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.

smoked mackerel and konnyaku salad

Salad: half cucumber bunch scallions balsamic olive oil coriander garlic pepper finely chopped large red chilli Peppered smoked mackarel flaked into chunks and put on top. Ripped a block of konnyaku into chunks n boiled for 1 minute. Drained washed in cold water and added to salad.

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!

Crap in a Pot MMXII

not much thought went into this

onion chopped softened for a minute in olive oil
half bag fresh coriander chopped
2 sticks lemongrass
a few cloves of garlic

for some reason cooked on high a load of pork loins chunked up with plenty salt pepper in a separate olive oiled pot then added to main pot including juices

put on high heat, added some water to stop burning
added can of tomatoes, can of coconut
3 dried chillies
200grams of shrimp
brought back to boil
added a chinese cabbage, bag of beansprouts, bag of sugar snap peas
left to wilt for a while on high

realised it tasted shit so added some chicken stock
served with basmati
made about 8 large portions

not sure if it's any good yet, will leave to sit for a whiles, may be lacking in seasoning. i meant to put cumin in as well i just remembered.

[edit]
lovely with cumin. needed t sit for chilli to soak around