If you lead a busy lifestyle and don't have much time to cook, there are two basic options for having good home-cooked meal every evening. The first is to cook a lot every few days and stash enough in the fridge for the following days. This is the easiest option, however there are times when 1) you don't have time even for that, 2) your pals come round to visit and scoff everything you've made in one evening, or 3) on the evening you were going to set aside for cooking, you end up in the pub till the wee hours and barely make it home in time to grab a few hours kip before having to get up for work. Luckily there's a second option. Learn to cook a few dishes which don't take long and can be made with various combinations of fridge-scraps and always keep a supply of essentials like dried noodles in the cupboard.
Stir-fries are perfect when you want something fast, tasty and nutritious without having to worry about exact quantities or particular ingredients. That's how this recipe came about. I came home late and hungry one evening and looked in the fridge to see what could be cooked quickly with the minimum of fuss. We had all the vegetables listed below and the noodles were in the cupboard. Depending on how fast you are at chopping things, and you should be fairly fast as there are no carrots in this list, you should be sitting down to eat within half an hour of starting.
If you plan to cook noodles to serve with stir fried veg, bring some water to the boil and add the noodles just before you start frying. The noodles will be then be ready round about the same time as the veg.
Ingredients
300g of mushrooms
1 green pepper
3 handfuls of beansprouts
3 cloves of garlic
The juice from about half of a lemon
A teaspoon of sesame seeds
1 star anise pod
A few white peppercorns, crushed
A couple of green onions, chopped
Salt
Oil
Slice the mushrooms thinly and cut the green pepper into thin strips. Peel the garlic and slice it thinly. Fry the mushrooms, peppers, garlic and beansprouts at a high temperature in just a little oil, stirring continuously. Add the sesame seeds, anise, salt and pepper once the vegetables are well mixed and coated with oil. Fry everything for seven or eight minutes then add the lemon juice and chopped green onion. Stir and remove from the heat. Cover and leave to stand for a few minutes while you drain the noodles.