April Full ! Burp...

April 1

It’s a special day. It’s my Birthday!!! I woke up with a beautiful smile hoping to do something exciting during the day and probably go out for a romantic dinner with my Hubby dear. It was a weekday and all my friends were going to be at work. My husband wished me a beautiful day and left for work. I got back to my laptop to complete my assignments and prepare for a client meeting in the afternoon. I was excited and eagerly awaited all the text messages, cards, emails, phone calls, and scraps to flow in. But much to my despair, nothing happened. There I was fretting and fuming, working on my assignments and wondering if everyone had forgotten about my birthday.

 

The day went by and I came back from the client meeting, hoping that hubby dear would be home already and almost certainly we would go out for dinner. When I got back, the apartment was dead silent and there was a message on the answering machine. It was my husband. He was going to be late at work. I felt so miserable. And I got my tub of New Zealand Natural Chocolate Ecstasy Ice cream to console myself.

 

Then suddenly there was someone at the door. It was my darling holding my favourite chocolate cake with all my friends. They had fooled me. Of course it was April 1^st. But, I was not supposed to be fooled! After all, it was my Birthday. But then who does not love surprises. The lounge turned into a party hall with party poppers flying, bottles popping and me cutting and devouring the cake. We then decided to make our way to Zap2 on Dominion Road.

 

Zap2

It has been one of my favourite Thai restaurants since I first came to NZ.  The place is small place and can comfortably accommodate 40-50 people. The ambience may not be flash but the food and service is excellent and its complete value for money. The dishes we tried that night were Tom Yum Soup, Tom Yum Kha Soup and Gayaeng Ped Gae with Rice. By far my favourite was Gayaeng Ped Gae or the Chicken in red thai curry. The spice was just right. The coconut cream was not overpowering nor was the red chilli paste. Just right and the generous use of sweet basil made the experience delightful. I couldn’t resist and I tried making the curry myself on the very next Friday. It was easy. Here’s the recipe for all of you to try. It promises to be awesome!!!!! 

 

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 1 hour approx

Ingredients:

PASTE:

1 small cooking onion, diced

1 stalk lemongrass (cut it into small piece about 3” in size)

1-2 red chillies (depending on desired spiciness) OR substitute 1-2 tsp. dried chilli flakes (omit for mild curry)

5 cloves of garlic

1 thumb-size piece galangal, thinly sliced. (I used ginger instead)

1 Tbsp. brown sugar

3 Tbsp. fish sauce

1 Tbsp. coriander seeds, freshly ground

1^1/2 Tbsp. chilli powder

1 kaffir lime leaf

2 tsp. shrimp paste (Available in places like Tai Ping, Lim Chour market etc.)

^1/2 tsp. turmeric

^1/2 cup fresh coriander leaves

 

OTHER:

400 gms chicken breast, chopped into pieces (or ½ large chicken)

1 ^1/2 cans coconut milk

3-4 kaffir lime leaves

1 cup fresh Thai holy basil leaves or sweet basil (easily available in Food town)

10 - 15 cherry tomatoes or 3 regular tomatoes, sliced

1 red bell pepper chopped into bite-size pieces

1 yellow pepper, chopped into bite-size pieces

1 cup of baby corn

1 cup of asparagus (optional)

5-6 florets of broccoli (optional)

 

Preparation:

To make the paste, place all ingredients in a food processor (or blender).

Add ½ can of the coconut milk and process into a paste.

Pour paste into a large casserole dish. Add the other ^1/2 can of coconut milk plus the chicken pieces and kaffir lime leaves. Also add the leftover upper stalks of lemongrass.

Stir well, until paste is thoroughly mixed with the coconut milk and chicken.

 

Bake at 200 degrees for 40 minutes, remove from oven, stir, and add the vegetables.

Place the dish back into the oven for another 30 minutes. Remove from oven. Stir well, checking to make sure the chicken has cooked (if not, return to oven for 10 more minutes).

Check for salt. Add salt to taste as Fish Sauce is salty. You could also add additional teaspoon of chilli paste / flakes / powder to make your curry more spicy. Discard the lemongrass stalks.

Place in a large serving bowl and sprinkle with freshly chopped basil leaves.

 

For people who prefer cooking on the stove to baking, stir fry the chicken pieces and keep it aside. Use the aforesaid ingredients for making the gravy. Should take 25 minutes on low flame for the curry to cook. Ensure that the vegetables are not overcooked by adding them bit later. This will maintain the freshness in the curry and leave the crunch in the vegetables. Last, add the stir-fried chicken.

  

For vegetarians, you can make the same recipe with vegetables of your choice and of course skip the fish sauce. You could use just salt for seasoning instead. This dish normally serves 5.

 

Garnish it with basil leaves, pieces of lime and pineapple rings. Serve hot with bowl full of jasmine or basmati rice. Enjoy!!!!!!!!

 

As thai food could be rich in carbs, fats and saturated fats, you might want to run that extra mile on the tread mill the next day……………..