Well the other day a rather attractive young lady said to me, ‘Neil, you do know why you’re single don’t you?’ I replied that I didn’t and she proceeded to say, ‘well it has nothing to do with the fact that you are slightly overweight, sweat a little bit too much, don’t have perfect teeth, lack even the most basic fashion sense and are a selfish little sod, no it has nothing to with with any of those negative traits, all of which can be overcome, no, your problem is you can’t cook even the most basic of Chinese dishes. What woman would ever want to date a man who can’t even cook fried rice?’
Well attractive young lady, I have taken your points on board and yesterday whilst wandering the aisles of Asda, I sought out the Chinese food section and decided to buy ingredients instead of a ready meal with the idea of attempting to cook some form of Chinese meal.
This afternoon I decided I was going to go for it and nipped to the local shop to get a pepper and onions. Yes folks. I was going to attempt to cook a Chinese Chicken Satay Fried Rice *cue the Eastenders ending drums*
First things first. I needed to learn at least some basics. I was already out of my depth but instead of using the iPad to look up recipes. I put a YouTube dance tune mix on and turned the volume up. I was going to freestyle.
I put some water in the kettle and switched it on. I needed boiling water to boil the rice. I think I used the boiling method instead of absorption but I don’t know the difference. I tipped out half a cup of basmati rice and waited for the kettle to do its thing.
Whilst it was doing this I chopped up some chicken into small pieces as well as chopping up an onion and a green pepper.
I was all prepared. Kettle clicked off and I poured the water into a saucepan and rammed up the gas. I put the lid on as apparently this is important and I knew I had ten minutes to get everything ready.
I sprayed my low calorie sunflower oil spray into the wok and rammed up the gas. Usually I cook on a low gas but I had read that Chinese food is cooked on a high heat so I had retained some information and the chicken went in and sizzled.
When that was done I put in the onions and the peppers for a couple of minutes.
Next up I needed to put in the satay sauce. This wasn’t made from scratch but came in a packet. I stirred it in and the aroma was rather pleasent and I liked the look and color of the dish
Next I drained the rice and lobbed it into the wok and mixed it up with the chicken, onions and peppers. The rice got coated in the sauce and I did this for about 2-3 minutes.
Lastly served in a Chinese bowl with either a glass of chilled sancerre or a can of cold Cherry Coca-cola depending on whether you are Arnold Rimmer or not.
Look, was it as good as what I’d get from a Chinese? You know what, it wasn’t far off. It was very nice and didn’t take more than twenty minutes including all preparation and cooking time. I didn’t want egg involved so I didn’t put one in. I am happy with how it tasted and going forward I can see myself trying to add more ingredients and trying new mixes. I thoroughly love fried rice and now I can see a way of cooking it, I may well be cooking a little bit more.
So attractive young lady, I have now added Chinese cooking (very basic) to my bow. This means that I’m bound to get all the single ladies, wait, what do you mean I made the whole first paragraph up?
Oh.
Still. I actually cooked a tasty meal nice enough from scratch. I am very proud of myself.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post. Please leave any comments or contact me directly via the E-Mail Me link on the Right Hand Nav. You can stay in touch with the blog following me on Twitter or by liking the blog on Facebook. Please share this content via the Social Media links below if you think anyone else would enjoy reading.
