Curiously, exactly the same thing happened to our kettle in France last month; the lid broke on that one too. How bizarre to have both give up the ghost at the same time, for the same reason! As it happens both kettles were at least ten years old so didn’t owe us anything.
In France we got a new decent one from a small selection at our nearest supermarket. In the UK the choice in our local Tesco, usually quite extensive, was poor. In fact since their recent refurb they have changed the way they display their small electricals and it’s not good. Previously they had a top shelf with each item on display so you could pick it up and look at it, with sealed boxes of them stashed on shelves underneath for you to buy your selection. Now, nothing is on display. There are simply boxes of things piled on the shelves and none that you can look at, only the picture on the box to go on. Hence there are damaged boxes of the things where people have ripped them open so they can see what they actually look like. We looked at a couple that had already been opened and gave up, eventually ordering one from Amazon.
However, I suggested that it might be worth looking at the sale shelf, where they dump items for clearance. They had no kettles but they did have a wok, reduced to less than £10. I have never owned a wok in my life and have never tried making stir fries at home but my OH reckons he has. He mentioned it in the same wistful way that he refers to all his awful 1970’s clothes that filled his wardrobe when we met and that were expunged when we got together and combined our two households in the 90’s. The implication being that I took it to the charity shop along with his flares and skinny rib jumpers. I can honestly say I don’t remember doing that.
Anyway, I am on a mission to lose a bit of weight* and thought a wok might help, stir fries being generally lower in calories than say sausages and chips for a midweek dinner, so we bought one. We picked up a bag of stir fry veg, some noodles and chicken fillets, and that evening Nick made a delicious chicken stir fry, making a sauce with garlic, fresh ginger and soy sauce.
There was a good portion leftover and about a third of the pack of veg so I turned it into soup. It was also delicious!
The soup maker makes four good portions and as there are only two of us I store the remaining half in the fridge. Having experimented with various ways of storing it I have finally settled on using the ancient Tupperware jug that belonged to my mum. It was found at the back of the cupboard when we cleared Dad's flat after he died and I'm pretty sure neither of them ever used it. It was no doubt a rogue purchase from one of the Tupperware parties that Aunty Vera used to drag Mum to in the 1970's!
*There will be no cake posts for a while, sadly. If I make it I will eat it and we have even decided not to make a Christmas cake this year, which is the first time ever in my whole life that there will not be a home made Christmas cake in the house.
Ingredients
one portion of leftover chicken stir fry, including the noodles
the remaining unused stir fry veg in the pack
three small potatoes
1 carrot
1 leek
1 stick of celery
Method
Add the stir fried chicken and veg to the machine and prepare enough veg to fill to the bottom line.
Add enough water to fill to the top line and cook on smooth setting.
Makes four generous portions.
Oh my goodness! Things is grim!! No cake! At least you are doing something about the excess weight. I'm just grumbling about it and eating as usual. I feel old and fat.
ReplyDeleteSusan, same here! Doing something about it requires a level of focus that has been beyond me so far this year so the time has come, the walrus said........
DeleteWell, I've never had a stir fry soup, but why not? Next time I have some left over...
ReplyDeleteI'm really surprised that you've never owned a wok - I think they're so useful. I use a wok for all sorts of cooking, not just stir frying. I understand the wistfulness, though, since I can get nostalgic about the woks I've owned. In the 1980s we had an electric wok - really not at all good for stir frying but OK for braising and the best steaming device I've ever come across.
I didn't know such a thing as an electric wok ever existed! We had an electric carving knife for a while. I see a lot of them in the charity shops!
DeleteWe finally got rid of our 1979 wedding present wok when we retired - it just doesn't work on this job. I too put random leftovers into soups - why not? If they tasted good first time round - and the babies eat pureed "parent meals"... I'm going to make s small Christmas cake, once I find the right tin at the back of the cupboard.
ReplyDeleteA small Christmas cake is a good idea. It usually takes us three weeks to eat our way through a normal sized one and at 500 calories a slice it's too risky!
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