Nigella's Cosy Supper Stir-Fry

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Nigella

4 serving

4.2 6 ratings Review this recipe

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Serves: 4

This is one of those quick, dependably mood-lifting suppers which I turn to regularly and gratefully. Stir-fries normally involve a little too much last-minute chopping for my liking, but this has only modest demands to make of you on that score: once you’ve sliced the bacon and salad onions, you’re pretty much done, and then it’s only a matter of minutes before everything comes joyously together in the pan. If you have the eggs to spare, I wouldn’t try to dissuade you from topping each bowlful with a fried or poached egg. And there’s just one more thing: despite its title, do not think it must be made only for supper: it hits the spot almost too perfectly when a morning-after-the-night-before breakfast is urgently required!

Mix it up

You could replace the beansprouts with some finely shredded sweetheart or white cabbage, just as you could replace the peas with sweetcorn.

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Ingredients Method

Ingredients

200g frozen petit pois
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp vegetable oil
8 rashers smoked (or unsmoked if preferred) streaky bacon, cut into 1cm strips
1 pack beansprouts
1 bunch salad onions, finely sliced into ½cm rings, reserving the greenest slices from the very top in a separate bowl
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ tsp chilli flakes
2 packs microwave long-grain rice
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 drizzle HP Sauce, to serve

Method

Step 1

Measure the petits pois into a small bowl and fill with cold water; leave near the sink for now.

Step 2

I use a wok-shaped non-stick pan for this, but a very large frying pan should be fine. Toast the cumin seeds over a medium heat until fragrant, shaking the pan to let them dance to the surface every now and then, ensuring they don’t catch or burn. Then tip them out into a cup to cool.

Step 3

Warm the oil in the same pan over a high heat on your largest burner and, when hot, tip in the bacon. Using a spatula or whatever your preferred stirring utensil is (though I must say, I like an implement in each hand, so reach for a pair of stirrers/spatulas), cook, stirring and tossing the little bacon pieces about to try to separate them all, for about 3 mins.

Step 4

Cook for a further 4-5 mins, stirring only occasionally, by which time the liquid should have evaporated, leaving an intense bacony oil behind; the shreds of bacon should be bronzed at the edges.

Step 5

Once the bacon has cooked, shake in the beansprouts and toss and stir with the bacon to mix, then tip in the sliced salad onions, minced garlic, toasted cumin seeds and chilli flakes and give everything a good stir. Then add the rice, breaking up any large clumps as you do so, and stir this in well. Drain and toss in the peas, along with the Lea & Perrins sauce, and carry on cooking – still over a high heat – stirring and tossing the ingredients for another 3 mins, until everything is piping hot.

Step 6

Divide between 4 bowls, and scatter each with the reserved green salad onions. And I love this with a final flourish in the form of a squiggled zig-zag of HP Sauce over the top. The tamarind sourness of the brown sauce is a fabulous counterpoint to the rich, salty bacon. With or without, though, much comfort and joy awaits you.

Tips or serving suggestions

All cooking is very much easier if you get what chefs call the mise en place ready first – that’s to say weigh, measure and assemble all your ingredients – but this is utterly indispensable for a quickfire dish like a stir-fry. You’ll feel frenzied otherwise.