Noodles With Chicken And Red Curry Paste

 

When I was a teenager there was no Mall or a big Shopping center etc.... and I remember there was only one posh store were you could buy imported things was at the same building as a Hotel was in the town.

So ofcourse one never goes to this shop as it is in the building were this posh hotle is, and I remember once going to a friends ( ofcourse we lost touch after me getting married her name is Anjana and me and my sisters have looked in the address book every where to find her back) place with few other friends and it was lunch time, and she said we have take away Noodles for lunch from this posh hotel as her dad had gone for a meeting and he was back home with noodles.
So ofcourse you can imagine what atleast I was thinking wow noodles from this posh hotel double wow :-) and we gorged in the chicken noodles and at that time I thought that was the most tastiest noodles I have ever had .
But I must say after I started cooking I have changed my mind as that was not the tastiest noodles I have had, sometimes I think it is much better if you make them home than these posh hotels.

Ofcourse you need the ingridients and I know when i was younger the only noodles I knew was Maggi noodles .

 



 

I do love to cook elaborated dishes but I also love to cook super fast meals too.

 

If I am giving a party I will be in the kitchen for hours , depending on who is comming or what the occasion is.

But then during the weekdays I am always trying to make dishes which I don't have to be hours in the kitchen. And to prepare this chicken you don't need to be in the kitchen for long.

And another plus point it if I have some left over , I put them in the freezer and when Shyama goes to her place after the weekend I give it to her.

 



I skinned chicken breast

400 ml coconut milk

2 tbsp of vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic peeled and chopped

2 tbsp of ginger finley chopped

1/4 cup spring onions chopped ( if i don't have spring onions i also have use normal onions)

1 big carrot thinly sliced

2 table spoon of thai red curry paste

1 to 2 chillies slices

1 tsp turmeric

2 tablespoon soysauce

1 tablspoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 tsp palm sugar ( if you don't have you can use brown sugar or even normal sugar)

4 tablespoon roasted peanuts crushed

300 gm Noodles  cooked according the the pack instruction ( i just use the noodles i have at home, it doesn't matter what size or kind it is)

A handfull of chopped corriander.

Put the chicken breast and coconut milk into a pan and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or untill the chicken is cooked.

Ramove the chicken breast and keep the rest of the coconut milk in bowl.

When the chicken is a bit cool to handel just shread them, i just use my fingers and as the chicken is cooked it you can shred it easily.

Heat the oil in a wok, add the onions, carrots,ginger and garlic and chillies and stir for few minutes.

Add the shreded chicken  curry paste, turmeric , soysauce, fish sauce and fry for few minutes till everything is coated. Add the coconut milk and palm sugar cook for 2 minutes . Add the cooked noodles and make sure the sauce is coated through, sprinkl with corriander and serve sprinkling the crushed nuts on top.

 



Fish Veloute

These days mostly on Sunday we have fish for lunch , the reason is Shyama, she don't make any fish dish in her place or I don't pack any fish dishes for her in tupperware when se leave on sunday evening as I think food prepared with seafood/fish etc should be eated freshly.

So then I make a some fish dish on sunday as she can enjoy it and plus it is healthy too.
So as it was sunday yesterday I made this FIsh Veloute from May Delicious Magazine and the recipe was from two-star Michelin chef at the London restaurant Le Gavroche.

I do love Michel Roux jr especially after seeing him in Master Chef, such a charming Chef and I am in full admiration when I see him making dishes in various food programmes.

Ofcourse Hans was so excited when I told I was going to make the recipe from Michel Roux as I do make him watch the Master Chef together with me.
And I must say this Veloute Sauce is one of the best I have made or I would go so far as saying the best I have ever ate.
We all loved it and I had a bit left over so I thought before I put the left over portion into the freezer I will take some pics for my blog . Normally I would take a step by step pic when I make something special but as I was not planning to blog it I didn't.
But then I changed my mind when I tasted it I was like something which taste so good one has to share.

I am giving the exact recipe from the Delicious Magazine.
I doubled the recipe as we were with 5 for lunch and I served with Steamed Salmon and Potato mash.

This is what Miche Roux has written about the sauce.
"This is a White Veloute (Velvety) sauce that just thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. It is thickend by evaporating liquid and by the addition of cream.
It is the cornerstin of many fish sauces.
A tip he gave was also when softening shallots or onions in butter you need to start with a cold pan. If you add them to a hot pan with butter they will start to caramalize and then you won't have the white color.



50 gm button mushrooms, finaly sliced
2 shallots finley slices
20 gm unsalted butter
100 ml dry white wine
300 ml good quality fresh fish stock ( I used a good quality stock from the shop)
300 ml double cream
Pepper and salt to taste
Lemon juice to taste ( optional, he has written but i think you should add)

1. In a heavy based pan, gently fry the slices mushrooms and shallots over a low heat in butter untill tender  but not colored.

2. Add the wine increase the heat and boil until the liquid is almost all evaporated, then add the stok and boil untill reduced to half.
Add the cream and boil untill the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Pass through a fine siece pressing the mushrooms and shalts with the back of a spoon to extract all the flavours
Season with salt and pepper, adding a little lemon juice for taste.



 

Cola Chilli Chicken

I am sure most of you know now about Pintrest and when ever I have a bit free time I go to Pintrest to collect recipes and other intresting stuff.

So I had seen this Cola Chilli Chicken there and had pinned it. So one day while sis and I was talking to each other in phone, she was like do you have some intresting recipes for chicken and I gave her the link of this Cola chicken and after a while on the same day she phoned back to say how easy and DELICIOUS this chicken was and I should make it soon.

But then I didn't had dark soy sauce in my pantry so I waited till I got the dark soysauce as I think that is what chicke give this chicken suca a beautiful dark colour.

I got the recipe from a kitchen cat and it is from a Cook book from Billy Law Have you Eaten.
I made few changes but sticked to almost the same recipe. What i have changed i have written in another colour.

 

 

 

 

500gms of chicken thigh fillets
2 tbsp cornstarch/cornflour
4 tbsp soy sauce ( I thought 4 was too much so added less)
 2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion Chopped ( this was not inthe recipe but I like onions in my dishes)
1 red chilli, thinly sliced ( I added 3 green chillies)
5 cm (2 inch) piece ginger, peeled and cut into 1 mm julienne
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
150ml Coke, about half a can
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
Few tablespoon of corn flour mixed with little water.
100 ml +/-  water
1 spring onion, cut into 5 cm (2 inch) lengths
handful of cashew nuts, toasted

1.Remove fatty parts from chicken thigh fillets and cut into 2cm dice.
 2.Place chicken in a bowl and add corn starch and soy sauce. Toss to marinate and if possible, leave to marinate for an hour.
 3.Heat oil in a wok or saute pan on medium heat, and add chicken all at once. Fry for a few minutes until meat is lightly browned.
 4.Add onions,garlic, ginger and chilli to the pan and fry for a further two minutes.
Then I added the dark soysauce and give it a good stir, you will see how the dark soysauce makes the dish looks dark and beautiful and yummy :-)
 5.Add enough Coke to cover the chicken, about half a can. And then add the water.
 6.Allow to reduce by a third, about 10-15 minutes. You will notice the bubbles start to change from lots of small bubbles, to big lazy bubbles that break on the surface.
As I added water I used the corn flour water mix to thicken the sauce after the chicken was cooked.
 7.Add the spring onion and toasted cashews and stir to combine. Simmer for a further one minute and serve hot on rice.

 

Potato Budnt Cake With Sukade and Chocolate Daring Bakers March 2013

I know it is a bit late to post the Daring Bakers from March.

But the thing is I only did the challenge the morning of the posting date which is 27th. And till now I have not had any time to edit the picture and write the post.

 

And the challenge from DB was baking something sweet with vegetable.

First I thought maybe I will bake something with Zucchini or carrots, but then I thought that was predictable and I went hunting for a recipe in my huge collection of cooking books.

And ofcourse I found a recipe which use Potato plus Sukade . I have been looking for this sukade for a while and I have asked so many shops, but never found out and while googling I found out Sukade is a Citrus fruitand according to Wiki it is pickles for a month and then they wash it and then they get a sugar coating etc...

 

A good quality Sukade is soft and taste to orange peel but less bitter.

I must say we here at home love this sukade, we liked it much more than tutti fruity etc...

Mostly they have Sukade tree in Sicilie, Corsica, Greece, Suriname etc...

 



I made the cake in small shapes , small budnt pans and in a small round cake tin.

Ingridients:

150 gm cooked and mashed potatoes ( I steamed them the evening before so that they were cool next morning )

3 eggs

25 gm castor sugar

100 gm powder sugar ( I used only 70gm)

1/2 teaspoon of lime rind

1 tablespoon lemoncello ( if you don't have it you can use lime juice)

75 gm almond powder

1 tablespoon fine semolina

30 gm chopped sukade

50 gm of raisins ( soak the raisins in 2 tbsp of rum if you like, i did that)

Bit of flour for sprinkling on pans.

For the Glaze.

100 gm dark chocolate chopped

1 tbsp of oil

Preheat the oven 1750c and if you have fan oven it is 160°c.

Butter the pans and sprinkle flour on the pans.

Seperate the yolks and white in to different bowl.

Beat the eggs into soft peaks and while whipping the eggs sprinkle the casto sugar.

In the bowl with the egg yolks, stir the yolks, powder sugar,lime rind,lemoncello into a creamy texture.

Add the potato and the almond powder into this creamy mixture. And then the Sukade and the raisins.

Fold in the egg whites into the bater and aslo fold in the semolina.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake for 20 minutes.

Ofcourse depending on the size of tin the time of the baking will change.

When the cake is baked take them out of the oven leave it for some 10 min and then take it out of the pan and cool completly.

When the cake is cooled glaze the cake.

Add the chocolate and the oil i a heat proof bowl and melt in a doubl boiler or in you MV.

When the chocolate is melted pour the glaze over the cake and leave it to dry.
Tips:
If you don't have sukade you can just omit them. If you like prange flavour then you can use orange instead of lime.