THAIT TIMING BUT I MADE IT WITH SPICY PEANUT CHICKEN

As my title suggests…….I am skidding in on an aromatic fog at the very last minute with my entry for the most exciting first blog event at Nina’s My Easy Cooking I didnt intend being so late. Life just has its way of throwing curve balls at one every now and again! I mulled over what I was going to cook all of last week and then had to wait for my planned trip to the shops. I had intended going on Tuesday but had to go Wednesday instead. Then yesterday I had a sick grandson with me so had to reschedule my cooking for today!

 

I just love Thai food but I love Thai food in a good Thai restaurant. In the past I have enjoyed delightful meals with friends at both Thaifoon  and also at Wang Thai I’m sure I would love Thai food even more if I could savour it in its natural setting but I reckon my chances of finding myself in Thailand are pretty slim to nothing so I enjoy it where and when I can which is NOT very often because it is definitely not at the top of brownieboys must eat list!!!  To date my only go to Thai recipe has been Green Chicken curry so I decided that with an event like this it would be a good opportunity to broaden my horizons a bit. I mean….lately I have really got into some exciting recipe development and I am loving it. Maybe it is what I should have done years ago! But I definitely need a mini hoard of hands with spoons tucking into what I make….at the moment I am the only hand with a spoon tucking in and it is proving itself detrimental to my Low GI success. My clothes are definitely getting tighter! Time to embrace my fat cells or stop what I am loving doing!!

 

 Soooooo, I studied many websites on Thai cooking and cuisine the last week or so  and, to cut a loooong story short, I ended up with a choice of about 5 or 6 different dishes that I wanted to try. Needless to say I couldn’t do them all for this event so I ended up choosing to do a 3 course menu for one today…I made Tom Ka Gai (Chicken Soup with Lemongrass and Coconut) which was whooooooo potent but so so delicious. The coconut gave it a wonderful taste but I think next time I will make it more like a broth without the coconut milk so that it could be less calorific for me. And maybe cut down abit on the amount of chilli! I think authentic Thai food is much more potent than what is served in our local restaurants. I found a great website here with links to dozens of recipes and I got all my inspiration from those.Of course I had to sample and eat my meal all on my own. I was so wishing that my friend Halfpint could have been here to enjoy this with me.  Sweet Daughter had a business lunch that trekked on to about 3 pm so it was not to be for me to have an eating/sampling partner. I cannot give the Thai food to brownieboy to eat…he doesn’t do the chilli thang too well at all hehe. OH!!! Did I mention that I had my two little busy monsters again for a couple of hours from school end till SD’s lunch end?? In the middle of my big Thai cook off LOL! I was running round in circles making food for hungry growing boys, making tea, mopping up spilled tea, helping Tyler with his farmville and frontierville (geez I hate that game!) trying to keep little hands out of the chilli madness in the kitchen, taking photographs before the sun dipped too far over the mountain. It was a madhouse I tell you. My second course was a Thai Peanut Chicken dish that I served with Coconut Rice. I looked at a lot of different recipes on the internet and then decided to do a fairly simple dish rather than satay with the threading of the meat onto skewers. Thank goodness for that seeing as my day was a bit chaotic. It turned out really well and I would definitely make it again as well. Even brownieboy liked it 🙂 and my neighbour popped over for a chat this evening so she also had a taste and said it was delicious. I also made a sweet chilli sauce called Nam Prik Pao which is also pretty potent stuff and that is saying a lot because I loooooove me some chillies people. Hot chillies!!! The sauce is delicious though and fabulous for dipping and for adding to the soup or the chicken dish. So I have a little jar of that in my fridge for future dipping sessions..I feel some spring rolls coming on soon 🙂 I am a hopeless case in the diet stakes I am afraid……Dessert!! What can I say………after all that hot stuff I had to cool myself down so ice cream it was. I used Vanilla Ice Cream and made a divine salted caramel and chilli sauce to pour over it…..oh my word, it was really delicious!!! All that was lacking was a couple of lychees to go with it 🙂 Next time……..So there you have it, my 3 course Thai meal for one!! Without further ado here is my main dish from today…..Thai Peanut Chicken with Coconut Rice 

Thai Peanut Chicken with Coconut Rice and Nam Prik Pao

 FRAGRANT COCONUT RICE

15ml Peanut Oil 

250ml Rice – use fragrant Jasmine rice if you have it

250ml Water  

125ml Coconut Milk (I used a light one)  

Pinch Salt  

5ml Palm Sugar  

5ml Lime Juice  

30ml Dessicated Coconut (dry toast 15ml and save for garnishing)  

Fresh Coriander for garnishing  

   

Place the oil in a saucepan and add the rice. Stir over medium heat until all the rice is shiny and coated.  

Add the res of the ingredients excepting for the last 15ml of Coconut for garnishing  

Bring to the boil over medium heat while stirring then cover tightly with lid and reduce heat to low.  

Allow rice to simmer gently for about 10-15 minutes until the liquid has all evaporated.  

Turn the heat off completely and allow rice to sit with the lid on until you are ready to serve. It will continue steaming and softening.  

I always cook my rice this method and always get perfectly cooked rice 

  

THAI PEANUT CHICKEN  

2 skinless chicken breasts – sliced into smallish cubes  

Peanut oil  

1 Small Onion – peeled and chopped  

A good 4cm of Fresh Ginger – grated  

3 Large Garlic cloves – grated

4 Spring Onions – sliced diagonally in thin slices  

1 Red Pepper – deseeded and sliced into cubes  

1 Tomato – skinned, deseeded & chopped  

10ml Fresh Coriander – finely chopped  

5ml Sambal Oelek – or use 1 or 2 fresh chopped red chillies if you have them  

2ml Sesame Oil  
Sauce-
10ml Ponzu Soy Sauce  

5ml Fish Sauce  

10ml Palm Sugar  

45ml Smooth Peanut Butter (I use the non sweetened one)

10ml Rice Wine Vinegar  

Few drops of Hot Chilli Sauce (I used Bushmans Chilli but you can use tabasco as well  

60ml Coconut Milk  

Little water to thin if needed  

100ml Dry Toasted Peanuts – just pop the peanuts into a pan over high heat and toast them while constantly shaking the pan until they release their aroma and start turning brown. Don’t let them burn!  

Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and set aside  

Pour a bit of peanut oil into a wok, add the chicken cubes and saute over medium heat until just lightly browned, drain with a slotted spoon and set aside  

Add the onion, red pepper, spring onions, sambal oelek, garlic and ginger to the wok and saute for a minute or so  

Add the tomato and coriander and stir fry for a minute then remove all and set aside  

Add the sesame oil to the wok then add the sauce, adding a little water to thin it down if needed. Stir constantly and bring to the boil then remove from the heat.  

Add the chicken and the vegetables back to the wok, together with  most of the and toss all together gently till the sauce is evenly distributed through the mixture  

Scoop out into a serving bowl, garnish with some of the toasted peanuts, roughly chopped coriander and spring onions  

 

  

 Fluff up the still warm rice with a pair of chopsticks or a fork, serve in a separate bowl garnished with some toasted coconut and fresh coriander  

  

Just a final word. Thai cuisine embraces all five of the flavours: sweet, spicy, salty, bitter and sour. Only Thai cuisine brings out all of these flavors to play together harmoniously in a meal. Play around with them to suit your own tastes. You can add a bit more of one to balance the other etc. If you don’t have palm sugar use brown sugar instead. 

I discovered that Fish Sauce PONGS ridiculously but just a bit of it adds the most wonderful dimension to food. Just don’t spill any or get it on you 🙂  

And preparing a Thai meal is sanook – FUN!!  

Enjoy!!!  

Colleen xx  

 Do pop over to My Easy Cooking and check out all the other entries once Nina has done her round up. The event closes today! 

  

Next time I will give you my recipe for the Nam Prik Pao which is a wonderful addition to this meal.