Easy (Cheat's!) Black Bean Sauce

Easy, tasty black bean sauce recipe - save yourself an absolute fortune on those tiny packets of stir fry sauces you get from the supermarket!

No need to buy those over-priced sachets from the chiller cabinet every again - all you need to do is slice up two chillies and grate some ginger, add a few more ingredients and you've got yourself over a litre of sauce that you can freeze which will make around twenty portions or so!

Not only that, if you buy yourself a six pack of Lee Kum Kee black bean garlic sauce (see here for where I get mine, affiliate link which won't cost you any extra), that's twelve lots of the below recipe, which is...erm...  around 240 portions, and it currently costs £12.60 for a six pack. So, if you do the maths, supermarket sachets or jars cost around £1 for a two portion serving (so that would be £120 for 240 portions), so for the price of a few chillies and some ginger root, and a few store cupboard ingredients, you are genuinely saving over £100 overall by making your own - I've even shocked myself working that out!!!

Anyway, without further ado, here's the recipe - oh, and I tried to take a photo of just the black bean sauce, but it just looked like a pan of black stuff (!), so I've used one of my photos of beef in black bean sauce that I've taken previously. I hope you enjoy it!

Easy Thai Red Curry Sauce

Thai red curry sauce is incredibly easy to make, and extremely tasty and fragrant.

 

Who doesn't love a spicy, warming Thai red curry, with all of the variations you can have, and the complexity of flavour.

 

 

Not only that, if you have Thai red curry paste in your fridge, there all kinds of other things you can make with it, such as Thai fish cakes, or crab cakes.

This quantity of sauce makes around eight portions. If you want to make a smaller amount, and a red duck curry for two, see here for my recipe.

You can either make your  own red curry paste from scratch (my recipe is here and you can freeze it in portions), or you can buy it ready made for convenience - Thai Taste brand - this is my favourite, it lasts for ages in the fridge - affiliate link which won't cost you any extra to purchase, but gives me a few pennies towards my blog as I don't get paid and don't have adverts on it)

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 75g red curry paste (e.g. Thai Taste brand)
• 1 x 400g coconut milk
• 4 'double' kaffir / makrut lime leaves
• 20g palm sugar (or soft brown sugar)
• 4 tsp fish sauce

Method

1. Melt the coconut oil in a medium to large pan (non stick is easiest).

2. Add the red curry paste and stir until fragrant.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients, and simmer gently for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionaly, so that the lime leaves can infuse into the sauce, and it can develop. Use with stir fries, or add ingredients to the hot sauce, or use as a sauce on the side. Freezes well. See notes.

Notes

I have got into the habit of very lightly stir-frying vegetables over a very high heat in a wok, so that they retain their crunch, but get a little char flavour (e.g. bite size pieces of onions and peppers, mushrooms, very thinly sliced carrots, short lengths of spring onions) and then cooling down, and adding ingredient such as sliced water chestnuts, sliced bamboo shorts, tinned straw mushrooms etc. then they will keep in the fridge for a few days, and you can take out what you need and add to a portion of sauce (depending how many people you're feeding. So, for example, for Thai red curry, I'd use onions and peppers, sliced water chestnuts, sliced bamboo shorts, three or four small cherry tomatoes per portion, a few pineapple chunks and about five light red grapes per portion. Then add your protein of choice, such as sliced duck, chicken, king prawns etc. If you can get hold of Thai basil, scatter a little on top when you serve it. Serve with jasmine rice or sticky rice.

Easy Satay Sauce

This is a delicious Thai version of satay sauce, that is ridiculously easy to make (and you can also freeze it) - try it, you won't be disappointed!

This is a scale-up of my original recipe, which also has a marinade for chicken skewers, and a recipe for pickled cucumber salad - the chicken and salad serve four as a main, or more as a starter - you can find the recipe here.

I found it beneficial to scale up, as then you use the entire tin of coconut milk, you don't have to stint on your portion of sauce if you're not limiting your calories, and it keeps really well in the freezer. And if you want to make your own Thai red curry paste, you can find my recipe here.

Wild Garlic Pesto

Make the most of seasonal fresh wild garlic by using it in a delicious pesto!

There's no cooking involved, it only takes a few minutes to make, and you can either store it in the fridge for a couple of weeks, or in the freezer for a few months or more.

What's more, you can forage it for yourself when it's in season for free if you're lucky enough to know where there is some - but remember to only take the leaves and not the bulbs, and only take as much as you need. If you can't find any for yourself, you can get it from certain shops when it's in season, or you might be lucky enough to have a friend who has it growing in their garden.

Easy One Dish Cauliflower Cheese - absolutely NO chopping!

No faff, no chopping, one-dish cauliflower cheese!

Forget making bechamel sauce and pre-cooking your cauliflower, you can cheat and do it the quick way instead, and no-one will know!!

 

If you want to make it even easier, you can skip the mustard, nutmeg and onion salt, and it will still taste great!

Honey Roast Cashew Nuts

Dangerously more-ish - make at your peril!

A lovely, naughty, sweet and salty, crunchy snack that ticks all of the boxes!

I don't need to say much more, other than 'Enjoy' (in moderation)!

Easy Sweet and Sour Sauce

This is great for dipping things like spring rolls or prawn crackers in, or having alongside battered chicken or prawns etc.

Plus, when you make it yourself, you know it's not got artificial colouring in, and if you're gluten free, you can choose to use tamari sauce or gluten free soy sauce.

Added bonus - there's no chopping anything, you just need to plonk a pan on your scales, and weigh everything into it with a squidge of tomato puree!

Favourite Recipes and To-Cook List from Around the World

 A small but growing collection...

This is just a repository (more for me than anyone else really, as I'm so absent minded!) of links to recipes I've made and we have loved, as well as recipes I'd like to make and those recommended by friends.

I will try and include links for all the recipes if possible, and keep in alphabetical order, but there may be some only available in books. I will also include links here and there for relevant ingredients or equipment etc. I've used. Some of them will be affiliate links for Amazon which will not make any difference to the price you pay for them (but will help me to fund publishing posts on this blog).

I hope if you visit this page, you find a tasty recipe to try! Where I've had to substitute any ingredients etc., I'll put notes. If you want to add any of your favourite tried and tested recipes in the comments, feel free!

How to cook Thai sticky rice perfectly

The good news is that it's easy to do!

The unfortunate news is that if you buy a packet from a supermarket and follow the instructions on the back of the packet, you'll probably never get authentic sticky rice (especially if it tells you to boil it)!

Goodness knows why, as it's so easy to steam! See below for how to cook Thai sticky rice and get an authentic result - if you've never had it before, don't expect it to be like any other rice you've ever had - it's literally like a big sticky lump of glued-together chewy rice grains (I'm really selling it here, right?!) - but if it's like that, then you've done it right!

Chicken (or Pork) Spring Rolls or Lettuce Cups

Delicious crispy golden spring rolls, with a juicy tasty filling!

Easier than you'd think, especially when you can rustle them up with a stir fry mix - super tasty and you can either fry, bake or cook in an air fryer depending on your preference.

 

For a low carb version, this is also delicious wrapped in lettuce leaves while it's hot, san choy bau style.

Turkish Lamb Stuffed Cabbage Rolls with Spiced Dill Yoghurt

A really tasty Turkish dish that's delicious, filling and comforting...

You could even convert cabbage haters with this one, as it tastes so good - and if there are small people around they could even help making the rolls, as the lamb is cooked off before assembling (making them more likely to eat it!).

Makes enough rolls for 8 servings - I freeze half for a really easy dinner another time that can be cooked straight from frozen, and cook half now. If you feel too lazy to make rolls, see Notes for an alternative method!

American-style Fluffy Sourdough Discard Pancakes with Blueberries

These are soooooo good!

There's no need to throw any of your sourdough starter away, you can make lots of other delicious things with it!

Try these with a drizzle of maple syrup over the top, they are sooooo good! And they freeze well too! If you're using frozen blueberries, don't add them to the batter mix, as your pancakes will turn out a very strange colour! Just drop the frozen ones onto the batter when you've put it into the pan, so they sink in.

Easy Sourdough Crackers From Discard

Easy to make, delicious sourdough crackers for cheese.

When you've got too much starter, and don't want to waste it, this is a delicious way to NOT discard it - plus the crackers will keep a while in an airtight container, and you could even gift them to cheese lovers!

It doesn't matter whether your starter is rye or wheat, both work well with either wholemeal or white flour added - but beware - they're rather more-ish!

Easy Sourdough Crumpets (from discard)

Forget doughy mass-made crumpets, and make your own, easily and quickly!

There's almost nothing to making these, and you just use your inactive starter straight from the fridge - give them a go, they're delicious!

Although it's tempting to double the quantity, I've tried this, and unfortunately the rise on the second batch just won't match the first batch, so if you want more than four, then it's best to make each batch seperately (unless you have two pans and eight crumpet rings!)

How To Velvet Chicken

Tired of dry and chewy chicken breast in your stir fries, Chinese dishes and Thai or Indian curries etc.?

This technique is just the most amazing way of keeping chicken breast pieces moist and tender (even though it's hard to make lightly poached chicken pieces look appetising in a photo!).

You can either poach in water or shallow fry, depending on your preference. Personally, I like to lightly poach as a healthier option. You could use this technique for almost any chicken dish as the flavour is so neutral.