Moving back to eating meat - help with recipes!

Bluegreen143

I've been a vegetarian for the last 4 and a half years, for ethical reasons but also because it kind of just felt like who I was. But I've recently been really considering starting to eat meat and fish again - only free range and only a couple of times a week to assuage my conscience (lol). So last night, I took the plunge and bought some organic chicken and the OH cooked it for us (he eats meat but is also happy to eat veggie stuff most of the week, so we eat together most nights anyway).

I do about 75% of the cooking but we both love cooking from scratch (baking my own bread, making my own stir fry and pasta and curry sauces etc etc). Since I'm completely out of practice at cooking meat, I was wondering if anyone had any tips/techniques/recipes for me to get started with. I don't mind a bit of a challenge in the kitchen and have occasionally cooked meat for the OH over the years (steak, a fry up, even roast turkey at Christmas :rotfl:) but still feel that the world of cooking meat and fish is a mystery to me!

Linda32

Well its up to you really. Chicken is lovely and organic especially so yum yum.

We like it both hot in the winter and cold in the summer with salad and new potatoes.

Another favourite here is pork steaks with pepper sauce.

Take_it_like_a_man,_sonny

Try a mix of both. We have ...king prawn poodles.

Grab a hand full of mushrooms
Onion, chopped as toe nails
Pepper, stripped
Sweet corn, be carefully it will pop sometimes in pan.
Six to eight raw king prawns, defrosted.

One noodle nest.

Sauce
In a small jar, makes enuff for two meals

Good squirt of Tom Tom pur!e
Squid gee of garlic
Cummin
Soy sauce
Chilli
Ginger
All to taste
Lemon juice, or other.
Teaspoon of brown sugar.

Fill to top with water, put lid on and shake.

Boil poodles for five minutes
Heat pan with knob of butter.
Add onions
Add rest, watch out for popping corn
When poodles are done, drain off and slam in pan. Add sauce and serve.

Add chives to decorate if you insist.

Oliver14

Bluegreen143 wrote: »

I've been a vegetarian for the last 4 and a half years, for ethical reasons but also because it kind of just felt like who I was. But I've recently been really considering starting to eat meat and fish again - only free range and only a couple of times a week to assuage my conscience (lol).

I don't want to preach to you but if you weren't eating meat due to ethical reasons what has changed? If you do some proper research into free range it's not all it's advertised to be especially Free Range Chicken. It's worth some research if you still have those ethical reasons.

Take_it_like_a_man,_sonny

Oliver, it is called choice. I do not eat certain meats, but ensure what meat I do eat is traceable. That way I use a local butcher who has a slaughter house. His words are, he only kills what he will sell.

I never buy supermarket meat and only non Icelandic fish at Waitrose. I think OP is entitled to make their own choice of wants.

Barneysmom

Another thing to try and do is stretch the meat as far as you can as it can be quite expensive.
Noodles are great with mushrooms/onions etc.

If you cook a small piece of rump steak in the frying pan then slice it into strips then mix into your noodles/veg mix, one steak goes a lot further that way.

heretolearn_2

'Onion, chopped as toe nails' - What???

maman

Barneysmom wrote: »

Another thing to try and do is stretch the meat as far as you can as it can be quite expensive.
Noodles are great with mushrooms/onions etc.

If you cook a small piece of rump steak in the frying pan then slice it into strips then mix into your noodles/veg mix, one steak goes a lot further that way.

I find the easiest thing to do for stir-fry is to take the meat from the freezer and slice it when it has only defrosted for a short while (30 mins?). This works for chicken and steak. If you use a sharp knife you'll get really thin slices that cook quickly in the wok.

Take_it_like_a_man,_sonny

heretolearn wrote: »

'Onion, chopped as toe nails' - What???

Chopped to the size of toe nails, in Sonny's house joke.