Thai Green Chicken Curry

















I decided to make one of these from scratch this evening and it turned out delicious. What you need is,

500g boned and skinned chicken thighs
2 finely chopped onions
1 yellow pepper, finely chopped
10 mushrooms, sliced
1 tin of coconut milk or 150g of coconut powder blended with 300ml of fresh milk
One large handful of fresh coriander
2 inches of fresh ginger, sliced
2 crushed garlic cloves
2 red chillies
20 ml of lime juice
1 large stalk of lemongrass, crushed and sliced
2 tablespoons of Thai fish sauce
1 tablespoon of Thai 7 spice
1 heaped teaspoon of cornflour

First I chopped the chicken thighs and coated them with the Thai 7 spice. Chicken thighs are much nicer than breasts I think cos the flavour is better and the meat is juicier. It's also cheaper than breast.
I then washed the coriander and added it to a food processor along with the ginger, garllic, chilli and lime juice. After blitzing for about ten seconds I removed the lovely aromatic paste and set it aside.
Frying that delicious thigh meat was the next step. I fried it in a little rapeseed oil which I allowed to get nice and hot. Once browned I removed it from the pan.
I added the onion afterwards and fried it for 3 minuted. once the onion was gettion nice and soft I added the paste to the pot. It smelled really pleasant and aromatic as I fried it for about a minute.
Adding the coconut milk and mixing it with the onion and paste was the next step. I then added the mushroom, pepper and the browned meat to the mix along with the crushed and sliced lemongrass stalk.
After simmering for 10 minutes I added the Thai fish sauce. I believe this really makes the difference as it brings out the richness of the flavours. I added the cornflour afterwards which ever so slightly thickens the curry sauce. I prefer to add the cornflour as I don't like my curries too runny.
After serving this delicious curry on a small bed of brown rice I took it into the sitting room and wolfed it down. I transferred the remainder to my lunchbox for tomorrow and took the above pic with my trusty old Nokia phone.

Enjoy:-)

Time to get this blog back on the road. I'll be posting new recipes tomorrow and retro game reviews soon:-)

Chicken casserole with Spinach and Gorgonzola

This is an experimental dish I tried out last night. Turned out really nice I must say. What I used was...

1 small free-range chicken, skinned
3 carrots, chopped
6 big chestnut mushrooms, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
3 chopped garlic cloves
1 birdeye chilli, seeds included
1/2 bag of fresh spinach
70g of Gorgonzola cheese
3 heaped tablespoons of Chicken Bovril
1.5l of boiling water
Salt, pepper and dried sage to season

After preparing the veggies I blended the chicken Bovril with the water and added the seasonings to it. I fried the onions, garlic and chilli in a little olive oil in a large non-stick pot until soft and light brown. I then added the stock and the skinned chicken. I added the rest of the chopped veggies (except the spinach) to the pot, placed the lid on and simmered on the stove for 1 hour and 10 mins. Alternatively you could place in a pre-heated oven at gas 5 for the same amount of time.
The chicken should be nicely cooked through at this stage. I removed the chicken from the pot onto a chopping board. Whilst stillsimmering on the stove I thoroughly mixed the Gorgonzola cheese into the stock untilfully dissolved. I washed the spinach and after adding it to the stock it wilted in nicely. I cut meself a leg and a nice piece of breast and placed the meat into a deep dish along with a large ladleful of the stock and veggies. Really delicious, the gorgonzola and chilli gives the stock a unique bite, almost addictive. Enjoy.

Sausage&Bacon stew

This is simple and delicious. It should feed four hungry people. What you need is;

The stew

A 2lb smoked bacon joint, chopped into cubes
2lb of good quality pork sausages (Paul Rankins pork sausages with ginger and scallions are very good for this)
1 litre of Chicken stock
2 chopped carrots
100g of frozen garden peas
200g of chopped chestnut mushrooms
1 big finely chopped onion or 4 small finely chopped onions.
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of cornflour, blended with 20mlwater

The mash
8 peeled rooster potatoes
100ml milk
2 tablespoons of Philedelphia garlic & herb cheese
a knob of real butter
Salt & pepper

Once you have all your meat and veggies prepared, get yer spuds cooking whole in a steamer pot preferably. Fry up your sausages in a casserole pot in a little olive oil until brown, remove and set aside. Then fry up your bacon, onions and garlic in a little olive oil for about 5 mins. Check out the aroma, it's beautiful. Smoked bacon is best for this, it gives the stew a gorgeous flavour. You then need to add your chicken stock.You can also use veggie stock for this if you wish. Add your chopped mushrooms, peas and chopped carrots, return your sossies to the pot, sprinkle in some salt and pepper and place in a pre heated oven at gas 5 for 40 mins.
After the 40 mins are up, your spuds should be ready to mash. Mash them up plain at first, then add some salt&pepper, your milk, the Philedelphia cheese and the butter and blend together till smooth and creamy. Serve up a nice helping of the mash onto four plates, bang in the middle of the plate and ladel equal amounts of the casserole over the mash. Sprinkle with some chopped parsley if youwish and serve with a good, chilled Chardonnay. Delicious.

Condoms for Little Willies

Spotted these on sale at the Brightside shop in Foxe's Bow Limerick.

This is why you're fat

Here's a brill little site I found whilst browsing boards.ie. Just wanna thank the lad who posted the link to this site. It shows some of the most gross, disgusting fast-food combos ever. Stuff that Homer Simpson would cream himself over. My personal fave is the Giant Pizza burger, deliciously gross:) Check it out!



http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/page/1

Wonderful Roast Lamb curry

This is a delicious recipe, definately my nicest curry bar none. I originally got the idea for this recipe from a work colleague who marinated some butterflied lamb with cury paste and barbecued it. I just decided to develop it a little. First of all you need a nice shoulder of lamb. Make sure that you go to a good reputable butcher cos some lamb shoulders I bought have been as tough as iron. I like to use a jar of Pataks Tikka Masala curry paste or Pataks Extra Hot curry paste. The extra hot paste can't be found in regular supermarkets, I got mine from a little Indian foods shop in Denmark st Limerick. You can also make your own paste if you wish by using plenty of onions, ginger, garlic, spices, a little tamarind, plenty of tomato puree and vegetable oil but I'll provide the exact recipe for that at a later date. For now I'll just use the Pataks stuff. The next thing I done was blended about a third of the jar of curry paste with about a half-tub of Glenisk natural yoghurt. This is my fave yoghurt it's lovely and creamy. You then cover the entire surface of the lamb shoulder with this mix. If you want you can leave this marinate overnight although it still tastes delicious if you're too impatient for this step. Place the lamb in a good quality non-stick baking tray, cover with tin-foil and place in a pre-heated oven at about 170C/Gas mark 4 for 3.5 hours for best results. In the meantime chop up about 12 mushrooms, 2 onions up small, about 3 cloves of garlic, a nice two square inches of ginger and both a red and a green chilli. You can blend the garlic, chilli and ginger with the remaining half tub of yoghurt if you wish. Alternatively you may fry them in with the onions and mushrooms, more on that later. When the meat is done remove from baking tray onto a large chopping board. Get yer wok/non-stick pot nice and hot (not too hot) on the stove with plenty of either olive oil, ghee or butter. Add yer chopped onions and mushrooms (you may add your chillies,garlic and ginger at this stage also if you have decided not to blend them with the yoghurt). Add about two more tablespoonfuls of your curry paste and fry until the veggies are nicely covered and soft. Add the remaining yoghurt and a nice helping of the juices from the roasting tin and simmer for about fifteen minutes. You might anna stick on some rice at this time also. In the meantime carve up the lamb (just smell that lovely aroma emanating from the lamb). When the veggie curry mix is ready serve up a large helping of the lamb onto a plate with a nice helping of rice and pour a big ladleful of the veg curry over the meat. Sprinkle with some chopped coriander leaf and enjoy with some poppadums/naan bread/chapatis. Simply delicious:)