Thursday supper and stir fry

You've already got the recipe for tonight's supper – http://miammiamcookery.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/life-with-gom-chapter-two.html -  Asian Spiced Salmon together with a sauce and stir fry recipe.

As the recipe for the marinade goes - 30 minutes will do fine if you are using star anise powder, so, if you make that your first job on arriving home, by the time you've split another atom or prepped vegetables you're ready to roll. Can I just remind you pre-heat your oven 180 fan/200/Gas 6 – better twice than not at all.

Stir fry is a great opportunity to use up an odd carrot, pepper etc., – ensure that all your vegetables are sliced as thinly as possible and of a similar size – they'll cook quickly and evenly.

Always check out what's in season, at the moment for example asparagus - you can buy tiny, thinner asparagus, ideal for a stir fry. For those who don't know, if you bend, gently, an asparagus tip it will snap naturally – discard the woody end – not the end with the tip! Lay the asparagus in a row and trim the ends so that they are the same size. If you shop smartly you can get bargains of ready to use vegetables, i.e. baby corn, mange tout etc. It's whatever takes your fancy.

Recipes are a guide only, not set in stone. How many times have you followed one to the letter and it's rubbish. It happens to us all and there's no doubt that some are better than others. With a dish like a stir fry amounts don't matter, it's personal taste.

There's another brilliant product available – noodle nests. They come in 250g bags, usually 4/5 nests. Here's my tip. When you are preparing your marinade for the salmon, boil a kettle. Place the number of nests you need in your wok along with a Knorr vegetable stock pot. Pour the boiled water over the nests and cover with a lid if possible. After 2/3 minutes turn the nest and begin to loosen gently with a fork, leave for another 2 minutes. Drain and they are ready to add to your stir fried vegetables.

Oh, nearly forgot, you can get great salmon deals – 3 packets for £10 and each contains 2 fillets. Back to my original mantra – if you were to marinade extra salmon as it says in the recipe it's great cold and if there's any stir fry left you've another lunch box.

Enjoy.