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:

Thai Whole Chicken Soup

Here's one that I'd been gathering ingredients for for a while but didn't know what I was making.

1) boiled a small whole chicken in about 2 litres of chicken stock with shallots and garlic for 1.25hrs.
Sieved the resulting broth and scooped some oil off the top. separated the meat from the bones and garbage and put back with sieved liquid. discarded everything else.

2) added 2 lrge lemongrass stalks, 4 kaffir leaves, 2 chilis, and a large piece of grated galangal, brought to boil then turned down and added 4 tbsp fish sauce, 1 can coconut milk, and a bunch of sugar snap peas.
turned down some more and added the juice of half a lime, and some sugar and cayenne pepper to taste.
garnished with coriander and basil leaves.
served with wholegrain noodles.

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take 2.
didn't put the chicken meat straight back in as it got too shredded from being boiled about. left it to last step when adding lime juice.
didn't use store bought coconut milk, used my own homemade coconut milk, much more delicate and not overwhelming at all, also a bit more coconuty taste.
consequently needed less fish sauce and no cayenne pepper, but added 3 dried chillis and a whole lime.

Sesame Chicken & Spicey Salad

Chopped up 4 chicken breasts (400g) into thin 3cm long slices.
made a marinade for chicken with:
at least 6 tbsp soy sauce
about the same of balsamic vinegar
roughly 4 tbsp sesame oil
and a 2inch by 1 inch piece of ginger finely chopped

stirred up well and left to marinate for about 50mins.

Meanwhile made the salad with:
1 head iceberg lettuce shredded (kept 4 whole outer leaves to use as bowls for the chicken)
3 bell peppers chopped
1 cucumber chopped in slices then divided further
5 tomatoes cut into 6 slices each (threw away any juice and seed bits that came loose)
a handful of bluberries
last but not least 2 very large red chilli peppers deseeded and finely chopped.
tossed well in a large bowl

made a salad dressing with:
soy sauce
sesame oil
balsamic vinegar
2 or 3tsp ground coriander
juice of 1 lime

Cooked the chicken in a hot pan for a few minutes with all the marinade until the chicken had coloured and just cooked but no longer. chicken was very tender and succulent.

Served on a plate by putting out the salad and dressing it, then propped up a lettuce bowl in the salad and put 1/4 of the chicken in the leaf bowl with some of the cooked marinade. This kept the marinade sauce and the dressing separate.

Yum!

Lemony Lemongrass Chicken

This is very much a chunky soup / stew really.

4 very large chicken breasts diced and marinated in the juice of 2 lemons.
About 4 large lemongrass sticks, removed bulbs and outer leaves, finely chopped the light coloured bit, bruised and made cuts in the stalks but left whole.
The lemon was probably a mistake, but I also kinda knew I was doing the wrong thing and wanted to see what happened.
Added the lemongrass to a pot of 1 litre chicken stock (half a Knorr homestyle chicken stock pot), and added sliced chicken also. Brought to the boil then simmered while I got the veg ready (12 mins maybe)

Chopped 1 small tray of those wee young corn on the cobs, 3 large peppers (green, red, yellow), and 4 hadfuls of spinach. Brought back to the boil threw in a can of coconut milk and left simmer for a few minutes while I cooked a big pot of medium noodles.

I then added 4 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp thai fish sauce, and 1/2 tbsp hot sauce. At this point it smelt fucking amazing and I thought I'd gotten away with the lemons, a quick taste revealed the ridiculously overpowering acidity, 1 tbsp of honey fixed this right up though. After a quick tasting session with the noodles I added 1 more tbsp of soy sauce. Viola, perfection! A very fresh tasting soupy noodle broth =)

This made me about 8 small meals.

This is probaby the first meal I've made in a long time that didn't have a ridiculous amount and chilli and garlic i just realised.