#HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR Basic traditional Chinese ingredients such as rice, noodles, beansprouts, mushrooms, chicken, prawns and beef are all fantastic Free Foods! It’s a fabulous start to a Food Optimising feast, so no need to avoid the little Oriental palace in your neck of the woods! With only minor tweaks to your take-away a low-Syn Chinese feast is guaranteed! out on the China-town... • A great appetiser that offers a fuller-sized starter for small-size Syns is hot and sour soup at only 5 Syns per serving! • Chinese cuisine provides loads of meaty choices! Tuck into a 160g serving of spare ribs (about 4 ribs) for 8½ Syns on Extra Easy or Original, or for just 4½ Syns* enjoy beef with mushrooms. There are chicken dishes galore with chicken in oyster sauce at 4½ Syns*, chicken and black bean sauce (5 Syns*) chicken and mushrooms (5½ Syns*). If you fancy rice with your dishes, 100g (about a medium portion) of boiled rice is only 6½ Syns on Original and Free on Extra Easy! • Rice and noodle dishes make excellent Green options. A serving of chicken chop suey with noodles is a fab 5½ Syns* on Green or Extra Easy. For a veggie option, stir-fried mixed vegetables are a sound 6½ Syns*. Top up with loads of Free boiled rice for a Chinese banquet! • Fancy seeing the future? The future’s slim, with fortune cookies at around 2½ Syns each. *Per average take-away serving Watch out for… dishes that include oil, batter and filo pastry (eg spring rolls, crispy duck, seaweed and prawn toast). Maximise your Free Food choices to really enjoy these appetisers! Syn savers...look wok’s cooking at home... Sesame prawn toast and fried rice for only a few Syns? Yes it’s easy! With only a little light wok you can create a Chinese banquet that’s in harmony with your slimming campaign! • Special fried rice - The Food Optimising version of this Chinese favourite is only 1 Syn on Green and Extra Easy, a saving of 8½ Syns per portion. For a totally veggie option it’s really quick and easy to make egg-fried rice. Spray a large frying pan with low calorie cooking spray and cook a chopped onion, mushrooms and 2 cloves of garlic for 5 minutes. Add cooked rice, peas and soy sauce. Pour 2 beaten eggs over the mixture and cook over a low heat stirring occasionally for 5 minutes or until the egg has set. Serve it with stir fry (below) for a satisfying feast. Chopsticks optional! • Deliciously sticky without the Syns -find authentic black bean, sweet & sour and chow mein sauce in Saucy Secrets. • Superfree stir fry! Bean sprouts, mushrooms, mange tout, peppers, spring onions and water chestnuts dry fried with soy sauce and ginger makes a sumptuous stir fry for Free! On Green/Extra Easy serve it with piles of noodles or rice, on Original or Extra Easy it goes great with chicken or prawns. • Chinese chicken and mushroom soup - Using baby corn, spring onions, mushrooms, ginger, soy sauce, shredded chicken and chicken Bovril, this soup’s a cinch (and Free on Original and Extra Easy)! Turn it into a Free chicken noodle soup on Green by adding lots of thin egg noodles and using chicken as a Healthy Extra. • Crispy duck - For a Food Optimising twist to this popular menu item, Szechuan duck is a zingy duck dish that’s only 2½ Syns on Original and Extra Easy! • Szechuan spiced duck with oranges • This szechuan duck dish really hits the spot and looks sizzling served at a dinner party - only youll know that its low Syn! Serves: 4 Prep. time: 10 minutes Cook time: 11 minutes Total time: Less than 30 Minutes Difficulty Rating: 2 Syns per serving: Green: 8Original: 2½Extra Easy: 2½Add 6 Syns if not using Duck (raw weight) as a Healthy Extra on Green. Print recipe ingredients 1 heaped tbsp Szechuan Chinese five-spice powder 4 x 175g duck breasts, skinned, boned and all fat removed Salt and pepper Low calorie cooking spray, for spraying 250ml chicken stock Juice of 3 oranges 1 level tbsp tamarind purée (optional) 2 medium oranges, cut into segments 1 tbsp freshly chopped coriander 1 tbsp chopped tomato (optional) method Rub the Chinese five-spice powder into the duck breasts and season lightly with salt and pepper. Fry the duck breasts in a little low calorie cooking spray for 2 minutes over a high heat, then turn them over and cook for 2 more minutes to seal in all the flavours and juices. Reduce the heat and cook for approximately 7 minutes until juicy and pink. Rest for 2–3 minutes before serving. Meanwhile, heat the chicken stock in a pan and add the orange juice and tamarind purée (if using). Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and stir in the orange segments. Serve the duck breasts with the sauce poured over them. Sprinkle with coriander and garnish if wished with chopped tomato. Steamed or boiled spring greens make a good accompaniment to this dish. Tip: Tamarind is a tropical fruit with a juicy sour-like pulp; its sometimes called ‘the date of India’. It can be replaced with some fresh lime juice, and for this recipe 2 whole fresh limes would be adequate. Tamarind can be purchased in most good oriental stores and some supermarkets. - See more at: online.slimmingworld/recipes/szechuan-spiced-duck-with-oranges.aspx#sthash.O3iQzRVB.dpuf • Sesame prawn toast – Our Food Optimising version is as tasty as any prawn toast from a Chinese takeaway, and it’s much lower in Syns – saving 2 Syns per piece! Sesame prawn toasts These are as good as any prawn toast you get at a Chinese takeaway, and the best news is - theyre much lower in Syns. Serves: 16 Prep. time: Cook time: Total time: Less than 30 Minutes Difficulty Rating: 1 Syns per serving: Green: 2Original: 1½Extra Easy: 1½ Print recipe ingredients 2½ cm piece fresh root ginger 1 garlic clove 1 egg 200g cooked peeled prawns 2 level tsp cornflour ¼ tsp Chinese five-spice powder ¼ tsp salt 4 slices of wholemeal bread from an 800g medium sized loaf 2 level tbsp sesame seeds Low calorie cooking spray method Prepare the ingredients: peel and grate the ginger, peel and finely chop the garlic and whisk the egg until light and frothy. Place the prawns, ginger and garlic in a food processor and whizz until finely minced. Stir in the egg, cornflour, Chinese five-spice powder and salt and mix well. Remove the crusts from the bread and spread the mixture on top. Sprinkle over the sesame seeds and press them firmly into the bread with your fingers. Cut each slice into four triangles. Heat some low calorie cooking spray in a pan. Add the bread, prawn side down, and cook for 2 minutes until golden, then turn over and cook on the other side. Serve immediately.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 15:52:28 +0000
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