Nasturtium Stir'ems

As you know, my front garden is alight with nasturtium plants this winter, and I had heard that they are quite edible. Eaten raw they are SUPER peppery; even for me who is in love with watercress as a salad base. So I thought I'd pick a bagful and try them out cooked. They really are quite appealing, lovely looking leaves and stems:


So I decided to add them to my standard Duck and Glass Noodle Stirfry Salad in place of the usual watercress (which is getting easier to buy, but is really rather difficult to grow).

All in all it was pretty straight forward, I just cut up the stems and leaves with a pair of scissors and added them into the wok at the appropriate time.


I only used duck, green beans, garlic and ginger as the other stuff so I could really see what the nasturtiums had to say.


It turned out nicely (although I have a right wrist injury in a splint so left-handed stirfrying caused a bit of kitchen carnage I must say):
...but I must say the nasturtium didn't really add much flavour that I could notice, not like watercress does; but the stems add a nice texture, and you are left with a funny tongue coated peppery feel once you finish eating, which is a new sensation.

I think the verdict is that I'll use the front yard plants for my stirfries if I haven't got watercress to hand, but I can't say it will be replacing it all together. I'll carry onto the next nasturtium experiment...

Leftover duck and glass noodle salad

{A retrospective post from October 2010}

qwack qwack

I had some leftover "Siew nyap" or Chinese roast duck from the local BBQ house.

Decided to make a random glass noodle salad to noms it with - green beans, cucumber, lime juice, soy, chilli (too much!), garlic, ginger and a sprinkle of sugar. Basically, just shredded the duck meat, skin on whilst setting the glass noodles in a large dish of cold water to soak, cut the vegies on a sharp angle, then mixed the whole lot together. A gentle nuke in the microwave just to warm it through and hey presto! classy leftovers to snack on, or refridgerate to bring to work where it can be gently nuked and you can feel smug about a bit of comfort on your break...