Sweet and Sour Nectarine Lamb

Finally psyched myself into doing some cooking. Nothing too fancy though. I have 3 new housemates, and I don't want to freak them out too soon as I did with my previous housemates.

I can still recall them staring thru the kitchen door at me with my camera in one hand, and juggling between the stove, oven, grill and microwave with the other.

For a change, it would be nice to have housemates who don't think I'm cuckoo.

Anyway, back to the dish.

The experimental speciment ingredient for today is the nectarine.

Nectarines are just variants of peaches.

The way I see it, it looks like a cross between apples and plums, and tastes like a cross between plums and mangoes.

I picked the one that is slightly less ripe, and thus has an acceptable full flavour but still sour. When diced and cooked, it has the texture of a tomato and thus ought to make a pretty good addition to a sweet-and-sour dish.

Ingredients:
* Diced nectarines
* Diced onions and cucumber
* Pure Gula Melaka (brought this from home). Can be substituted with sugar.
* lamb pieces.
* 1/2 cube Knows vegetable stock
* Tomato Ketchup
* Soya Sauce
* Sesame Oil
* Dried Chilli

Pre fry the lamb pieces.
Just before it's cooked, add a dash of soya sauce and sesame oil as seasoning.

Once done, remove from pan. Clean pan, and put back onto stove.

With very little oil (just to line the pan), saute the onions for a while, then throw in the cucumbers and nectarine. (Some diced capsicons would be nice too).
Toss it around for about 30 seconds.

Add in vege stock diluted in about half a cup of water.
As the water comes to a boil, add the Gula Melaka, dried chilli and tomato ketchup.

Let it simmer till sauce thickens.

If you like your dish with more sauce, use more water, then thicken with ... err... corn starch??

Add in the pre-fried lamb pieces, mix well, and serve!

Sweet Sour Nectarine Lamb

Taste wise, it was actually pretty good. Gives the standard flavour of a sweet-and-sour dish, but with a fruity after-taste. I quite like it, but I would presume that some people might find the taste a little peculiar.

Improvements? Substitute the lamb with either chicken or pork. The tangy/fragrant flavour doesn't gel that well with the pungent lamb taste. Pre-frying the meat (dipped in batter) till crispy ought to bring out the best in this dish.

Serve hot with freshly cooked rich topped with a fried egg. Yumm!