So anyway, Becky (my long suffering girlfriend of almost 11 years) wanted a stir fry so I obliged. Fortunately I had the staple flavourings to hand, light and dark soy sauce. Or if you are Spanish, 'Soya' sauce. It's all the same thing though, comes from soya beans if you hadn't guessed.
What else did I put in it:
Pepper
Mushroom
Carrot (use a mandolin or julienne yourself if you have the patience)
Baby Sweetcorn
Spring Onion
BeanSprouts
Pak-Choi
Egg Noodles (softened in boiling water)
About a tablespoon of light and dark soy sauce (or to your own taste). Fry the lot, adding to the pan in the order above.
I ended up making two stirfries on different days as I had too many vegetables left, the first I made with Sardine Fish Cakes - which worked ok, but the cakes were too thick so it was difficult to cook through/firm up without charring the outside as you'll see in the photo. If I were to do it again I would flatten the cakes out thinner. The second stir-fry was using left over chicken from my Roast dinner on the Sunday (which I also made a stock out the carcus but that will come up in another post I'm sure).
So why sardines? Well, for quite a few reasons really. One is because they are high in Omega-3 oils even when out of a tin unlike Tuna which loses most of it's Omega-3 when canned. Omega-3 is great for the brain, it helps with depression, concentration, reduces possilibity of Alzheimers and loads of other benefits, supposedly anyway. Omega-3 fatty acids are used in the cell membranes of neurons. They make the membrane more flexible allowing ions inside to change shape, and let electricity pass from one cell to another. Lack of Omega-3 leads to stiffer membranes, making it more difficult for electricity or 'information' to pass across. Your body can actually create a substitute that is just about the same as Omega 3 DHA, called DPA, but it's not supposed to be as good as the real stuff. So in essence, it makes you smarter'ish.
Another reason is that I'm allergic to white fish, I can only eat oily fish and shellfish, so no Fish and Chips for me. When I was a kid, the doctor's thought my Mum had poured bleach on my face after I ate some fish, so I went through most of my life staying away from all fish.
Cue one drunken night in my twenties, and a girlfriend who happens to be a dietitian and we determined that there has hardly ever been a case of a person allergic to Oily fish, so we opened a tin of Sardines and I helped myself to no ill effects. Since then I tested myself on most kinds of fish to determine where my allergy lies. What better way to test this than a list which had two columns, one for dead, and the other for alive. Fortunately, my allergy from being a kid seems to have reduced to a severe intolerance. I learnt very quickly that my allergy lies with White Fish, causing major abdominal pain, imagine the worst indigestion ever and you'd be getting close. Bit of a shame really, as the sea bass I tried was amazing.
So thats the main reasons really, plus we had a tin of sardines in the cupboard as well.
Oh, and just for the record, I'm also allergic to certain tree nuts. I cannot eat brazil nuts and walnuts. I am most probably, but not ever made a decent attempt to confirm whether I am also allergic to cashew nuts, almonds and hazelnuts. I can however eat peanuts, and pistachio nuts so it's not all bad.
Wow, essay! Ok, so quickly here's the recipe for the fishcakes, then some pictures
2 potatoes
Lemon rind
Parsely
Lemon Juice
Tin of Sardines in Spring Water
Salt/Pepper
Mix the lot together, make into cake shapes, and dust in flour then fry for 10-15 minutes. I made too much by accident with this mixture, so I'd probably reduce to one potato and half a tin of sardines.
No comments:
Post a Comment