Thai Chicken Galangal soup

This is one of my favorite thai soups.

I learnt to do it a long time ago, when I was taking Thai cooking classes. The recipe stayed with me and I cook it regularly. It's very delicate and quite easy to make, and very healthy.
I live close to Chinatown, so I am pretty spoilt, but I reckon many of you will find it difficult to find fresh galangal, and all the other ingredients I always have at home. I'd say you could replace it by either fresh ginger or pwdered galagal, however, it wopn't quite be the same. Thai food is best eaten with fresh ingredients. Other than that, the other ingredients should be easy enough to find in normal supermarkets, in Britain anyway.

You will need for 4 people (or two greedy ones):
- 200g chicken Fillet, sliced into mouth size pieces
- 5 slices of fresh galangal
- 2 cups of Coconut milk (a tin of Chaokoh coconut milk will be perfect)
- 1 cup chicken stock or water
- 2 sticks of fresh lemongrass sliced diagonally
- 3-4 Kaffir lime leaves, fresh if possible, dry is ok
- 2 tblsp thai fish sauce
- 1 to 2 tablspn Lime juice
- 5 bird eye chilis, (2 if you are a bit sensitive), sliced diagonally
- 2 sprigs of fresh coriander
- 200g fresh mushrooms, prepared and cut in half

Heat the coconut in a pan, dilute with either chicken stock or water , and once hot, throw in the galangal, mushroom, lemongrass, kafir lime and then the chicken.
Season with the lime juice and fish sauce, the chilis
Simmer for one minute only and then add the coriander to garnish.
Serve right away and enjoy.

This soup is great to warm you up in winter, and obviously can be apreciated in hot weather as well. It
feels very light and satisfying.

It is a typical soup you can find in Thailand, in restaurants or as street food. The photo at the top was taken at my favorite streetfood stall in Koh Samui: John's stall as I mentioned in an earlier post.

The soup can also be made with prawns or seabass instead of chicken.
Also, the same soup can be made without the coconut milk (only chicken soup), but it would then be a Tom Yam soup, very delicious as well.

The best coconut milk available in our shop is the chokaoh brand, as it is made of young coconut scrapped.

I have inserted below a few photos I took during a stay in Thailand, where I visited a coconut harvest at a plantation, near Chiang Mai:

Making coconut milk


Bunny Rabbit coconut grater

Source: My Thai cook teacher Chorchaba, photos: myself.

A light salad for the summer

When it's hot and sunny, I always crave for fresh ingredients, and a cooling and refreshing dish . Nothing better than a salad, like I've eaten all my youth, when I was living in France. Over there, people decline salad to infinite. today I would like to share a salad with you, my favorite in fact...:

For 2 people:
- 1 can sweetcorn
- 4 medium tomatoes
- Optional: rice, 100g
- 100g hard cheese (emmenthal, gruyere) diced
- 200g cooked (shallow fried or grilled) chicken breast in strips (OR diced surimi sticks OR a vegetarian alternative but you have been warned, chicken works best ...)
- optional: Cervelas (Swiss sausage) diced (Or cooked frankfurters sliced thickly but really not as good as cervelas)

For the vinaigrette sauce:
- 1 tblsp of honey vinegar or Xeres vinegar
- 2 tblsp of rapeseed oil or light tasting olive oil
- 1 tblsp of water
- 1 tblsp honey

Mix all the ingredients together,
Mix the vinaigrette
Pour the vinaigrette on top of the mix, and leave for 10-20 minutes to marinate, then serve.

This salad is rather sweet and sour, and is easy to take to work for lunch. It is balanced, tasty and light, colourful and takes minutes. what else could I say to convince you!?....

Bon Apetit!

The make-do Phở (Vietnamese noodle soup)

I was talking to @lovingpho's and looking a his great website the other day, as was already thinking of the trip to Vietnam I am planning for the end of the year. I sent lovingpho's address to my friend Marjolaine (see previous posts there, there and there) who in turn sent me her recipe and encouraged me to make my first Phở. Impatient, and missing some of the ingredients, I decided to proceed nevertheless.

So my Phở is definitely not authentic, but was surely tasty. And it took no time to prepare.

Here are Marjolaine's instructions for a quick Phở soup:
Ingredients:
- rice noodles
- Beef slices
- stock (beef used if sliced beef used)
- nước mắm
- ginger
- star anise
- chinese 5 spice
- slices of red chillis
- lime
- ngò gai (culantro, or long coriander)
- Thai basil
- bean sprouts

Heat the beef stock with the spices, ginger, sliced onion and star anise.

In a bowl, place the chilli, herbes, beensprouts, lime, noodles and beef slices. Pour the stock on top and serve.

NOW. I ran out of nước mắm (but I still have some thai fish sauce. not quite the same though. they taste very different..) did not have beef slices, bean sprouts or thai basil, I had cilantro but not culantro, and I had rice flakes only as I also ran out of rice noodle.
BUT, it was lunchtime and I was hungry so decided to go ahead anyway. So here is my heretic alternative:

I used some chicken stock I had, in it I threw finely sliced shallot, 1 star anise, a pinch of chinese 5 spice and some rice flakes (they are flat square type noodles see in the next photos), and the ginger chopped .

In a bowl I prepared: the cilantro (coriander leaves), lime juice, diagonal slices of a bird'seye chilli

I used the vietnamese sausage I had in the fridge:

I cut slices in dice, but with hindsight I should have cut long thin strips.

Then I poured the stock mix on top of the ingredients...

Like for thai food, one of the big secret is the right balance between the fish sauce and the lime (adjust). The soup was great for a speed lunch, but I can't wait to make a proper one, as the flavour with the indicated ingredients will be more delicate of course. I already have quite a lot of the ingredients because I often cook Asian food, but I guess it demands some specialist fresh ingredients, and in the UK, even if it is easy to find them in chinatown (ahem, I live next door from it), in this recession time, some people might find it a bit costly to make.

I am looking forward to taste the original vertsion during my trip in Vietnam, can't wait!

Source: Marjolaine's recipe + my own heretic modifications

Kung Po Chicken - quick chinese fix

Kung Po (also spellt Kung Pao)was one of the grades for officials in China. The inventor of this chicken dish was a "Kung Po" official in China who named the dish according to his grade.

This makes a great hot dish that doesn't demand too much time... Don't skip the dried chilis, they are really adding something... I like this dish very very very hot!

INGREDIENTS for two

- 2 large chicken breasts cut in strips (vegetarians/vegans use Quorn)
- (1/2cup) water chestnuts (optional)
- 1 handful unsalted roasted peanuts (Monkey nuts 20 min oven 200degC then peeled) - or you can use cashew nuts
- 5 dried Chinese chilis cut in half (they are the ones looking like mini red bell peppers). Remove the seeds if you think it's too hot for you.
- a handful of runner beans or green beans cut in strips

For the sauce:
- 4 tablespoons white wine
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 4 tablespoons sesame oil
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch (dissolved in 2 tablespoons water)
- a tblpn hot chili paste (chili oil)
- 2 tblpn rice vinegar
- 4 tsp golden syrup
- 4 green onions, chopped
- 1 garlic clove chopped
- 2 tablespoon minced ginger (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Make the Sauce: In a small bowl combine wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, cornstarch/water mixture, chili paste, vinegar and golden syrup. Mix together and add green onion, garlic.

In a small wok, heat sauce slowly until aromatic. (you can use the sauce as a marinade for the chicken and then cook it if you prefer)

Saute the chicken in a large skillet until the meat is opaque and white and the juices run clear

Add dried chilis (water chestnuts and) peanuts and runner beans, cook a few minutes more.

Add the sauce,

Let simmer together until sauce thickens.

Source: my experience of the dish in restaurants + various sources

Chinese quick fix

Sometimes, I am hungry but I don't want to spend much time in the kitchen for it at all. This is one of these recipes you knock in a few minutes. I used a Szichuan sauce in a jar, but another day, I might just try to make it myself for personnal satisfaction.

I ended up with a satisfying dish, and fun to prepare.

Ingredients:
- about 6 cubes of fried tofu, each cut in 4 (you can use chicken goujons if you prefer)
- 1 plaque of easycook noodles
- a handful of dried shitake mushroom, soaked
- 1 spring onion, sliced (keep a few slices for decoration)
- 1 red chili, sliced
- 1 clove of garlic finely chopped
- 1/2 a thumb of garlic, finely cut
- 3 spoonfuls of sichuan sauce
- 1 dash soya sauce
- a few drops of sesame oil
- a pinch of fresh coriander, chopped
Cook the noodles (2 min in boiling water), rince with cold water, drain and reserve.

In a pan, heat the rest of the ingredients together less the tofu, mixing well and making sure that the mix is heated throughoutAdd the tofu, make sure the mix coats the cubes, and that the cubes are hot throughout.
Add in the noodles, and cook till hot and well coated.
Et voila, dish and eat!

Source: me

Healthy Winter Warmer

This winter is particularly cold in Britain, and the reflex is to go for stodgy foods, and hibernation.

Photo credit: Bradlee Mauer - Fotolia.com

But it is worth making some lighter albeit satisfying food. This recipe is nor time consuming nor difficult, and is well worth it. It is light, but filling without gluten type ingredients.

Ingredients for 3:
- 3 chicken breasts
- 3 leeks cut in thick slices
- 3 sweet potatoes cut in thick chips
- 6 parsnips cut in thick chips
- 1 tin chicken soup
(or for the ones bothered by using a tin:
- 2 shallots chopped,
- chicken stock,
- 3 tblspn cream,
- salt, pepper, nutmeg)

In an oven dish:
- place the leeks at the bottom,
- dispose on top the chicken breast cut in two in their width
- (then place above the ingredients for the chicken soup alternative), and,
- as a last layer place the parsnips and sweet potato chips.
Pour on top the chicken soup
Then place in the oven covered at 180degC for 30 min.
After 30 min, uncover the dish and cook for another 30 min.

The chips should be cooked to the core and crispy, and underneath, the chicken should be moist and tasty, in the juices.
Serve hot and have a glass of white wine!

Bon apetit!

Source: Bob

Red Thai Chicken

This dish is for very lazy and healthy days, you'll just need (for 1 or 2 people):

- 150 g chicken breast or better, goujons per person
- 1 sweet red pepper (the long thin ones are the best) - chopped in squares
- 1 fresh firm tomato (diced)
- 1 courgette, chopped in thin slices (cut the slices in two..)
- 1 branch of lemongrass, chopped in slices
- 2 kaffir lime leaves
- 1 hot chili (not the birdeye chilli, the bigger type), cut in slices
- 1 lime (juiced) (+ 1 for backup if adjustment needed or not very juicy)
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- thai fish sauce, slightly less in volume than the juice of the lime
- 1 tblsp sesame oil

In a small bowl, mix the lime juice with the thai fish sauce, taste and adjust with more juice or more fish sauce: If it's too sour add some fish sauce, if too salty add some more lime juice, it's about balance. Reserve.

In a wok, heat the sesame oil, and when hot, throw the chicken cut in long strips, when browned a bit, throw the chopped vegetables, when almost cooked, add the garlic, the kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and chilli pepper, stir in a bit, then at the last moment, add the lime juice and thai fish sauce, and it's ready to serve....

You can serve it with rice, but I think it's fine on its own because it already contains vegetables.

Bon apetit!

Source: my lazy imagination!...

Bacon chichen wrap

This recipe is the fruit of an improvised collaboration of 2 people around a set of ingredients and hunger! it is easy and relatively quick. Most of all, it was very tasty! Only thing, I'll conceed, it looks very messy!
Ingredients:

- 6 thighs and drumsticks

- 6 slices of bacon (take the fat off)

- 1kg parsnips

- 1 big onion

- 1 apple
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds

- 2 tspn paprika
- 1/2tspn chili powder
- 1/2tsp chili flakes

- 1 ttsp ginger powder

- salt and pepper to taste

In a steamer, cook:

- the meat in the bottom tier (for 30 min) and

- the parsnips (reserve one) cut in quarters in the top tier (for 15 minutes)In a blender, placed the peeled and chopped onion, apple and parsnip. Blend to a fine chopped, but not mushy. Then add the ginger, tumeric, salt, pepper and 1 tsp paprikaPlace the cooked parsnip at the bottom of an oven dish.

Stuff the onion mix in the skin of the chicken pieces, coat with the onion mix and hold in place by wrapping the bacon around it. deposit on the parsnips. put the rest of the mix around the pieces of chicken, and sprinkle the dish with the rest of the paprika. Place in the oven for 40 minutes then serve.

Source: collaboration on improvisation

Oven Satay glazed Chicken wings

I did fancy some satay chicken, easy of course, in the oven. I did not follow a recipe, I was inspired that day.
I marinated the chicken wings in
- 2 tsp peanut butter
- 1/2 mashed ripe banana
- a big thumb sized piece of ginger chopped finely
- 4 cloves of garlic chopped finely
- 2 shallots chopped finely
- 1 lime juice
- fish sauce to equal the lime juice
- 1 slosh honey or golden syrup
- a dash of soy sauce
- 1 tblsp sesame oil
- 2 birdeye chillis sliced (I used a green one and a red one)

Marinate the chicken in the mix for at least 1/2h
Then dispose the chicken wings on a tray covered with foil (you don't have to, but remember who's washing the dishes in the end..) pour half the marinade on top.
Cook for 20 mins at 180 deg C oven combined with grill.

Provided you have the ingredients (and I always do...) it's easy enough and you spend a minimum of time making it and taking care of it cooking. Brilliant for parties.

Source: My own improvisation

Le pâté en croute (pâté lorrain) PART 1

I'll introduce a french specialty for once. Made by my mum. This is one of the dishes I crave in Britain, because it does not exist here. It is a sort of meatloaf I suppose, but more juicy, flavoursome and tasty... Not that difficult to make although you need to dose the ingredients correctly, have the right meats at hand (including veal, rabbit,pork...)and a bit long to prepare.....

It contains different types of meat, and herbs, The crust is a sort of puff pastry, that is crusty outside and soaked with the meat juices inside, hummm....
To be eaten warm, straight out of the oven!

See recipe there
Source: my mum

Melaka chicken Rice Balls

I travelled to Malaysia this year and had wonderful food experiences that I want to share with you. No recipe for this post I'm afraid, although if anyone knows how to cook this please let me know, I'd love to cook it myself.

On my way to the historic Square of Melaka (Malacca) from my hotel (Hotel Puri, I could make a whole post on it, it was beautiful), I got a bit Peckish and had a sudden want to try chicken rice balls in a small restaurant that was doing take away too. I would have preferred to stay in, but my travel companion did not want to spend too much time sat down in a restaurant so the consensus was that I took away the dish.

When I finally opened the box and tasted it I could not believe my tastebuds: it was so flavoursome, tasty, the texture and association was incredible. The chicken was juicy and moist, the sauce was soft and meaty, the vegetable were working perfectly with it, and the texture of the rice balls was perfect..

My travel companion regretted then not to have stopped in the restaurant and in the evening, we stopped in an other restaurant at a corner in the same street that claimed a bit louder to do that dish. I had something else then, but her chicken rice ball was nowhere near as good as the one I had for lunch.

So next day lunchtime, we came back to the older quainter looking restaurant (the one just before the mini roundabout and the bridge!), sat down, asked for the menu. No menu. Only one dish! So of course we ordered it! A family of other westerners sat down next to us and quickly went out as soon as they realised there was no menu, their loss!

It turned out that the owner, a lovely lady, had made that dish in that same restaurant for 42 years! No wonder it was so good!