Recipe: Spicy Beef Noodle Stir-fry

A great all-in-one Asian-flavoured dish using minced meat, lots of vegetables and Hokkien noodles. The trick is to get everything prepared and chopped and the sauces mixed before you start cooking, and it will all come together quickly.

Ingredients

Serves 4 to 6

• Peanut oil (or whatever oil you’ve got)
• 500-750g beef mince (you could use pork or chicken. Amount depends on how big the appetites are that you’re feeding)
• 1 onion – chopped
• 1/3 cup chicken stock (use 1/2 stock cube)
• 1/4 cup Hoisin sauce
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs sweet chili sauce
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp minced garlic (fresh or jar variety)
• 1 tsp minced ginger (fresh or jar variety)
• 1 tsp minced red chilli or use dried chilli flakes (or you can use finely chopped fresh chilli if you have it) – optional
• 1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
• 1 small bunch broccoli – roughly chopped (omit if you don’t like it)
• 1 red (or green) capsicum – chopped or sliced
• 1 med carrot – cut into matchsticks
• 1 to 2 celery sticks – sliced
• Handful of snow peas or sugar snap peas
• 4 to 6 spring onions – sliced
• 440g Hokkien noodles (or similar egg noodles)

Instructions

Step 1: Combine the stock, Hoisin sauce, soy sauce, chili sauce, sugar, garlic, ginger and Chinese five-spice in a small bowl, then set aside.

Step 2: Heat one tablespoon of oil in a deep pan. When hot, add the mince and stir-fry until the mince has changed colour. You may need to do this in two batches so it doesn’t ‘stew’. Remove and set aside.

Step 3: Add more oil to the pan, heat and add all the vegetables except the spring onions. Stir-fry until slightly softened, but still crisp. Remove and set aside.

Step 4: Return the cooked mince, along with the combined sauces and spice, and mix to combine. Bring to the boil and cook for about five minutes. Then return the vegetables, mix, and cook until heated through.

Step 5: Bring some water to the boil and prepare the noodles following the packet directions. It will only take a few minutes.

You can either add the cooked noodles to the mince mixture and mix through, or spoon the noodles into the bottom of a bowl and top with some of the mince mixture.

Viv’s hint

Use whatever vegetables you prefer – the combination and choice is up to you. Spice it up with chilli if you like it hot.

Handy Hint

Have everything prepared before you start cooking. And, when stir-frying vegetables, cook the thickest vegetables for a longer period than the softer, leafy vegetables.

Use plenty of garlic, ginger and chilli when cooking Asian-style meals. There are massive health benefits to using this tasty trio; garlic is good for the heart, ginger aids digestion and chilies are full of vitamins. Stir-fry for a few seconds with your favourite ingredients and give your immune system a boost.

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