My lovely Mum bought me a subscription to Delicious magazine a year or so ago, and I love when my monthly dose of food comes through the door. I often use the recipes as a source of inspiration but this time I've decided to follow one through entirely. Actually, I decided this time to follow through and make every single one of their 'shortcut suppers'.
To be honest, as long as I have been reading the magazine I've been in the time-rich, cash-poor place that students tend to inhabit. I have literally just started working full time for the summer, so whilst I'm still kind of cash-poor, I'm also now short on time too. Whilst I love nothing more than busying away a few hours in the kitchen, playing with recipes to fit my budget/the ingredients I have to hand, I also want to be able to knock up a healthy, tasty {and ok, a little bit impressive looking} dinner in a reasonable time frame. Because their shortcut suppers often called for pretty specialist ingredients from Waitrose, I've pretty much avoided the recipes. Until now...
Today's recipe is Thai fried rice. It was so simple - all the way from frying the shallots to folding through the rice and chicken and finishing with a splash of sweet chill. Their recipe was even more simple than my version: they suggested pre-packed rice and pre-cooked chicken, which would dramatically reduce the cooking and prep time, but I stuck to my guns and spent an extra 20 minutes or so cooking chicken and rice from scratch
Today's recipe is Thai fried rice. It was so simple - all the way from frying the shallots to folding through the rice and chicken and finishing with a splash of sweet chill. Their recipe was even more simple than my version: they suggested pre-packed rice and pre-cooked chicken, which would dramatically reduce the cooking and prep time, but I stuck to my guns and spent an extra 20 minutes or so cooking chicken and rice from scratch
What really lifted this dish for me {and made it super simple and flavoursome} was using the frozen spicy Thai mix from Waitrose. These packets are currently on offer {or they were when I bought them last Thursday} of two for £2.50 and so I picked up a whole mishmash of Thai spices and frozen herbs - a good load of which I used in this dinner. I much prefer cooking with fresh herbs but I struggle to really keep herbs alive {I managed once!} so having batches, pre-chopped, in my freezer is perfect. The spicy Thai mix consisted of lemongrass, coriander, ginger, garlic and chilli, so nothing haven't heard of, but not having to prep or buy all those ingredients fresh beforehand meant making this delicious, impressive dinner quick and simple, even when cooking everything else from scratch.
Whilst doing the bulk of my grocery shopping at Waitrose is still beyond my budget right now, it was definitely worth spending that bit extra to have all the ingredients in my freeze. The offer in particular, made it great value for money {when you consider the fact I easily spend that much on more, constantly buying - then accidentally killing off - fresh herb plants}.
Whilst doing the bulk of my grocery shopping at Waitrose is still beyond my budget right now, it was definitely worth spending that bit extra to have all the ingredients in my freeze. The offer in particular, made it great value for money {when you consider the fact I easily spend that much on more, constantly buying - then accidentally killing off - fresh herb plants}.
Yum!
Love
B
x
That meal looks delish! I haven't had thai in years - my mam refuses to make it!!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog by the way!
Julia @ Retro Jules