Beef Noodles with Orange and Ginger

It's been a while since I posted about anything other than baking, so to mix it up a bit, I am going to share with you one of the recent main meals that I made - Beef Noodles with Orange and Ginger.

I really like Asian flavours - they are crisp and clear, and the meals themselves are usually quite light, so you are not left feeling bloated afterwards. I am pretty hopeless at keeping down calories, so I was quite excited when I saw the Low Fat, Low Cholesterol Chinese Cookbook by Maggie Pennell and Jenni Fleetwood for sale at an online bookstore. If someone else helps me out with "healthiness", that is a great start.

Flicking through this book, the recipe for Beef Noodles with Ginger and Orange caught my eye. I have never tried orange flavours with beef before (although I once made marmalade chicken), and I am a fan of citrus and ginger flavours, so I decided that this was the dish for me.

As you can see, this dish looks pretty good with its burnished orange sauce. My only complaint is that I would have liked more vegetables in the recipe than just carrot and spring onion (easily fixed), and I found the portion size quite small (which is probably deliberate given this is a low fat, low cholesterol cookbook). Otherwise, I really enjoyed the unusual pairing of beef and orange, with the ginger zing in the background.

To make this stir-fry style dish (with my modifications), you will need:

450g lean beef, cut into thin strips
zest and juice of 1 orange
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon cornflour
2.5cm knob of fresh ginger, grated
175g rice noodles
3 teaspoons cooking oil
1 carrot cut into matchsticks
2 spring onions, thinly sliced

Put the beef, orange zest and orange juice into a bowl to marinate for half an hour.

Drain the beef, reserving the juice, and set the juice aside.

In a large bowl, mix the beef with the soy sauce, cornflour and ginger.

Cook the noodles in accordance with the packet instructions and set aside; keep them warm.

Place the oil in a large wok or frypan, and heat it until hot. Add the beef and stir fry for one minute, then add the carrots and stiry fry for another 3 minutes.

Add the spring onions and the reserved juice to the wok, and heat ntil the sauce boils and thickens. Remove the wok from the heat.

Serve the beef immediately over a bed of rice noodles. (Serves 4)