I am Jon Borresen of the Family Borresen. I was Born in 1967 in the Town of Swindon, Wiltshire. And I am Immortal




Monday 14/1/2013

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Diary and Notes

Cripes! I’ve had some shocking news and am at the moment a little unsure how to process this new information. All my life, I have been under the (apparently incorrect) impression that I was special, above you mere mortals, blessed in a way that your average James Smith or Dai Jones could never be. But now it transpires I am wrong and there is another.

Somewhere in Aberdeen is a man, previously head of BT Global Finance and now a big cheese in the property world, going by the name of Jon Borresen. Yes it’s true, somebody has my name and is going around, oblivious to the fact that he is pretending to be me.

Who does he think he is? You can see why I am so perplexed.

“There can be only one.”

It is time, once again, to unsheathe my Toledo Salamanca and fight a duel to the death to determine who is the one and true Jon Borresen.

“I feel the quickening...”

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I went into Manchester’s China town today to the Woo Sang supermarket. This is my favourite Chinese supermarket as it sells absolutely everything, is cheap and the staff are really friendly. The Wing Yip is good too but there are one or two things they don’t sell and if I go there I always end up going to the Woo Sang as well.

I had been to the Woo Sang two weeks ago but had forgotten to buy prawn crackers, which the little jewelled delights of my eyes (the kids) love deeply. There is a Chinese supermarket just close to where I work called the Lameizi. This has a restaurant above which isn’t bad, but the supermarket is somewhat pricey and they don’t stock a lot of things – including fry yourself prawn crackers. It’s really intended just for the students who live nearby to pop in and buy noodles, not really much good for your obsessive foody types like me.

I was at the checkout chatting to the man behind the counter about how I cook my noodles when he noticed my two boxes of prawn crackers. Then he suggested I try some of the Thai prawn crackers as these are a little spicy and actually contain real prawn (about 10%, whereas the Chinese ones are less than 1%). I was sold. They were a little expensive (about £3.50 for a bag) but this should last us a while.

So today we cooked some Chinese food and had two types of prawn crackers. I also bought some fortune cookies. After the kids got on their pyjamas we all broke one open and read out what the future must surely have in store for us. I won’t let you know what our fortunes were, it’s a bit like wishes, they need to be secret. Mine never mentioned any shocking news about a simulacrum living in Scotland, thus proving you can’t believe a single word of it.

And which prawn crackers were best? I liked the Thai ones but you couldn’t eat too many as they are very prawny. Everyone else preferred the Chinese.

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Menu

  • Pork with Spicy Black Bean
  • Prawns with Fried Vermicelli
  • Chow Mein
  • Char Sui Fried Rice
  • Chinese and Thai Prawn crackers




    Ingredients*

    Pork with Spicy Black Bean
    150g Pork Shoulder - Sliced
    1/2 Red Pepper - Sliced
    1 Small Carrot - Chopped
    1 Pak Choi - Chopped
    2 Red Chllis - Sliced
    1 TBSP Peanut Oil
    1 TBSP Chicken Stock
    1 tsp Garlic and Ginger Paste
    1 TBSP Shaoxing Wine
    1 TBSP Black Bean Paste
    Splash Soy Sauce
    Prawns with Fried Vermicelli
    150g Frozen Prawns
    1 Small Nest Rice Vermicelli
    2 Spring Onions
    1 TBSP Peanut Oil
    1 TBSP Oyster Sauce
    1 TBSP Chicken Stock
    1 tsp Garlic and Ginger Paste
    Splash Soy Sauce
    Chow Mein
    1 Nest Egg Noodles
    1 Big Handful Beansprouts
    1 Spring Onion
    1 TBSP Peanut Oil
    1 TBSP Oyster Sauce
    1 TBSP Chicken Stock
    1/2 tsp Knorr Chicken Powder
    1 tsp Garlic and Ginger Paste
    Splash Soy Sauce

    Note: The char sui I had from an earlier time stored in the freezer. I'll cook this from scratch and put a recipe at a later date.


    Preparation

  • Pork: Stir fry the pork until almost brown then add the garlic and ginger paste, Shaoxing wine, black bean paste, soy sauce and a little chicken stock. Stir again then add all the vegetables. Stir fry until just cooked using a little more stock to stop everything from sticking.
  • Vermicelli: Soak the vermicelli in hot water for 5 mins then drain. Fry in a little peanut oil, then add everything else and stir fry for another 2 minutes.
  • Chow Mein: effectively the same as above but more liquid added to give a little soup.

    And a big thank you to a friend who gave me two sets of training chopsticks for my kiddies. They used then on the prawn crackers and ate the noodles with their fingers. Philistines.

    Today’s Ratings:

    Isis: Chow Mein, Chinese Prawn Crackers, Vermicelli - yum.
    Eve: Chow Mein, Rice - yum.
    Olias: Chewed a prawn, some pak choi and noodles.

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    JCBorresen@GMail.com