With all the festive food that’s been around, are you finding you have biscuits in a tin still left to be eaten? To prevent them going soft, put a sugar lump or two in the biscuit tin.
Sirloin steak cut into strips and stir fried with red pepper, broccoli and carrots, served with a sauce over a bed of rice.
Beef Stir Fry with Vegetables
4servings
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
1½tbspcornflour/cornstarch
150ml(5 fl oz) water (⅔ cup)
284ml(10 oz) can condensed beef broth (Campbells)
2tbspsoy sauce
1small red bell pepper
1small head of broccoli
2carrots
2garlic cloves, crushed
3tbspolive oil
450g(1 lb) sirloin steak, cut into strips
To serve
rice
Equipment
You will also need a 22.5 cm (10 inch) deep frying pan/skillet.
Method
First, blend together the cornflour/cornstarch and water in a bowl. Stir in the beef broth and soy sauce and then set aside.
Before preparing the vegetables put a large plate in the oven to warm up.
Deseed the pepper and cut into small chunks. Break the broccoli into small florets, discarding the stem. Peel and thinly slice the carrots.
Place the pan over a medium–high heat and add 2 tablespoons of oil. When hot, add the vegetables and garlic, and stir to coat. Stir-fry until tender, about 5–8 minutes. Transfer to the warm plate and cover.
Now add the other tablespoons of oil to the pan and when hot add the beef. Stir-fry for 2–4 minutes according to how well-done you like your steak. Turn frequently to brown on all sides. Transfer to the plate with the vegetable, cover, and keep warm.
Then add the reserved broth to the pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to medium and stir until it thickens. Return the vegetables and meat to the pan and stir to coat with the sauce. Reheat for 1–2 minutes until everything is hot.
Crème de cassis lifts this ice cream dessert from being just ordinary. A raspberry and cassis purée is used to ripple the ice cream and warmed to pour over as a sauce.
Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream for Grown-ups
4servings
Preparation time: About 15 minutes
Refrigeration time: 2 hours
Ingredients
12large scoops soft-scoop vanilla ice cream
For the sauce
300g(10 oz) frozen raspberries, thawed (1¼ cups)
28g(1 oz) caster sugar/superfine sugar (2 tbsp)
zest of 1 lemon
4tsplemon juice
3tbspcrème de cassis
Equipment
You will also need a freezer-proof container that will take the ice cream and 4 glass dishes.
Method
First remove the ice cream from the freezer to soften it up a little.
Now to prepare the sauce, purée the raspberries, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and crème de cassis.
Sieve the purée to remove the raspberry seeds.
Then put half the sauce to one side, which will be used when serving the ice cream.
Spoon 6 generous scoops of ice cream over the base of a freezer container and drizzle over half the remaining sauce.
Spoon 6 further scoops on top to make a second layer.
Drizzle over the rest of the sauce.
Make a few strokes through the ice cream with a knife. This will allow the sauce to run through and make a marbled effect. Cover and freeze for 2 hours.
To serve
Warm the reserved sauce.
Now scoop the ice cream into the glass dishes and then pour over the warm sauce.