Corn & Crab Soup [from little thai book]

ingredients:
2 tbsp oil
4 cloves garlic
5 shallots
2 stalks lemongrass
chunk o ginger
1 litre chicken stock
can o coconut milk
225g frozen sweetcorn
can o crab claws
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 lime juice
1 tsp jaggery/brown sugar
garnish: coriander/scallion

method:

oil, garlic, shallots, lemongrass, ginger on low heat couple o mins.
add stock n coconut milk, bring to boil, add corn for more mins
finally add crab, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, n simmer for 1 minute

Thai "Green" Chicken and Mushroom Curry

A variation on this http://thaifood.about.com/od/thairecipes/r/greencurrychick.htm

Ingredients:

• "GREEN" CURRY PASTE:
• 1 large red chilli
• Two dried red chillis steeped in hot water to soften (i also steeped some peppercorns to soften)
• 1/4 cup shallot and purple onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 thumb-size piece galangal OR ginger
• 1 stalk fresh lemongrass OR 3 Tbsp. frozen or bottled prepared lemongrass
• 1 tsp. ground coriander
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp. shrimp paste
• 1 (loose) cup fresh coriander/cilantro leaves and stems, chopped didnt have any
• 3 Tbsp. fish sauce
• 1 tsp. palm sugar
• 2 Tbsp. lime juice
• CURRY INGREDIENTS:
• about 550g chicken breast, cut into chunks
• about half a pack of chestnut mushrooms
• 1 can coconut milk
• 6 kaffir lime leaves(steeped and softened and stems removed, and finely cut.
• a nice bit of stir fry mix from a bag with long cut peppers, tiny corn etc
• a small bit of chinese leaf
• Generous handful fresh basil scallion
• 2 Tbsp. coconut oil

Preparation:

1. Place all the "green curry paste" ingredients together in a food processor, and process to a paste. If necessary, add a few Tbsp. of the coconut milk to help blend ingredients (i added loads). Set aside.
2. Prepare the lime leaves by tearing the leaf away from either side of the stem. Discard the central stem. ut leaves into thin strips. Set aside.
3. Warm a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the oil and swirl around, then add the green curry paste.
4. Stir-fry briefly to release the fragrance (30 seconds to 1 minute), then add 3/4 of the coconut milk, reserving 2-3 Tbsp. per serving portion for later.
5. Add the chicken and softened peppercorns, stirring to incorporate. When the curry sauce comes to a boil, reduce heat to medium or medium-low, until you get a nice simmer.
6. Cover and allow to simmer 3-5 more minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Stir occasionally.
7. Add the stir fry veg and chinese leaf, plus the strips of lime leaf (or lime zest), stirring well to incorporate. Simmer another 2-3 minutes, or until vegetables are softened but still firm and colorful. Mine was for a lot longer, does anyone follow these times exactly
   
8. Do a taste-test for salt, adding 1-2 Tbsp. fish sauce if not salty enough. If you'd prefer a sweeter curry, add a little more sugar. If too salty, add a squeeze of lime or lemon juice. If too spicy, add more coconut milk. Note that this curry should be a balance of salty, spicy, sweet and sour, plus bitter (the bitter is found in the fresh basil scallion garnish).
9. Serve this curry in bowls with brown basmati  rice on the underside Top each portion with scallion , then drizzle over 1 Tbsp. coconut milk, and ENJOY!

Pork Wellington

ingredients:
pork fillet
puff pastry
shallot, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
millions of salt and pepper
thing o mushrooms, cleaned and finely diced
thing o pate
some thyme
1/2 cup o water
1 egg lightly whisked.
-i couldn't afford prosciutto in my local shop. no replacement used.

first off i'd just like to mention in hindsight this was always going to be a disaster.
[ EDIT never mind just ate some, it's lovely =) ]

cut fat off de fillet, rubbed salt and pepper all over it. easy on de salt, some msg to compensate.
lotsa butter foaming in pan but not burning out, seared fillet on all sides and left to cool.
cleaned pan and started again with fresh butter.
softened finely chopped shallot then threw in finely diced mushrooms and garlic, water. brought to boil then reduced till dry. it really shrinks! added salt (+msg) and pepper and some thyme. let cool to room temp.
in medium bowl work the pate with a spoon a bit then added the duxelles (mushroom mix) and mixed together.

here's where it gets weird. cook a base of pastry on a buttered baking tray big enough for fillet to go on (12mins @220c) and let cool. <- all the juices are going to go down onto this so do not worry about burning later on. put duxelles on one half of meat, put that side face down on cooked pastry. cover the rest of the fillet in duxelles. make sure it's thickly covered everywhere.
brush egg on one side of remaining pastry, put said side face down onto top of fillet. tuck it in all sides and meeting if possible on the bottom (i didn't do this right). make sure it's sealed in pastry at both ends (i didn't coz i couldn't roll it out properly), brush the outside heavily with remaining egg.

I popped this in oven for 20mins on 220c then 25 mins on 200c. was supposed to be on rare side of medium but it went the other way. need to reduce time if doing again.

Turned out OK. Pastry was a bit of a mess though. Totally soggy on the bottom, totally dry on the top. Two holes at either end let a lot of moisture go :-( but tasted pretty good! will do better next time.

Yummy!

Rick Stein's Stir Fried Prawns with Mango

i cooked this. it was amazing

example:
http://www.barneys-seafood.co.uk/index.php/recipes/item/rick-stein-s-stir-fried-prawns-with-mango
Ingredients

1 firm, slightly under ripe mango (not green)
1 teaspoon of cornflour
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
10grm garlic finely chopped
100grm shallots finely chopped
1 - 1.5 red bird's eye chillies, finely chopped
500grm large raw peeled prawns
Juice from 1 lime
1 tablespoon of fish sauce
Large handful of Thai sweet basil leaves
White pepper


Directions

Peel the mango and slice the flesh away from either side of the flat stone in the centre. Cut it roughly into 1cm pieces.

Mix the cornflour with 1 tablespoon of water and set aside.

Heat the oil in a wok or deep frying pan over a medium heat. Add the garlic, allow to sizzle for a few seconds until it begins to change colour. Add the shallots and sizzle for 30 seconds. Add the chillies and prawns, increase the heat to high and stir fry for approximately 2 minutes until the prawns turn pink and are cooked through.

Add 2-3 tablespoons of water, the lime juice, fish sauce and cornflour mixture and stir fry for a few seconds to thicken the sauce. Then add the mangos and heat through. Stir in the basil, season with a little white pepper and serve.

Buttery Basa & Coconut Rice

Made this recipe here, quite good.

http://gourmeted.com/2009/07/14/baked-basa-fillets



Basa Fillets Baked in Garlic and Butter Posted 14 July 2009 by JOY Hello Friends! I’m doing this year’s Blogathon on July 25 and blog every 30 minutes for 24 hours to raise money for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society. If you are able, please sponsor me and make a donation pledge. Butter. I love it and there’s no denying it. When I was really, really young, vegetables (snow peas, carrots, green beans and corn) cooked in butter and served with a sprinkle of salt blew my mind. These days I enjoy adding butter to meat and fish. It makes everything much better, just like bacon. I think they’re siblings. Here, instead of frying basa fish, I baked it in butter: Oh, and it was so good with the coconut rice! Baked Basa Fillets in gGarlic and Butter Ingredients: 2 fillet slabs of basa fish (mine was 1.4 lb in total), or any white fish of your preference 3 tbsp butter, melted 1/4 tsp salt 1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper 2 tbsp chopped garlic 1/2 a lemon, cut in 1/2 a handful of cilantro, roughly chopped, for garnish Preparation 1. Preheat oven to 400°F. 2. In a baking dish, mix the butter, garlic, salt and pepper. Place the fish fillets into the mixture, and then turn them so both sides are coated. Cover the dish with aluminum foil. 3. Bake for 10 minutes, then take out of the oven and turn off the heat. Squeeze the lemon, a quarter lemon for each fillet. Sprinkle with cilantro and cover again with aluminum foil. Place back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes, until the meat becomes flaky and the thinner edges begin to have some color. You will notice that you might end up with a lot of juice in the pan. That’s fine. You can either toss it, or spoon a little over the fillets to be served. 4. Slice and serve with rice. To make coconut rice, use this proportion: For every cup of uncooked white rice, use 1/4 cup coconut milk (canned is perfectly fine) and 3/4 cups water.

peppercorn sauce recipe

use pan that beef was fried in.
added 100ml water + balsamic mix
stirred well with wooden spoon t lift steak remnents from pan
 added a finely chopped shallot
lrg knob butter
15 whole peppercorns previously soaked in hot water for 60mins to soften
plenty of finely ground another 15 peppercorns and equal volume salt crystals
about 100ml of milk
boiled it around for quite a bit t reduce little then added cornflour to stiffen.

 tasted quite sweet for some reason (contrary to expectation this may be from the balsamic vinegar) very good but shallot makes it a little lumpy, which kinda hides the softened peppercorns.

if i were drinking i would have used wine instead of balsamic n water.

served with steak, mash, and brussel sprouts.

Balinese Paste Stir Fry

for the paste i used these:

peppercorns
nutmeg
sesame oil
shallots
ginger
turmeric
lemongrass
garlic
red eye chilli
shrimp paste (this makes it!)
palm sugar

all well minced in my new big pestle and mortar.

stir fried chicken and shrimp in a little oil n garlic
added the paste, worked it round well
good splurge of tomato puree and soy sauce
large grated carrot
some chinese leaf

looked great, really nice colour, smelt authentic

served with "shrimp-egg" thin style noodles

amazin

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a little variation on it: