Ingredients (in order of appearance):
Olive and Sesame Oil
Celery
Asparagus
Chopped Lemon and Lime
Scotch Bonnet/Habanero Chilli
Fish Sauce
Courgettes
Mushrooms
Radish
Garlic Puree
Ground Spices: Chinese Five Spice, Black Pepper
Herbs: Tarragon
Water Chestnuts
Bean Sprouts
Tin of Tuna
Result: Positive
Okay, not the prettiest dish in the world, but it had a really nice personality! I guess I could have put a pair of chopsticks in the above shot, just for appearances, but I’d already gobbled the thing down before that occurred to me.
I’m less stressed about all this now, having settled into something resembling a routine. New ways of working do take time to adjust to, after all. It has helped incredibly that I’ve allowed more flavours to enter my reluctant low-carb palette, flavours which I shall discuss below.
Whether or not the official numbers are right, apparently tins of chopped tomato are fine for me (although not included in this particular dish), but tomato puree isn’t. Garlic puree is fine, but not fresh garlic. And tinned bean sprouts are, for some reason unknown to me, much lower in carbohydrate than the fresh stuff. Maybe I’m reading something wrong, but this just seems to be the situation in a few cases.
Oh and lemons and limes are acceptable, much to my delight. I have no idea why I didn’t check earlier. So, yes, that will be the last time I ever have kiwi fruit or plums. Those were dark early days. I even had a hand juicer delivered today, so I shall be making fresh citrus juice, with no added sugar. Gets you high that stuff, I must say!
Which leads us to this dish.
I usually add chopped-up lemon and lime to long-simmering curries, so I always assume lots of time is needed to soften them up. Not really, it turns out. This was on the stove for about half-an-hour, with the citrus going in as early as possible. There certainly was a bit of bite to them, but they weren’t inedible. I’d already juiced them for a drink on the side, so the dish wasn’t insanely-sour or anything.
I’ve also discovered tarragon adds that key East Asian taste, so I’ll probably reel back on the Chinese five spice considerably. Or just alternate between the two. Still, it’s fun to unlock the secrets to a whole cuisine by accident. I just bought a load of different dried herbs and went through picking whichever one I liked the smell of. Tarragon I have now set aside, especially for stir-fries!
These tinned bean sprouts tend to thin out during cooking, which means they provide a competent alternative to my beloved noodles, which I believe are no longer acceptable for my new dietary requirements.
A simple fry-until-I-can’t-taste-the-celery-and-courgette situation, with no higher mathematics involved. Chop. Wok. Stir. Easy enough for lunchtime satisfaction!
Do stay in touch, darlings.
Noodles!
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