An Olympic Stir-fry

 

Sleep patterns in our house appear to have regressed by at least ten years. We are being woken through the night and have found ourselves in front of the television at five in the morning. I blame two factors.The first is the arrival of an extremely naughty kitten and then there is the Olympics. The time zone difference with China is proving a challenge.
In honour of the first week of the 2008 Olympics Freddie asked for a Chinese meal.
"Let's have an Olympic stirfry," suggested Alex. "Five different vegetables for the five Olympic rings." And we were doing so well. We bought blue aubergine, yellow sweetcorn, green pak choi and red peppers. The whole thing nearly fell flat when we failed to find a black vegetable. We tracked down some dark-looking field mushrooms to save the dish. (Any other ideas for black vegetables?)
This was also an excuse to try out some British produced cold-pressed rapeseed oil which was sent to us to try out by Hillfarm. It is made by the Fairs family on their farm in Suffolk. They told me their favourite vegetable is roasted parsnips, (roasted of course in their very own oil) and their top tip for fussy eaters is to eat as a family and not to put too much on the plate. I agree with the first point but I am afraid that if I followed the second tip there would be official complaints. Half way through the meal, Freddie dropped his chopsticks to complain that there were in fact seven vegetables lurking in his stirfry. But he carried on eating so this was just a temporary glitch. The oil tasted perfect in the stirfry.

 

Olympic Stirfry
Serves 4-6
400g Pak Choi
1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced thinly
200g baby sweetcorn, whole
150g mangetout
2 large field mushrooms, thinly sliced
Half a medium aubergine, cut into one inch cubes
1 large carrot, cut into thin batons
30g freshly grated ginger root
3 tablespoons of rape seed oil
1 tablespoon of toasted sesame seed oil
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of sherry
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
500g Turkey fillet, cut into thin strips
1-2 tablespoons of sesame seeds
Slice the turkey fillet into thin strips. Prepare the Pak Choi by cutting off the leaves and cutting them into wide ribbons. Cut the stalks in half or if they are larger, into quarters. Heat half the oil in a wok or large frying pan on a medium-high heat.
Add the turkey with the grated ginger root and crushed garlic and cubes of aubergine. Stir-fry for 3 minutes. When the turkey is cooked through and golden brown, use a slotted spoon to put it on a plate. Add the rest of the oil to the wok with the aubergines, the Pak Choi stalks and leaves, red pepper,mushrooms, and baby sweetcorn. Stir fry for 3 minutes at a high heat. Put the turkey back into the wok and add the soy sauce and sherry. Stir fry for a minute and sprinkle on top the sesame seeds. Serve with rice or noodles.

Any other ideas for black vegetables? ( And I don't mean rotten ones...)