instagram), it's going to be a conveniently quick post about a conveniently quick ready-meal.

It seems that the restaurant chain Wasabi Sushi & Bento have started producing packaged ready-meals, for cooking either in the oven or the microwave and, of the five boxes currently available, I found two options in my local branch of Sainsbury's: Chicken Katsu Curry and Sweet Chilli Chicken. Considering the number of own-brand Chicken Katsu Curries I've picked up in various supermarkets over the years - and having been thoroughly disappointed by all of them - I figured that I owed it to myself to try one that carries the brand of an actual restaurant chain that I frequent.

Approaching it with low expectations, I elected to cook it in my microwave - instructions are given for 700w and 900w, so I had to pick a mid-point for my 800w model - since cooking it in the oven requires one to decant the contents of the plastic packaging within the waxed cardboard box into separate, oven-friendly containers, to be covered over with foil (or lids where available). Since that would only add to the washing up I'd have to do later, the simple act of piercing the film lid and sticking the plastic tub in the microwave seemed like the most logical option.

It takes about 6-7 minutes to cook, and then has to be transferred to a plate, bowl, or my personal preference, the platey-bowl, which is a bit of a mission, as the rice and chicken have to be served up before the sauce can be poured on from the container... This still seems a little faffy for my liking, and I wonder if putting the sauce into a sachet, to be laid over the top of the rice and meat for shipping and storage purposes, might be the better plan. Nevertheless, here's the end result:

The first major difference between this and the average supermarket-bought Chicken Katsu Curry is the presence of large chunks of potato, carrot and onion in the sauce. In most others, there are no solid bits of veg at all and, on those rare occasions they are present, they tend to be fairly small. Straight away, this product looks better than the average supermarket fare.

I must confess that I was a little underwhelmed by the size of the katsu breadcrumb-coated chicken piece, and was a little concerned initially that the portion of rice was also on the small size. Conversely, when the sauce was poured over, it looked as though there was far too much, and that it would swamp the chicken and rice. Upon reflection, I'd say it's not as excessive as I first thought, but I could still stand to lose a few spoonfuls, while the quanity of rice is just right. A bit more chicken wouldn't go amiss, but the overall portion size is pretty good.

As to flavour, I find the sauces in most supermarket ready meals are Katsu Curry flavoured, rather than having the bite and spiciness of a true Katsu Curry. I'm happy to report that this bucks the trend completely. I can't quite remember how it compares to what a Wasabi restaurant would serve, but it's so much better than anything else I've bought from a supermarket. The chunks of veg in the sauce add to the texture and make the overall package that little bit more filling in the absence of a larger portion of meat, and I found this package very satisfying. The rice, sensibly, is plain but cooks very well in the package, while the chicken is prone to drying out at the edges. It doesn't become inedible or rubbery, just more difficult to cut, so perhaps I should try heating the package in two stages, reorienting it on the turntable halfway through.

Weighing in at £4.50 in store, or £4 via the website, it's in the same ballpark as Sainsbury's own 'Taste the Difference' line, but unlike the supposedly high-end own-brand, I really could taste the difference versus Sainsbury's cheaper, own-brand Chicken Katsu Curry tubs.

In fact, it's got me thinking that I should look into Katsu Curry sauces generally - either buying it ready-made or seeking out a recipe - and trying to make something like this myself, it get a better idea of how to get the spiciness just right. The only downside is that Courtney, being veggie, would not appreciate a chicken Katsu, so I'd need to identify an alternative... Perhaps Quorn or Tofu would suffice...

I've also tried Wasabi's Sweet Chilli Chicken box, which is nothing special overall, but the sauce again has a real kick to it. I think I'll need to seek out a bigger branch of Sainsbury's if I want to look at the rest of the line...

Experiments with Gousto #6: Sweet Mixed Pepper & Chive Risotto

Of all the Gousto recipes I've tried so far (cooking myself, that is), this is probably my favourite so far. It turned out to be pretty much as quick and easy as the recipe suggests, but there were still a couple of things I didn't get quite right...

For starters, I've got into the habit of doing as much chopping as possible in advance, since I can never be sure I'll be able to keep to the timings if I have to chop on the fly. For this one, I also put the sweet tomato stock together in advance. This almost came a-cropper before I'd started, as my usual jug is far smaller than the 700ml required, so I had to resort to a crappy (but larger) plastic jug from my Ikea kitchenware set. I don't particularly like using it - especially for hot things - but there's really no rational reason for that... I just prefer working with glass/Pyrex jugs where available.

I got my girlfriend to explain how she would go about dicing onion, because my 'method' invaribly ends up making a lot of mess and leaving me with streaming eyes. In fact, in a previous recipe (not one I've documented, as far as I can remember) I diced an onion using our mandoline with the additional blades intended for slicing potatoes into French Fries. This time, I just used a standard kitchen knife, though I did have to sharpen it beforehand.

I was a little concerned by step 4 of this recipe, where smoked paprika, ground turmeric and chopped garlic are added in along with the dry arborio rice, as I don't feel especially confident about adding dry rice to anything where there's not much liquid available. One of these days, I'm sure I'll just end up with Rice Krispies... Not this day, though... thankfully...

Also, to be honest, it's only in the pan for about a minute before the stock is gradually added in, and this stage takes about 15-20 minutes for it to be absorbed by the rice, while the sliced peppers are being roasted in the oven. I think I started this stage a little too late - with only about 17 minutes remaining on the peppers' cooking time - so I ended up switching the oven off for the last few minutes of the risotto's cooking time.

The fact that almost everything for this recipe comes together in a single frying pan is a huge bonus. It means less to keep an eye on, and less to wash up at the end. I do have a few objections to the act of adding cheese to something that's already a hot, sticky mess in a frying pan, because I know from previous experience how troublesome that sort of combination will be to clean afterward. I also found the cheese supplied to be extremely crumbly, which made grating it an absolute chore, and I came dangerously close to grating my fingertips whenever a chunk broke off.

To be perfectly honest, I'm not certain whether or not any pepper was added for seasoning, along with the cheese and chives, but I'm pretty confident - having tasted the end results - that it would work well enough without. The final stage was a bit of a rush, as I had to dish out the risotto, add the remaining peppers, cheese and chives, drizzle on a bit of olive oil (also, I strongly suspect, surplus to requirement), and take some photos before announcing that dinner was ready... and I hadn't even brought the camera into the kitchen in advance this time...

This is the first of the new batch of Gousto recipes that arrived yesterday, so the rest have a hard act to follow now. The next few will be interesting as, after tonight's, I'll actually be cooking for myself for a couple of nights, as Courtney's out for the evenings, then away for the weekend... and I'm not sure keeping some of the ingredients till she's back - even keeping them in the fridge - will be viable. Chances are, I'll be cooking up the whole recipe as usual, but keeping a portion in the fridge (or the freezer) till she's back.

Smoked Haddock Paella (sort-of à la Slimming World)

I'd like to call it a tradition that I cook dinner while I'm off work but, over the last couple of years, Courtney and I have usually been doing something - like taking a holiday - which means there's actually not much of an opportunity to cook, and when I'm off work due to illness, cooking couldn't be further from my mind. This week - coming at a bad time for going away - has presented the first good opportunity (other than, y'know, every frickin' weekend) for me to get back into the kitchen and prepare some meals from scratch... But it didn't happen without a struggle. We'd talked about it a while back but, in the run-up to the week, Courtney became reluctant to pick meals for me to cook. I had previously become a little stressed during other stints in the kitchen and she felt that she wanted to spare me the upset.

Nevertheless, a handful of recipe suggestions were eventually teased out of her and, on the Wednesday, I tried my hand at an adaptation of a 'Syn-Free' Slimming World recipe for a vegetarian/vegan paella, with a bit of fish added because we happened to have it in the freezer, otherwise unused. There were a couple of other changes to the recipe, so I'll give this the full write-up...

Ingredients:

• Smoked Haddock (a couple of small fillets should be enough)
• Onion (one of a decent size is sufficient, to be sliced)
• Garlic (a couple of cloves, to be crushed)
• Peppers (one red, one yellow, to be sliced)
• Tomatoes (four, to be sliced - the original recipe specifies plum tomatoes, but I used the normal kind)
• Lemons (one to be juiced, one to be cut into wedges)
• Peas (200g, frozen)
• Artichoke Hearts (one 400g tin - equating to about 240g of artichoke when drained)
• Arborio Rice (largely because we couldn't find anything called 'Paella Rice', 350g)
• Paprika (2 teaspoons)
• Cumin (1 teaspoon)
• Turmeric (half teaspoon)
• Saffron (just a pinch, however one measures that...)
• Vegetable Stock Cubes (3 should be sufficient, to be dissolved in about a litre of water)
• Salt & Pepper (to taste) 
• Cooking Oil (to lubricate the wok in the initial stages)

Preparation Time: About an hour, less if you're better at slicing and chopping - or generally more organised - than I am

Tools Required:

• 1 Large Wok or Frying Pan
• 1 Saucepan (large enough to comfortably accommodate 1 litre of boiling water)
• 1 Kitchen Knife
• 1 Mandoline (because it makes slicing the onion far easier on the eyes)
• 1 Garlic Press
• Miscellaneous receptacles to contain the ingredients prior to adding to the wok
• 2 Stirring Implements (one for the wok, one for the stock)

The Process:
This is one of those recipes where it pays to prepare in advance. Before even firing up the hob, I cooked the two haddock fillets (thawed overnight in the fridge, then approximately 5 minutes in the microwave, breaking halfway to drain the excess water, and then removing the skin and flaking the fish at the end), mixed up the spices in a small bowl (since it's easier to mix in the paprika, cumin, turmeric and saffron evenly if they're already mixed up and ready to be dumped into the wok) and chopped up all the veg. While I would never say that I've got chopping things down to a fine art, I do find it easy enough to deseed and slice up things like peppers. Slicing things like onions has become far easier for me since we acquired a mandoline (the Chef'n Pull'n'Slice mandoline from Lakeland, specifically) but, even so, I had to cover over the onion slices once finished to avoid getting all weepy. The tomatoes were slightly more complicated to slice up because they also needed to be deseeded, and that's the gooiest portion of the tomato. On the upside, none of the slicing needs to be especially fine, and all I did with the artichoke hearts was drain them and halve them. I made a lot of extra washing up by using bowls and plates to store things once prepared, so I could simply line them up and add them into the wok as I progressed. The frozen peas were measured out, then stored in the fridge till needed. One of the lemons was juiced, while the other, which only needed cutting into wedges, was set aside.

I also dealt with the stock before the main part of the cooking, putting just over a litre of water into a saucepan, dropping in the three vegetable stock cubes and bringing it to the boil. Stirring occasionally to help the stock cubes break up, I then made a start on the main event.

The wok received a spraying of cooking oil before turning on the hob to a medium heat. As a side note, I'm slowly learning how to set temperature levels on the hob - high and low being obvious, but 'medium' sitting somewhere below the median - so just about every stage of this recipe proceeded as intended. First into the wok were the sliced onion and the crushed garlic, these being cooked gently - and kept on the move to prevent them sticking to the wok - till the onions started turning golden (a little over five minutes). I did splash a spoonful or two of the stock in early as I suspect I didn't spray in quite enough cooking oil.

Next up came the peppers, with the whole lot continuing to stir-fry for about another five minutes. The next stage starts out with a flurry of activity before settling down for a long simmer: the tomatoes, rice (added dry) and the spice mix go in next, along with a small amount - about a tablespoon or so - of the lemon juice and then stirred up. The final part of this stage is adding the stock and, since I wasn't quite sure of myself on this point, I ended up adding it gradually rather than all at once. I ended up not using all of it, as the extra was just a precaution, but very little was left over. This then needs to simmer down for around a quarter of an hour or so, to allow the rice to absorb water and cook. It's worth giving it all a stir once in a while, as I did find that my rice sank to - and then stuck to - the bottom of the wok.

The final stage starts by adding the frozen peas and chopped artichoke, then simmering for another ten minutes or so, leaving you with something resembling paella, rather than a chunky vegetable soup - you want it moist, but not waterlogged. The last thing to be added to the wok, preferably in the last couple of minutes before serving, is the flaked haddock. After that, it's simply a case of serving up, seasoning to taste, then chopping the remaining lemon into wedges to squeeze over the top.

The Results:
Given the time I'd put in to preparation before I started, I was pleased to find this all progressed very smoothly. Because my worktop space is fairly limited, I'd dotted bowls and plates around the available space, piling them up as I emptied them into the wok. My biggest concern was getting the hob temperature right for boiling off the excess water to ensure the correct texture/viscosity in the end result, but the only problem with the simmering stage was that I didn't keep the rice moving, so quite a bit ended up as a congealed, crispy mass at the bottom of the wok... but even that wasn't a complete disaster, as Courtney likes crispy congealed rice.

The original Slimming World version of this recipe suggests garnishing with shredded parsley, but that's not something we tend to have in stock as it's not something we use a great deal of - it seems like a huge waste to buy some only to tear up a small amount to sprinkle over something like this. I seasoned mine only very slightly - a little salt and a touch of pepper - as I wanted to try it with as little extra flavouring as possible. I was a little concerned, for example, that smoked haddock might have too strong a taste in its own right, but that turned out OK - blending in without losing its own flavour. While the tomato pretty much fell apart, becoming part of the sauce and leaving only the strips of skin, the other veg held together well, maintained some of their bite and kept their individual flavours to a degree. Adding a squeeze of lemon juice didn't do much, and I suspect a sprinkle of fresh parsley may have been a worthwhile addition after all. I'm not entirely sure what the difference is between 'paella rice' and the arborio rice I used, but I can't imagine the results would have been massively improved by using the 'correct' rice.

Aside from all the preparation work and small amount of waste due to the rice getting stuck to the bottom of the wok, this was a simple recipe that turned out very well and restored some of my kitchen confidence. The recipe in the book isn't exactly comprehensive, assuming a certain amount of experience, but I was able to read between the lines and keep things progressing, without getting stressed out by re-reading the same lines over and over, trying to discern what I might be missing.

This is, at heart, a vegetarian dish, so it would be perfectly acceptable in its unadulterated form, yet it could easily support other white fish, or perhaps a full-on meaty component... as long as it's not something too strongly flavoured in its own right.

The quantities specified are meant to serve four, but we both had fairly generous servings, and Courtney took the leftovers for today's lunch. She had it cold, and reported that it was still quite flavourful, though she felt a bit of extra salt and pepper would have improved it, and hadn't taken any with her. She also reckoned it had reached the consistency where it could be turned into rice balls or patties, so that's perhaps something to investigate further in future.

Snapped prior to the addition of a little salt and pepper...

More-ish Mushroom & Rice (BBC GoodFood 'One Pot' Recipe)

One of the things my girlfriend and I are trying to do as much as possible at the weekends is properly cooking our meals rather than relying on takeaways, restaurants and ready meals. The trick is that I'm a carnivore and she's vegetarian, so it has to be something that can have meat thrown in at the end, or something with enough flavour that I can live without meat. To make things easier, we both have a selection of recipe books - some veggie, some not - so there are plenty of existing recipes we can try before getting all experimental.

This recipe comes from BBC/GoodFood's '101 More One-Pot Dishes', which is why I'm linking to that rather than doing my usual list of ingredients, then all the details of how it was made. Instead, I'll just deal with a few brief bits, then end on a nice, large photo.

Making this from scratch was probably the first time I've had any significant exposure to the concept of using fresh herbs rather than dried and, while I could certainly taste the difference, the fact that fresh herbs start wilting within a couple of days of purchase means I'm unlikely to start buying them regularly. I did have a small herb basket hanging outside my kitchen window, but haven't replanted since the first crop died, unharvested, and it's now overgrown with weeds. It's also worth noting that I'm not a fan of tinned tomatoes of any kind, so it was pretty strange - I won't glorify my neuroses by using a word like 'daring' - for me to try this recipe.

The end result is very sticky rice which has absorbed plenty of flavour from the veg while leaving the peppers, onion and mushrooms with enough texture that you don't feel like you're eating a very thick rice-based soup. I'm not sure that the specified amount of rosemary is quite enough unless you get creative with other spices, but it certainly adds something to the few mouthfuls it turns up in, and the parsley garnish brings a welcome crispness. It's also surprisingly sweet - or possibly not surprising considering it contains fried onions, peppers and tomato - so that should be kept in mind if adding anything to the mix, particularly with meat.

It's a ridiculously simple recipe - the most complicated part is seeding and slicing the peppers - takes less than an hour (particularly when made by two pairs of hands), and creates about four portions worth, so any spare can be refrigerated for another time. It's also very adaptable - you can start with multi-coloured peppers, add other herbs and spices, some meat or, as we tried for lunch the next day, stir-fry it with some egg for a bit of extra protein.

Shredded Beef Teriyaki Stir-Fry

Two of the big advantages to the Waitrose beef thing I tried a few days ago are that the slow-cooking means it's ridiculously easy to shred, and that it's not so heavily seasoned that you can't use the leftovers in something completely different... Such as this quick-and-easy stir-fry.

Ingredients:

• Leftover Waitrose Beef Brisket
• Uncle Ben's Express Egg Fried Rice
• Teriyaki Sauce

Preparation Time: 30minutes-1hr to marinade, about 4-5minutes to stir-fry

Tools Required:

• Fork (to shred the beef)
• Bowl (to marinade the beef)
• Frying Pan
• Saucepan Lid (large enough to cover the frying pan)
• Spatula

The Process:
Shred the leftover beef (about a third of the whole cut) into a small bowl, and add 2-3 tablespoons of teriyaki sauce, stirring around so that it gets soaked up by as much beef as possible. Leave for half an hour to an hour to marinate.

Fire up the hob to a medium heat, allowing the frying pan to warm up before adding the beef, and any remaining teriyaki sauce in the bowl, using the spatula to keep it all moving for a minute or so. Add the rice (breaking it up as necessary), and another tablespoon or so of teriyaki sauce. Shuffle it around the frying pan for a minute or so, then collect it in the middle and cover over with the frying pan. Turn the heat down a touch, and allow to simmer for a further three minutes.

The Results:
I must confess that I wasn't expecting much from this... Despite the mild nature of the beef's original seasoning, I felt sure it would clash with the teriyaki.

Thankfully, it didn't.

Just enough of the sauce had been absorbed by the beef to give it that distinctive teriyaki flavour, without completely overpowering the meat itself, and the remaining sauce was taken up by the rice, giving a good balance to the whole thing. As quick-and-simple stir-fries go, this ranks as one of my successes... and would probably have been even better along with the veg I put into the last stir-fry I tried.

If only it didn't require the use of leftovers from a whole other meal...

Iceland Ready To Cook Mediterranean Stuffed Peppers

Let this be a cautionary tale. There are some things that can only ever be made fresh, and certain types of vegetable should never, under any circumstances, be frozen.

Although, technically, they're fruit... because they contain seeds within a soft, juicy outer body.

But let's not get sidetracked by semantics... Leave that for another blog.

I have to say that, when I first set eyes on these, my first thought was "why bother? Something like that would be so easy to throw together from scratch." Basically, what this package contains is half a red pepper and half a yellow pepper, each containing slices or chunks of tomato, potato, onion, green pepper, garlic, carrot and pineapple, along with 'Mediterranean seasoning' and rice (of the white and 'glutinous' varieties). There some kind of 'sauce' thing going on, because the end result is fairly moist and sticky - moreso than one would expect from just mixing all of those veg together with a simple seasoning. Maybe I'm wrong... perhaps I'll have to try it...

In theory, I knew what to expect - the stuffed peppers should have been fairly sweet, on balance, but with a sharp, savoury edge to keep things interesting.

What I actually got, after 25 minutes in the oven, was one of the worst snacking experiences I've thusfar had. Imagine, if you will, a flavour that is equal parts vegetable melange and washing up liquid. Bitter doesn't begin to describe it.

I'm going to blame this entirely on freezing... Freezing, except when done incredibly quickly, increases the amount of water in a product and, when you're talking about peppers, than can only be a bad thing. Freezing will also damage 'meat' of a pepper, making the end result softer and more fragile than it would have been made fresh. Green pepper in particular is a difficult flavour to freeze. The bitterest of the family already, that bitterness is generally the only thing to survive the freezing process, and is often amplified along the way.

Then there's the rice... Very rarely does that come out well from frozen. Personally, I almost never use anything but those handy microwave sachets of rice, because they're so convenient. I've tried rice from frozen, and it ends up either too dry or too glutinous. The rice in this product falls into the latter category.

My only other complaint would be the size of the portions: what the packaging describes as 'pepper halves' seemed far more like thirds. They were shallow and saggy, far moreso than one would expect from a true half, though I realise some of this could be another side-effect of the freezing process.

Overall, I can't recommend trying these... but they did make me want to try making something similar from scratch.

Now if only I could figure out what makes a 'Mediterranean seasoning'...

Simple Rice & Veg Stir-Fry

You know those days when it gets to dinner time, look through your cupboards and your fridge, and you've got loads of bits but nothing that really amounts to a meal? And most of it is leftovers from previous meals, stuff which you either forgot to include, or couldn't use the whole of at the time?

Yeah. Today was one of those days.

The sad fact is that I'm all to often inclined to eat one of those bits and call it 'a light meal'... So, today, not only to buck that trend, but to try something quick and theoretically simple as a cooked meal, I decided to combine some of the pieces into a more substantial dish. To wit:

Ingredients:

• Uncle Ben's Express Egg Fried Rice
• Waitrose Ready to Microsteam Garden Peas, Leeks and Spinach
• Onion (either one small or half a large one - I used the red onion left over from my gravy)
• Garlic Butter (I used Lurpak)
• Teriyaki Sauce

Preparation Time: Approx 5-10 Minutes

Tools Required:

• Knife
• Frying Pan
• Stirring Implement (a spatula would do)

Process:
Fire up the hob, and melt a generous knob of garlic butter in the frying pan. Chop the onion and add to the pan, stirring occasionally to ensure even cooking. Just as it starts to brown, add the contents of the Microsteam vegetable bag and keep stirring. Shortly thereafter, add in the Teriyaki sauce and stir some more. While that's going, put the rice into the microwave and cook according to the instructions on the bag. By the time the rice is done (2 minutes) the stir-fry should be ready. Empty the rice onto a plate, transfer the stir-fry, then serve.

The Results:
Aside from the fact that this turned out to be the equivalent of a small-to-medium sized meal for two, and the fact that I forgot to add the teriyaki sauce at the stir-fry stage, this turned out pretty well... In fact, it's almost tempting to suggest that the teriyaki be added to the rice as it's served, rather than to the stir-fry... but that's just silly.

As long as the stir-fry doesn't go on too long, all the veg should still be nice and crisp and, coupled with the rice and its egg chunks, it makes for a very tasty and incredibly quick meal. It's subtle of flavour, so some palettes might demand further seasoning, but it'd have to be something that doesn't get into conflict with the teriyaki. Must remember this!

You Won't Believe It Is Sushi..! For Reals!

Because why else would I decide, upon a whim, to lark about with fish fingers? Come on, surely you remember that someone bought me an 'All You Need to Make Sushi at Home' kit? I only mentioned two posts ago.

Seriously, I shit you not. Get ready for one of the most fiddly and intricate Snacks this blog will ever behold!

Please note, though, that I love sushi, and I have the utmost respect for the chefs who train for years to prepare it for my delectation. My little foray could quite possibly be an insult to them all... but I prefer to think of it as an homage (and I'm such a reverse-snob, I had to grit my teeth to type 'an' before 'homage' there). And, let's face it, how cool is it to be able to put together sushi in your own home, even knowing that it's going to be a bit cock-eyed compared to the stuff you'd be presented with in a restaurant? After all, it's cock-eyed because that's how I made it.

The quantities alluded to vaguely herein should be more than enough for two people, possibly three.

Ingredients:

• Sushi Rice
• Sushi Nori
• Wasabi (can be purchased in several forms, I used Clearspring's Wasabi powder)
• Rice Vinegar
• Mayonnaise
• Light Soy Sauce

For California Rolls:

• Seafood Sticks
• Avocado
• Cucumber (optional)

For Vegetarian Rolls:

• Cucumber (this time - peppers, carrot, celery, baby corn, all kinds of veg can be used if you can turn it into long, thin strips)

For Nigiri/Sashimi:

• Small Salmon steak
• Small Tuna steak
  

For Tamago:

• 2 Eggs
• 1 tablespoon Sugar (I'm not kidding)
• 1/2 teaspoon Light Soy Sauce
• Butter (approx 1/2 tablespoon worth)

For Maki:

• Salmon Caviar
  

Preparation Time: Didn't keep track, but probably not as long as it felt... Maybe about an hour or so in total.

Tools Required:

• Sushi Mat
• Cling Film (optional)
• Knife
• Spoon or similar for spreading rice
• Frying Pan
• Saucepan
• 2 Pots or bowls (one fairly large, one small)

Process:
Start with the rice, as that takes longest to prepare and needs washing before use. It's a particular kind of rice - short grained, and very glutenous and sticky - so make sure you get something that's specifically described as sushi rice. Pour 250g into a bowl and wash with cold water, repeating a few times before draining in a sieve. Put 330ml of water into a saucepan and add the rice. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes with the saucepan lid on. Take off the heat and leave to stand for about 20 minutes, leaving the lid in place. Add 2-3 tablespoons of rice vinegar and stir in, then leave for another 10 minutes. It might even be worth refrigerating, because it ideally needs to be cool when you start adding the fish.

While all this is in progress, make a start on the Tamago omelette. Break two eggs into a bowl and beat. Stir in a tablespoon of sugar (really, I'm not making this up) and half a teaspoon of light soy sauce. Put the frying pan on a medium heat (this is the general omelette lesson I needed to learn months ago!) and melt the butter all over the pan. Pour in the egg mix and fry until the egg becomes mostly opaque. Flip (or, y'know, turn it with a spatula if you're not one for living dangerously) and cook through. Once it's done, remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Again, this might be worth refrigerating. When it's cooled off a bit, cut into strips of about 2x10cm.

Next comes the Wasabi. If you've purchased it in some ready-made form, all well and good. If using a powder, it'll go something like this: Add one part warm water to two parts Wasabi powder in a small bowl or pot and stir into a paste. Leave to cool. Simple, huh?

Then we have the fish. Basically, all you do for either the Nigiri or the Sashimi is cut the small Salmon/Tuna steaks into small slices, say about half to three quarters of a centimetre thick, then cut down into chunks of about 2x5cm. The most important thing to note is that the fish really must be bought fresh, not pre-packaged, and certainly not frozen! I cannot put enough emphasis on this. Where's the damned flash tag when you need it?!

It might also be worth pre-preparing your Nori sheets. Some will be kept as complete sheets for the rolls, some will be cut into strips - fairly long and thin for the Nigiri and Tamago (say about 1cm wide), wider strips for the maki (about 3cm maybe?).

Finally, have a large-ish pot/bowl containing a mixture of warm water and Rice Vinegar. This acts both as a lubricant for spreading the rice around and a means of preventing the rice sticking to your hands as you manhandle it.

California & Vegetarian Rolls:
Cut the avocado into quarters, removing the skin and stone. Cut the quarters into thin (2-3mm) slices. Place a sheet of cling film over the sushi mat (not utterly necessary but, depending on your preferences, it may make things easier), and a sheet of Nori on top of that. Take a couple of tablespoons full of rice and spread evenly and thinly over one end (using the water/rice vinegar mixture to keep your chosen spreading implement lubricated), taking up about 2/3 of the sheet, with the empty third being furthest from you. Spread a thin line of mayonnaise about 1/3 along the rice. Add the fillings (seafood sticks, avocado - and, should you so wish, cucumber cut into long, thin sticks - for the California Rolls, or chopped veg for the vegetarian rolls) on top of the mayonnaise. Roll up the mat (taking care to pull back the cling film, if used), tucking in the near end to start the roll. Wet the bare end of the Nori and roll over to seal. Squeeze the roll firmly, then remove from the mat and cut into 6-8 pieces (depending on how large you like your sushi rolls). Lay out on a plate or tray and, if not eating them immediately, place in a refrigerator.

Fish & Tamago Nigiri:
Lay out a sheet of cling film on the sushi mat and wet with the mixture of water and rice vinegar. Take about 2 tablespoons of rice and lay out in a line. Roll up in the cling film and sushi mat to create a long, thin, densely packed strip of rice. Remove from the roll and cut into chunks of about 4cm. Add a dab of Wasabi paste then press one of the salmon/tuna chunks down on top, thus spreading out the rice underneath. Wrap with one of the longer, thinner strips of Nori, wetting the tail end to seal.

The process is essentially the same for the Tamago but, since the strip of omelette is about twice the length of the rice block, you just fold it over before wrapping with a thin strip of Nori. Add all to the plate or tray with the rolls, and refrigerate if necessary. You'll probably only end up using about half the omelette, but it's a tasty enough snack in its own right and you'll probably end up snaffling some of it as you prepare the Nigiri. Any excuse will do, but the old favourite "it's a curved bit" is good for starters.

Maki:
The simplest of the lot. Prepare and cut another long, thin, densely packed strip of rice as for the Nigiri/Tamago. Round off the blocks, then take the wider strips of Nori and wrap them around the rice to create a kind of bowl. Spoon in a serving of Salmon Caviar, and add to the plate or tray with the rest.

Serve with picked ginger and a mixture to your taste of light Soy sauce and Wasabi.

The Results:
Well, I wasn't kidding when I said it'd be cock-eyed, so I can see why it takes years of training to perfect the art of making sushi. While the fish, even though bought less than an hour before preparation, wasn't as fresh, tasty or melt-in-the-mouth as the stuff you'd be served in any halfway decent restaurant, it certainly wasn't terrible. I'm not a big fan of seafood sticks - the melange of seafood just doesn't taste good on its own, as far as I'm concerned - and Salmon Caviar is certainly a taste I haven't quite acquired yet, but the overall mix of sushi was pretty darned cool for my first home-made effort.

It is an awful lot of effort, though, and I did find my concentration flagging many times during the preparation. The fiddliness of the rolls means a lot of practice would be required to get them bang on, and making a selection like this felt like a really long, drawn-out process.

I'm certainly intending to try it again sometime, but likely over a weekend, for lunch, having picked up the fish first thing in the morning.

Simple Salmon Lunch for a Baby / Salmon Teriyaki Stir-Fry

I had my sister round for lunch yesterday and, feeling daring, I offered to cook for her and my niece, rather than heading out anywhere. We had discussed eating out near where I work, but that would tend to be more useful if meeting her after work, during the week.

My cunning plan was to make a second attempt at a Salmon Teriyaki stir-fry recipe detailed by a friend which, on the last attempt, burnt rather badly. It's a simple enough dish to prepare, but best done without distractions of any kind, because various parts of it can burn very quickly if left unattended, and it's very easy to get the timing wrong.

Teriyaki probably isn't the best idea for a baby, though, so the niece had to make do with a small salmon steak, baked in the oven alongside a potato waffle, and a serving of peas cooked in the microwave.

I must confess that I guessed at the timing for the salmon on this one - I've baked fish before, including salmon, but it had always come from a cardboard box in my freezer which carried cooking instructions. This chunk of fish had come from the fishmonger.

Estimating that, if the waffles needed 12 minutes to cook (at 200degrees in a fan-assisted oven), I surmised that the salmon steak would need... less than that. I guessed about 8-10 minutes, thinking that the waffle could stand a minute or two extra if necessary.

So, it went something like this:
Once the oven got up to heat, a timer was set to 12 minutes, the waffle placed on a baking tray and inserted into the oven. 4 minutes elapsed, then the salmon - wrapped loosely in tin foil - was introduced to the baking tray for the remainder of the cooking time. After a further 6-7 minutes, a serving of peas was placed into a microwaveable plastic bowl, the lid left ajar, and cooked on full power for two minutes.

The waffle and salmon were removed from the oven and transferred to a plate, and the peas were strained and added before serving to a young lady of just over a year old.

Naturally, even a small salmon steak was too large, but she managed about half of it, and it was all pretty much cooked to perfection.

"Now," I said, portentously, "watch me ruin the stir-fry..."

Ingredients:

• Salmon Steaks (one per person, but the average frying pan can only usefully accommodate two at a time)
• Fresh ginger (one reasonably-sized chunk)
• Garlic (two or three cloves, depending on how much you like it, and how much you want people to know you like it)
• Onions (these will be the bulk of the stir-fry, so either a good sized normal onion, or plenty of spring onions)
• Butter (about a half-inch slice of the average-sized block)
• Olive oil
• Teriyaki sauce (I wish I'd measured... I guess 'add to taste'?)
• Microwave rice (I used Uncle Ben's egg fried rice)

Preparation Time: Honestly, I have no idea... I couldn't concentrate very easily, despite having done so well with the baby's lunch. Not long, by any measure.

Tools Required:

• Hob
• Frying pan
• Small knife
• Spatula/egg turner

Process:
For best results, chop up the stir-fry ingredients ahead of time. Peel the ginger and chop as preferred - chunks, slices, matchsticks... it's all a matter of preference. Chop the garlic into thin slices. Chop the onion finely. Place in a covered bowl till you're ready to begin the stir-fry.

Place a frying pan on the hob (large burner preferable) and introduce the butter and oil. When it's all melted, throw in the onions, ginger and garlic. Move them constantly while frying and, when the garlic turns a nice, nutty brown, remove and place to one side.

Add the salmon to the pan and seal on all sides. Once it all looks opaque, add the Teriyaki sauce. As the salmon cooks through, the sauce and melted butter should slowly start to thicken and, hopefully, bond with the salmon. Turn the salmon so all sides are nicely coated.

As it cooks, microwave the rice. I stretched one packet between two people, but the only drawback to using a whole pack each is that you'll need more time for two packs - each one takes 2 minutes, on average.

By the time the rice is done, the salmon should be almost ready to serve, so pour the rice out onto a plate, add the stir-fry, add the salmon, and pour the remainder of the Teriyaki tar over the fish.

The Results:
Yes... well... those words turned out to be very portentous. Basically, I'd made a whole series of mistakes on this attempt. The stir-fry part went well enough, but fishing it out of the butter/olive oil was a chore and, when it came to serving it all up, I almost forgot about it. I guess the reason it burnt last time I tried this is that I left it in the pan while the salmon was going.

Then there was the salmon itself. Rather than traipse off to a supermarket, I thought I'd make use of my local fishmonger, a short walk down the road. The sign by the door, rather off-puttingly, states "Anyone Served"... surely such statements are unnecessary in this day and age? Nevertheless, the fishmonger was very helpful, saying that if there was nothing suitable in terms of size/shape out on the counters, there was plenty more salmon in the back. I've basically lucked out with my fishmonger - salmon is their speciality!

But what I hadn't factored into my calculations for cooking time was the skin. Last time I cooked this, I used supermarket-bought skinless salmon steaks. Sadly, the skin is an excellent insulator, so the fish was less ready than I'd thought when I first served it up. Both steaks had to go back into the pan for another couple of minutes before they were properly edible. By this time, the remaining Teriyaki tar was turning into a solid mass, and had separated entirely from the olive oil.

Nevertheless, no-one was poisoned... and I learned a valuable lesson in preparing this dish for next time: Remove the bloody skin. I may well give this another try during the coming week, just to improve my confidence... and using the frozen steaks I already have in my freezer, if only to just to get rid of them. I already know they're going to make life more complicated because they'll be so waterlogged having been frozen.

The Alternatives:
Egg fried rice does work very well, but plain rice, or possibly some of the other seasoned varieties (mushroom rice, perhaps? Special fried rice?) might work. Definitely do not use any of the heavily seasoned/spicy varieties, though.

The stir-fry is where the most interesting changes or additions can be made, but it's important to balance the flavour of the fish and the Teriyaki sauce with whatever you choose to add. I'd considered the remainder of my sweet pepper, but that would have been far too sweet as part of the stir-fry. Chopped up and added to the rice raw, it may have worked, but I'd forgotten to chop it beforehand, and the final stages were such a mess, I didn't get round to it. Runner beans or edamame would definitely suit, but I'd be tempted to add them in with the Teriyaki, just for a bit of extra flavour. Similarly, beansprouts and water chestnut are a stir-fry staple, and would fit in nicely, I suspect.

Another thing to consider is, rather than giant salmon steaks, what about slicing it up into more manageable chunks? That should make it quicker to cook, but would it end up making it too fussy, requiring too much attention?

My sister suggested part-baking the salmon before adding it to the frying pan and, while this would certainly increase the certainty of it being properly cooked, it would be kinda cheating.

As far as my niece's meal goes, I believe the official verdict was "it was all fine until she found a bit with jelly on it... then she just started throwing it around."