Monday 27 August 2007

Thai style Chicken with Basil.

1 large onion
2 chillies (type to taste)
2 chicken breasts
sm tin of coconut milk
Basil Leaves (about 1 large pot worth)
Fish Stock (2x knorr stock cubes in 1 mug of boiling water will do)
2 cloves garlic
Rice Wine
Thai 7 spice
Worcestershire sauce
Rice (Thai)

Serves 2


Fry up onion in a little groundnut oil in a wok.
Once starting to go translucent, add chillies (finley chopped) and garlic (crushed).
Add the chicken (diced) and cook until browned.
Splash in 3 tablespoons (or so) of rice wine, a couple of dashes of worcestershire sauce and the fish stock.
Sprinkle 7 spice across the wok.
Add the coconut milk.

Put the water on to boil and once done, cook the rice as accoring to the packet.

Cook down until much reduced and starting to thicken.
Add the basil. Stir and cook for another minute or two.

Serve.

Thursday 2 August 2007

Creamy Mushroom Pasta.

Serves 2.

250g Pasta (3-4 Handfuls). Posh as you like.
Tin Tomatoes.
4 or 5 of manky mushrooms
1 handful porcini
2 heaped desert spoons of sun dried tomato pesto
1 sm pot sour cream (1/4 pint?)
Chicken stock cube
Italian herbs
2-3 cloves garlic

No Worcestershire!
No Ketchup!
No Cheese!
No Wine!

That said, a good bottle of Italian (Chianti?) or Spanish (Temparillo) goes well.

Soak the porcini in a little boiling water. Add the chicken stock cube to this. Leave for about 10-20 mins, unless in a real hurry.
Chop the 'shrooms, but not too thin. Only 3-4 slices from the average 'shroom.

Fry up the mushrooms in a little olive oil. In a non-stick pan, you don't need any oil to cook up mushrooms, but this recipe is hardly stingy on the grease.
Add the garlic (crushed) when almost done. The mushrooms don't want to be crispy, but do need to be sealed.
Add in the tomatoes (tinned & pesto), the cream, a good dusting of the herbs. Stir & mix well. Let cook for a few mins before adding the porcini & stock mixture.

Let it reduce down for a while. Enjoy the wine?

Put a pan of water onto the boil. Splash a bit of oil on the top.
When boiled, cook the pasta for the recommended time.

[I used some giant pasta shells bought in Windermere. It said cook them in 6 litres of water per 500g. They weren't joking - Obey the cooking instructions, otherwise it might go awry.]

Reduce the sauce down until nice and saucy. Drain pasta, cover with sauce and serve.

You may wish to finish the pasta off in the sauce if it's too runny, and you have a large enough saucepan.