Help improve my Chinese meal

[BigMoaner]

Okay, I have found a recipe that I love that batch cook each week. Costs I reckon about £1 in total per meal, and I have it three times a week at work. Any recommendations to what I can add to it that will alter it slightly. Have had it the same for the last two years! It works really well for me and I still look forward to eating it. But I want to give it some variation.

It is currently:

White rice

And stir fried:
Sliced spring onion
Pork "bits", the diced pork you get in the square packets
Shrimp
Lots of grated ginger
Finely chopped green finger chillis

Add to rice. Add soy

What do people reckon? I'm thinking shredded carrot. Anything else? Any weird and wonderful spice?

Thank you x

 

[Yossarian]

Sesame oil for the stir-fry, if you're not using it already

 

[strung out]

A spoonful of XO sauce near the end.

 

[JimW]

Few Sichuan peppers to cure the wok - you drop two or three kernels in to the heating oil and let them just start to sizzle before chucking in the next ingredients like garlic.

 

[strung out]

Sesame oil for the stir-fry, if you're not using it already

Good suggestion.

Use your usual oil to start with though and add the sesame oil later on, as it has a low smoking point and can burn if it's the first thing in the pan.

 

[BigMoaner]

Can try and new variation each week. Gonna start with the sesame oil this week. Keep them coming. Thanks all.

 

[JimW]

Dash of cheap cooking sherry might work with the ginger - I do tofu similar with Chinese cooking wine.

 

[BigMoaner]

Dash of cheap cooking sherry might work with the ginger - I do tofu similar with Chinese cooking wine.

Thanks. The ginger is the central thing, I believe, it dominates the dish and is what makes it.so nice. Will try, have sherry here.

 

[JimW]

Thanks. The ginger is the central thing, I believe, it dominates the dish and is what makes it.so nice. Will try, have sherry here.

Not tried the substitute versus the Chinese win but read they work similarly, it's just a dash and of course the booze cooks off.

 

[RubyToogood]

Star anise and soy sauce. Garlic.

Also where are the veg? Carrots (sliced vertically), any type of cabbage, broccoli, peppers, mange tout, pak choi, choi sum if you're near a Chinese supermarket... Anything really.

 

[BigMoaner]

Star anise and soy sauce. Garlic.

Also where are the veg? Carrots (sliced vertically), any type of cabbage, broccoli, peppers, mange tout, pak choi, choi sum if you're near a Chinese supermarket... Anything really.

I eat green beans, carrots, and fruit each day around it. This is my stodge. My one meal a day!

 

[kalidarkone]

Oyster and shitake mushrooms and mangetout or brocoli.
Chicken instead of pork.

Ume seasoning
Rice wine/vinegar
Chinese fivespice
Hosin sauce

 

[kalidarkone]

Oh and garlic

 

[MrCurry]

It still has an unjustified bad reputation based on scare stories from the 80s, but don’t underestimate what MSG will add to a stir fry. Add it while frying and the MSG actually browns a bit and takes on a flavour you will recognise from a good Chinese takeaway.

That plus a dash of oyster sauce, which lifts many Chinese sauces.

 

[RedRedRose]

That plus a dash of oyster sauce, which lifts many Chinese sauces.

This. It should be oyster sauce instead of soya sauce, and then a splash of sesame oil (less than half a tea spoon).

 

[Ms T]

Egg, frozen mixed vegetables (usually chopped carrots/peas/sweetcorn), oyster sauce, kimchi

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Cashew nuts.
Although that’ll probably double the price.

 

[A380]

I’d vote for.

Schezwan peppers
Green or red chilli
Garlic
Sherry
Adding an egg at the end
Beef
Little bit of sugar


( not necessarily all of these at the same time)

 

[MrCurry]

I’d vote for.

Little bit of sugar

Definitely that one. A little 1/4 to 1/2 tsp sugar is a much underestimated ingredient which (like getting the salt level right) can make the difference between good and OMG.

 

[A380]

Definitely that one. A little 1/4 to 1/2 tsp sugar is a much underestimated ingredient which (like getting the salt level right) can make the difference between good and OMG.

It’s amazing what a tiny bit (one level tea spoon in a serving for four or six) does for a bolognaise sauce as well.

 

[izz]

Could used tinned waterchestnuts mebbe, possibly finely sliced cabbage, maybe even kale.

 

[A380]

And of course chips on the side…

 

[newme]

MSG

 

[WouldBe]

Prawn crackers.

 

[jontz01]

A teaspoon of old dry lady (Lao gan ma) will liven any dish.

Eta apparently it's called old godmother but a Chinese girl that lived with us for a while told us it was called old dry lady which is what we've called it ever since.

 

[Boudicca]

I make a version with rice, fried onion, smoked haddock and peas.

 

[jontz01]

MSG

100%.

 

[Epona]

Various things to try, although I do heartily recommend sesame oil - the dark stuff made from toasted seeds, it goes so incredibly well with rice and noodles. As has already been mentioned, you don't use it to cook the ingredients, just add a small dash of it at the end and stir it in, it's more like a dressing than a cooking oil. (And also makes lovely salad dressings!)

Shaoxing cooking wine
Dash of rice vinegar (or white wine vinegar to substitute)
Shredded omelette (or beat an egg or two and scramble it in the wok with the other ingredients)
Star anise (whole - temper the oil with them to start and remove when serving)
Finely sliced: mushrooms (any type - field mushrooms or chestnut are easy to get but you can jazz it up a bit with wild mushrooms, shitake, enoki etc. if you can get them), peppers (any colour or variety), celery stalk, carrot, pak choi, savoy cabbage
Peanuts or cashews (toast them lightly in a little oil first, keep stirring cos they burn quickly - and remove from the wok then stir them back in at the end)
Sichuan peppercorns (dry roast them first in a wok without oil then grind with a pestle and mortar and add back in)
Finely sliced bamboo shoots (you can get these tinned or in jars in the UK, check the "World Foods" section of the supermarket or a specialist Chinese/SE Asian supermarket)
Any of oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, to make it a more Thai style fried rice dish you could use fish sauce alongside oyster sauce - just be careful when adding these condiments as they can be quite salty, taste as you go

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Few Sichuan peppers to cure the wok - you drop two or three kernels in to the heating oil and let them just start to sizzle before chucking in the next ingredients like garlic.

This is probably my greatest find of the last few years.

 

[Epona]

This is probably my greatest find of the last few years.

There is absolutely nothing like it, you can't recreate the taste and feeling (or rather slight numbness) any other way.
I mean obviously I don't use them every time because I like to cook different dishes, but if I want a Sichuan chicken or prawn dish or am doing salt and pepper anything - they are a bloody amazing ingredient.
Oh especially with finely sliced fresh red chillies - for the hot but slightly numb experience.