Can you get stir-fry in France?

[Chancer]

Just back from the UK and I enjoyed several meals with stir fried veggies Aldi have some good value ones and some decent ones that are often short dated 50% off, none of them keep for long so the ones I brought back will soon be gone.

 

I would like to cook one for my vegan friend next week, I dont mind preparing the veg but have never seen fresh bean sprouts on sale in France, only tinned ones, can you buy them anywhere?

[andyh4]

Some tinned ones are essentially vacuum packed but I could not give you a brand name - sorry. Auchan possibly.

I tend to put ones from jars in at the last minute, but the crunch is not there of course.

[woolybanana]

used to see them in HyperU. Try you local Bio shop

[mint]

Do you have an oriental supermarket near you?

You could sprout some yourself, of course.  Buy bio mung beans, soak overnight, then I believe you could sprout them in a jar, rinsing the contents twice daily.  I have a germoir and I rinse mine twice daily.  They are ready to eat in about 5 days so you still have time to do them.

Without the crunch, bean sprouts are the pits!

[Harnser]

The last stir fry I did a couple of weeks ago I topped off with some canned beansprouts, as long as you add them at the very end just before taking the wok to the table they will stay crisp.

And guess where i got them?

NOZ - €0.99 and they were locally produced in Brittany!

[YCCMB]

I googled "Germes de soja" and "pousses de soja" and "Germes de haricot mungo" - references come up for them on Carrefour Drive, Leclerc and Auchan, and Grand Frais.

Obviously, I can't tell you if your local branch sells them, because annoyingly all these websites insist you insert your postcode, but it looks like they're available. Whether they're seasonal, widely stocked, etc. I have no clue.

I AM sure I'm talking about fresh ones, before anyone asks. I think "barquette de 500g" is unlikely to be anything but fresh.

[lindal1000]

I've seen them in Grand Frais and Intermarche and Auchan in Bordeaux

[mazandcol]

I've bought fresh mung bean sprouts regularly at LeClerc - my only problem has been that the packs are too big and I can't use them all in time. All the other stir-fry fresh veg are available also, even lemon grass. Ironically the only one I can't find is 'Mange Tout'...

[YCCMB]

Have you asked Del Boy? ??

[soupagirl]

Definitely in Grand Frais, they sell small bags if you only want a few, or large bags (kg?) both for the same price, 1.50€-ish. The big supermarkets sometimes have them in the packets-of-salad section, but I find them more expensive.

[Chancer]

Sadly things have not evolved in the soon to be 13 years that I have been here, I still have to travel a minimum of 40km to either Arras, Amiens or St Quentin for fresh herbs, or indeed any herb other than herbes de provence and a multitude of other things and in each case take pot luck that the one shop that does "occasionally" stock them might have some on their shelves that day, in the UK I have a choice of maybe 10 within a couple of miles, granted not in my village although even the Londis there will often have them.

[Harnser]

[quote user="mazandcol"]I've bought fresh mung bean sprouts regularly at LeClerc - my only problem has been that the packs are too big and I can't use them all in time. All the other stir-fry fresh veg are available also, even lemon grass. Ironically the only one I can't find is 'Mange Tout'...[/quote]

You won't find mange toute in France because they are called pois gourmand as I was sternly advised on another forum recently.

Mange toute is an englishism apparently.

Picard frozen food places stock them - not cheap though.

[mazandcol]

It doesn't matter what they are called in French - I've never seen them here, either in supermarkets or markets. Just never found them.

[mint]

I have bought them fresh from LeClerc.  Can't say I have noticed the price but a few go a long way.

There is another type of long bean called "flat" bean that have no strings and similar in texture to mange tout once stir-fried.  Not quite as sweet but a good alternative.  Slice them slant-wise (à bias), keeping the pieces as long and as thin as possible and they will retain their colour during cooking because they only take minimal cooking.

[Patf]

I didn't think you needed all these fancy veg for a stirfry - it's mainly the method of cooking, and the flavourings. My friend's husband often makes it I'll ask him.

I've got some tins of beansprouts in the cupboard, from Carrefour's normal range, I use them in a salad.

[BritinBretagne]

I’m glad someone else thinks that. Stir fry was ‘in’ back in the 80s when I was given a Wok to cook with. There were hundreds of recipes to choose from and only some of those used bean sprouts. I’d always presumed the bits of the Mongolian restaurants that I’ve been to many, many times where you select raw meat, veg and sauce before passing it to a chef to cook was stir fry as well. I’d always thought that the name was a bit of a give away. I’m sure that Peter Kaye could do a good sketch; Stir? Fry? Perhaps it’s a bit close to the Garlic? Bread one he did or the server in a Monmartre bar who replied Vodka? Cola? when asked for a fairly straightforward drink.

[Patf]

My favourite stirfry was chicken and cashew nuts. With some veg, mostly shallots and a few coloured peppers.

For the flavourings, supermarkets here have a chinese section with things like soy sauce (various types) oyster sauce, mushroom sauce etc. Try a little of each, but don't be too heavy-handed.

I think the chinese have a variety of frying oils too.

[Chancer]

I agree that you dont need loads of fancy veg or even bean sprouts but when so little is available beans sprouts alone would lift things, I have a couple of pre-prepared Aldi UK ones in the fridge but they wont last till tuesday, one has no bean shoots but apart from the carrots and brocolli no way would I find Edamame beans, red onion, spring greens, chinese leaf. The onions I see occasionally but I would spend a couple of hours going round all the shops with no success, even the broccolli would be a Lucky find.

 

Looking at the other one I would come up short on the bean shoots, water chestnuts, chinese leaf and the mange tout Rodney!

 

Now that I eat properly and have regained my taste/palate I find food just does not need overpowering salt laden sauces, certainly not a fresh veg stir fry, I would put soy sauce and mushroom ketchup out as condiments for those who do crave it but wont spoil (for me) the dish by using them.

[andyh4]

It's beginning to sound as if you have landed in the French equivalent of Sunderland Chancer.

Even in our backwater we get most of those vegetables for a significant part of the year - and I liken the produce on our local market at this time of year to the waste bin from Tescos.

[lindal1000]

Stir fry is what I cook to use up the left over veg and bits of meat.

All ingredients can be bought in the local supermarket except for the 7 spice mix, which I get from the UK..lasts about year..Usual ingredients..any old left over onion, carrot, pepper, broccoli, and anything else in the fridge. Teaspoon of 7 spice mixed into a paste with garlic and a small piece of fresh ginger..For the protein bit.. smoked tofu, or cashew nuts or left over chicken/duck/pork. Stir fry whole lot, add a bit of lime or lemon juice, add either noodles or cooked rice and two teaspoons of tamari soy sauce (from the bio shop). Easy weekday dinner!

[Chancer]

Fresh Ginger, local supermarket!!!!! I would give at best a 50% chance of finding either peppers or broccoli but not both and they would certainly be pre-rotted for my convenience. Dave 21478 can take the credit for coining that phrase.

 

A few years ago I was going to cooking classes with a group of people hosted at Amiens by a retired chef, the deal was that he would buy all the ingrédients as even all the others who lived in the metropole were likely to come up short, each week he would tell us what the next weeks recipé would be, - probablement because he could not count on finding the ingrédients and may have to switch recipés.

 

We did some great dishes but I became wholeheartedly sick with spending up to a week travelling to Amiens, Arras, St Quentin etc to try and buy what to me are basic fresh ingrédients to make them later on, Ginger was one that I could rarely find.

 

I still have the tub of dried coriandre that you gave me all those years ago, only once since then have I found it fresh and that was at the arab market.

 

My father was from Sunderland, Croydon must have been like another planet to him back in 1930.

[Chancer]

Vegan friend is a Parisien that lives and works in Lille so she can usually find what she wants and in Bio also but the price tags on what she brings with her make my eyes water. But at least it is available there and she can also eat out.

 

You cannot even find a vegetarian dish in town let alone vegan, the restauranteurs give the same look as I get when I ask for an alcohol free beer, or failing that a coffee in a bar.

 

[lindal1000]

I can get all the stuff from Lidl. Maybe not the ginger but it does keep if you chop it up and freeze it. Leader Price has even better stuff..Cheapest place for coconut milk, which is great for enriching vegan dishes. Lidl is also good value for nuts. I have a good recipe for a nut roast that basically has onion, chopped mixed nuts, breadcrumbs, stock cube, water and Marmite (not essential). A good vegan standby.

[Chancer]

Tofu in Lidl?

 

We have a Lidl hypermarket, never seen a bigger one but no tofu, brocolli occasionally, about the only things that I always buy that I can be sure they will have are bananas (more expensive than anywhere else) apples although often not the bi-colores, and pears, often they have no oranges at all, pineapple and mango 50% of the time, sweet potatoes maybe 25% of the time.

 

Its a one stop shop but I have to choose from what is there for some fresh stuff.

 

Nearest Leader Price is 40km away, the wrong side of Arras.

[lindal1000]

I get the tofu from inter or LeCler . It's made by Bjorg, which seems to be stocked in most of the bigger supermarkets and it's long life packed stuff so keeps for ages. I would have thought the cheapest way to get bean sprouts is to buy the beans from the bio shop and sprout them yourself. That way the are always fresh. I don't like them much myself so never bother. But I might just give them a try again.