Stir fried spicy beef

Stir fried spicy beef (serves 4 easy add another 100g of noodles and it will do six)

I have bought myself a new bicycle, I have been out a few times riding around town, but this morning was the real test, I wanted to put it and myself to the test, I had decided that I would see what it was like to do the trip to work on it (it may after all not been able to stay thr pace). Before setting off I wanted to put the beef into the marinade and recostitute the dried mushrooms,so that when I got home it would just mean slicing the vegetables and cooking the noodles (and making the stir fry of course).
So after doing the above I had a light breakfast of 6 plums and 4 apricots, put some dextros tablets into my rucksack along with my camera and bird book and of we went into the fields and woods on a nice route along the Ems. It took me 50 minutes to do the 10km, no stress stopped to take a few shots of a day old reh kitze (roe deer fawn).
I then went to on into Gütersloh, another 4km, for no other reason than I fancied a Matjes brotchen and I was parched (which stupid devil had forgotten to bring water, yes you guessed, moi). when I was sitting drinking my water (had a dextros tablet with it) and eating my matjes, it turned dark, nay it turned black, very black, now I ain't much of a hero at the best of times, but I am on antibiotics because of a soaking I got 3 weeks ago and I wasn't going to get another one, so I headed for the Main Station and caught the Munsterland Express (hee hee it stops at every farm stead on route, my idea of express is certainly different to theirs, but it is only one stop to Rheda).
Just got home in time, the heavens opened, it was pitch black, interspersed with flashes of lightening and claps of thunder, I even had to put the lights on to see what I was cutting. So enough of the palava onto the food. Oh yes before I forget a little fella wants to say Hi!

400 g rump steak in one piece

Ingredients for the marinade

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 dsp oyster sauce

1 tsp. Szechuan pepper (crushed)

½ tsp. of cumin seeds (crushed)

1 tsp. five spice powder

2.5² cm piece of fresh ginger

1 clove of garlic

1 large hot chilli

1 Shallot

A sprinkling of seseme oil

Method

Slice the beef into thin strips and place in a bowl.

Press the garlic, grate the ginger and deseed, finely dice the chilli (I will leave the choice up to you as everyone’s taste is different but I used a jalapeño)

add this to the beef along with the shallot, finely diced. Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil to the meat,

add the Szechuan pepper, the cumin and five spice powder mix a well, cover and allow to marinate for a couple of hours.

Stir fry vegetable ingredients

Neutral wok oil or any oil that has a high enough flash temperature and is neutral tasting (peanut oil or corn oil)

1 large clove of garlic crushed

1 piece of ginger thinly sliced

3 spring onions

½ each red, yellow and green pepper (they come in a pack so that is what I used)

White of a small leek

1 large carrot

Fine green beans, form your forefinger and thumb this is the amount I use (well it does for me but as I don’t know the size of your mits I weighed them 100g for you) top and tail.

2 sticks of celery

½ a large sweet Spanish onion (you can use smaller ones but I find that the large ones give longer slices and taste sweeter)

Bamboo shoots (out of a jar)

100g bean sprouts

6 small tomatoes, quartered then deseeded

10cm piece of daikon radish peeled and sliced wafer thin on a mandolin

Some shitake mushrooms (Fresh or reconstituted)

Some dried Chinese mushrooms (recostituted)

1 block (100g) of Chinese egg noodles

1 sachet of miso soup powder

Slice all of the vegetables into thin slithers or slices approximately the same size, boil the noodles as per the packet (mine was for 3 minutes) in the miso soup, drain and set aside (do not throw the soup away).

At the same time reconstitute your shitake and Chinese mushrooms allow to stand until ready to use, you can dice or slice them a little if they are too big.

Heat the oil in the wok, when it is smoking, add the crushed garlic and ginger, when it browns but not blackened remove and discard.

Add the beef but try not to add to much of the marinade, quickly stir fry, when it takes on colour, remove and set aside, it will have given off quite a bit of juice, remove from the wok with the beef

You may need another table spoon of oil, when it comes up to temperature, start adding the vegetables, starting with the onions,

The carrots and leeks

The beans, bamboo shoots, celery, then the peppers

 keeping them moving the whole time, if you have ever been to a Chinese kitchen and seen the speed and skill that they do it you will see what I mean, when I do it, the stove top has more on it than the wok has in it, but I will get there, I have only been practicing for 40 years.

Add the diakon radish and the bean sprouts (these take little to no cooking)

Add the strained mushrooms 

 keep that stuff in the wok moving, you can swing your hips in time if it helps, now add the noodles,

and finaly the beef,the rest of the marinade and any juices from the beef.

Taste the sauce and adjust with another slug of Say sauce and or oyster sauce, some like it salty some like it not so salty, the choice is yours, I left mine a little less salty as it is easier to add than take away!

Keep those hips a swinging and the ingredients moving. (You could do the noodles separate and serve at the side, but I like it in the altogether). Adjust the consistency by adding some of the miso broth left over from cooking the noodles, until it looks right to you. Pour into bowls and eat straight away, I know this is not authentic Chinese take away, but I don’t have those aluminium containers with the cardboard lids that leak, so I serve it in bowls that I brought back from Singapore many years ago

Möhnestausee and a Sunday BBQ

Saturday and I had a few different things to do in the morning, like buying a bike, I have decided I need a bit more exercise and biking is a good way of getting it, my aim is to bike to and from work during the week, this will be very pleasant as it is 90% through countryside and I shall be able to vary my route to take in some of my favourite spots along the way.

We also needed some spray for Linda’s balcony plants so needed a garden centre, we have about 6 to choose from in the town.

Next was to media markt the electronic giant in Germany, I have my Navigon in as she has lost her voice (not a bad thing, but I have been flashed for speeding about 3 times this year and she gives me a warning, women where are they when you need them???)but it isn’t fixed yet, but more about that later!

I hadn’t told Linda, but I had planned a little surprise as it was such a nice day, I had planned a trip to The Möhnesee. I hadn’t been there for quite a few years, it is a really beautiful setting, lying just South of Soast (they have a nice Christmas Market here for those of interest) in the Möhne valley, This was of course the scene of one of the famous (or infamous depending on which side one sits) Dam Buster raids in which 622 Squadron with Guy Gibson as its Squadron Leader, breached the Dam using Barns Wallace’s famous bouncing bomb.

We drove to the Dam (Staumauer) and parked up in the large car park just below the dam wall (is that wise??)

 It wasn’t really all that busy considering it was a Saturday, nice weather, the start of the school holidays and also the Schutzenfest in Delecke (the little town right on the lake a favorit motorbikers meeting place ).

We took some photographs and walked along the top of the dam,

stopping to take a few photographs, couples in love come here to attach padlocks to the grills on the old flack watch towers that have been put there to stop those that are no longer in love from throwing themselves over the dam wall.

A view of the lake from a watch tower opening with no grill, from this side you won't drop to your death but drop into cold lake water so may catch your death of cold.

There is a lake sightseeing steamer (well it would have been in days gone by, it is now a diesel), that plies its trade up and down the lake and you can get on and off at various stops.

Right in front of the dam are marker buoys and if the lads of 622 sqadron had heeded the warning a lot of people in the Ruhr wouldn’t have got wet feet. (the wording on the buoy roughly translated is "stop - passing this point is prohibited")

It did start to rain , but it was short lived, I then suggested to Linda that we go for a spot of Lunch, but first I wanted to check out the dam wall from below and have a look at the turbine from close up.

I had earlier been chatting on line with a friend (Carol) both she and her husband where stationed in Germany with the Royal Signals for many years and Bill her Husband was a keen sailor and he sailed at the British Yatch Club at the Möhnesee. She said that Bill reckoned the best Jägerschnitzel anywhere in the world was to be had at “The Shack”, I decided to find this shack, we passed the position of where BYC had been it is now the Möhnesee Yatch Club Eg.V (a private club Eingetragener Verein). So we followed the shore road, and we came across a nice restaurant called the Leuchtturm now why ever there isn't a lighthouse in sight???? But never mind we decided to pop in and low and behold would you believe it? they had Jägerschnitzel on the menu (well, in all reality it wasn’t all that low and beholding as 90% of all restaurants in Germany will have Jäger or otherwise named  Schnitzel on their menus)

Linda being an adventuress type of Belfast lass that she is went to the fish and chips (well Backfish and wedges).

But it was very tasty and not at all expensive €20,- for the pair of us including drinks (only sparkling mineral water as I was driving).

We then crossed the lake via a bridge that takes you to the Southern shore road and followed this, it is a nice drive, as it passes through cool wooded areas and sleepy lakeside villages. There is a large YHA (Jugendherberge) situated right on the lakeside for those wishing to have a water/walking holiday. 

We then turned back towards Soast and home, there is a nice straight Bundes Strasse that heads towards Bechum, straight as a die and then it happened, and it is all her fault, if she hadn’t lost her voice she would have warned me!!!! FLASH!!! Yes that will be another €30,- speeding fine!

We got back to Rheda-Wiedenbrück, popped into a Supermarket to get a few bits as we had bought ready marinated meat for the BBQ that Linda fancied (I did as well), but we were still full from lunch so the BBQ is delayed until Sunday lunch and we had the remains of the Jerked Chicken and Bulgar wheat from last night’s supper along with a bottle of pink plonk.

Sunday was a lazy day (well it was for some) though I was up and out into the Schloßpark to see the wild life before 08:00.

The watermills on the Ems at Schloß Rheda

The Mills from the bridge

A flottila of young ducklings

Just crossing the road on their way for a dip in the carp ponds

One of the girls posing for a close up

just coming to see who is taking the photographs

The water roses on the carp ponds

The Schloß still asleep in the morning sun

A young tit just learning to fly

A head of pinks

And soft reds

A confetti of rose petals

The mighty copper beech, that has seen at least a hundred springs and hope a couple more

Then to the bakers to get some fresh bread rolls, before heading for home to do poached eggs.

Lunch was BBQ’d meat done in the smoker and a nice warm potato salad from Linda (she had by this time arisen)

We had Cevapcici, marinated lamb leg chops and dry rubbed paprika belly pork.

Next onto the grill and then on went some smoking wood chips on top of the charcoals

Down went the lid and up came the smoke, a full head of steam

And out came some juicy lamb steaks and spicy cevapcici

Together with the warm potato salad and the crispy belly pork made a nice BBQ

So that was the Mohnesee, the Schloß Park, ducks, a BBQ and still waiting on the €30,- fine

Slow Cooker Jerked Chicken

Linda’s train was supposed to be getting in at about 20:15 so I decided I would make a meal that it wouldn’t matter if the train was late (as it happened it was early and I was sitting drinking a beer in a pub). I decided on the slow cooker and chicken, I had been reading about Jerked seasoning in a recipe book from St Lucia (I was there in 1994) and though this could be adapted for the Slow cooker. So here is an easy recipe.

Jerked Chicken, mushroom and paprika  done in the slow cooker

Ingredients

3 chicken legs (whole legs with a bit of the backbone on it, this gives the dish more taste)

Handful of freeze dried soup vegetable

1L of vegetable stock

1 large Spanish onion diced

1 large clove of garlic chopped

White of 1 leek sliced into fine rings

1 bunch of spring onions (greens cut into rolls)

500g of mushrooms quartered

1 bouquet garni /sage, rosemary, thyme, bay leafs, marjoram and oregano

Jerked dried herbs and spices made into a rub (cayenne chilli powder, dried oregano, dried rosemary, pimento powder, cinnamon powder, dried wild garlic, coriander, celery salt, smoked paprika powder, sugar, pepper, sea salt)

1 piece of mace

6-7 sundried tomatoes in oil (diced)

1 jar of grilled sweet paprika in oil (you can get them already sliced, you can also make them yourself)

Method

Cut each leg into 2 portions rub with the jerked spice mixture.

Fry the onions, leeks and garlic until translucent.

Put the dried soup veg in the bottom of a slow cooker and add the onion, leek, garlic mixture, in the same pan, fry the chicken portions (as I was using a small pan I done them 2 at a time).  Adding these to the slow cooker along with the tomatoes, spring onion tops, mushrooms and bouquets garni

Deglaze the pan with some of the stock;

pour this into the slow cooker along with the remainder of the stock. Turn on to high set the timer for 5 hours and forget about it (go to the pub for a couple of pints, I did as I needed to see that there had been no suicides after Germany's defeat at the hands of Italy.

1 hour before it is finished add the roasted paprika cut into strips.

Serve with rice or bulgar wheat.

I made bulgar, I sautéed spring onions, garlic and shallots stired this into the bulgar, added stock (1 cup of bulgar to 2 cups of vegetable stock), then stir in dried wild garlic and plenty of mint. Cover and allow to stand to absorb the stock

There is plenty of sauce in this dish, you can also wind up the heat and make it a bit hotter by adding a chopped chilli (habaneros or the like) into the onion, leek mixture, but I wanted the sweetness of the grilled paprika to come through, so let the jerked seasoning do its job.

 Note:  Jerked chicken would be normally grilled in a smoker made out of an oil drum cut in half and blackened on this home made BBQ, but done my way in the slow cooker, the meat is wonderful and tender, the sauce is fantastic (I think that I will cut down on the amount of liquid next time)and plenty left after 2 meals to make a soup. It was fiery but not blow your head off and sweet from the roasted paprika, in most recipes molasses is used, but as I am diabetic I dispensed with it. It also does not have that smoky flavour of a true Jamaican street jerked chicken, but hell I live in a flat.

This done 2 main meals for us and I took the liquid into work on Monday and it was eaten as a hearty stew for lunch, with some whole grain rye and sunflower bread.