This recipe takes me back to when my first English language cookbook was published in 1994. The book was called 'Japanese Cooking for Two' and this recipe - "Stir Fried Corned Beef and Sugar Snaps" was one of the recipes inside. You might be thinking that corned beef doesn't exactly sound Japanese but it has quite a history in Japan - there is even a Japanese Corned Beef Day - April 6th! Corned beef became popular after the end of the Second World War and Japan's first product - Nozaki Corned Beef - was first sold in 1948. There may have been other Japanese brands but Nozaki has stood the test of time and is still widely sold today.
I learned how to make Corned Beef & Sugar Snaps from my mother more years ago than I care to remember - it's a simple way to combine corned beef with a vegetable as a side dish. The sugar snaps adds a crunchy texture contrast and a sweet flavour. You can use mangetoutes instead of sugar snaps but I prefer sugar snaps because they are more crunchy and sweeter. I remove the strings from the sugar snaps before I fry them. You don't need to do this but I think they cook a little quicker without the strings and honestly, I never like the stringy bits when I eat sugar snaps, so I always remove them.
After frying the sugar snaps for a minute, I add the corned beef. Frying the corned beef not only accentuates the salty flavour but also soften the texture. The stir fry should take 4-5 minutes - you should be aiming for crunchy sugar snaps (as well as cleaning them, this is the reason why I put them in water for a few seconds prior to frying) and soft, salty corned beef - when the corned beef has softened it will begin to break up a little and this is your signal to turn off the heat and serve.
This dish is easy, quick and quite strongly flavoured. I usually pair this with rice and another vegetable dish - the corned beef gives you ample protein from this dish alone.
If you'd like to try it out, you can find the youtube tutorial by clicking Stir Fried Corned Beef with Sugar Snaps or scroll down to the bottom of the page. The written recipe is just below.
Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX.
Stir fried Corned Beef & Sugar Snaps.
ingredients:
160g / 6 oz sugar snaps or mangetout
200g / 7 ounces can of corned beef
1/2 tsp soy sauce
a little pepper
1/2 tbsp veg oil
how to:
rinse the sugar snaps
remove the strings (if you want to)
open your can of corned beef
slice the beef into 1 cm / 1/2 inch slices then cut each slice into 1 cm / 1/2 inch cubes
heat the veg oil in a frying pan and add the sugar snaps
stir fry for 1 min
sprinkle with a little pepper then add the corned beef cubes
stir fry for a further 2 mins
sprinkle over the soy sauce and stir fry until the corned beef begins to break up a little, then remove from the heat
your dish is now ready to serve. I usually garnish with a little chopped parsley but I leave that up to you!
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