ayonecan-cook

This is another grilled chicken recipe from Rachel Allen. Thai influenced and easy. I was tempted to add some coconut cream but decided otherwise at the last minute because I thought her chicken looked yummy enough.  We had this for dinner. I was expecting it to be a little stickier considering the name but it wasn't as sticky. Okay I'll admit I did not follow the recipe to a T.......neither did Rachel on tv.....but it was tasty. The next time I make this i would add some dry  roasted and crushed cumin seeds or a dash of cumin powder and a splash of coconut cream to the marinade. I think it would be much more flavourful. Having said that, this wasn't bad at all. I like baking or roasting chicken. I get to nap. The Recipe ~ adapted from Rachel Allen 6 chicken thighs and drumsticks 2-3 red chillies, chopped 1 inch ginger, chopped 5 cloves garlic, chopped 2 sticks lemon grass, white part only and sliced 2 - 3 T brown sugar, I used palm sugar juice of 2 limes 3-4 T fish sauce ...

Papaya trees grow from a seed to a fruit-bearing 20 foot tree in about eighteen months. And they fruit the way rabbits breed. In a bunch. They are not one of my favourite fruit because they have a slight bitter undertone. But young green papaya when made into a Thai salad transforms into something quite, quite wonderful. Utterly refreshing.  My first encounter of a Thai papaya salad was at the Thai ambassador's cocktail party many years ago. In an effort to promote their cuisine they had booths set up to demonstrate the makings of various scrumptious Thai dishes. Surprisingly amoung all other mouth-watering dishes the one dish that I fell in love with was the Thai papaya salad.  I think it was the combination and perfect balance of fresh fruit, toasted dried shrimps, hot chillies, salty fish sauce, tart lime juice and crunchy peanuts that won me over. With the Thai papaya salad comes the above, right, which, I  believe, is a Thai invention. The papaya/fruit shredder. It l...

  Thai sweet chillie sauce is syrupy, sweet and hot spicy. It takes under 10 minutes to make from start to finish. It's super quick. But I think the most satisfying part about making sauces, pickles, chutneys, jams or relishes, super quick or not,  is in the bottling.  Because you just know better things are about to come. I really wanted a square bottle for this. So I went to Daiso. Got it.  Daiso has everything. They have the littlest sauce bottles in the world too. Each slightly longer than an inch and perhaps skinnier than your little finger.  They are to bring along with you when you travel.  For when you're feeling homesick. Or perhaps to work. So quirky. Even silly me wouldn't buy them. They are just too little. :)  But I did buy that cute spoon in the photo. I can't stop myself buying things from that store. H e l p . And then I made sauce. The recipe ~ This sauce was so easy. I got the recipe off Closet Cooking who got it off She Simmers . Ho...

I suppose when one has sucked, slurped and savoured a piping hot Char Kuay Teow from a road side stall no other noodle dish can ever quite make it into your book of heavenly noodles.  I made Pad Thai today. I used rice vermicelli instead of flat rice noodles because I wasn't feeling animated enough to make home made flat rice noodles (I never use commercially made ones).  All in all the Pad Thai was good. This is my second attempt at Pad Thai because I thought I did not quite get it right the first time. What made it different from other local fried noodles is the fact that it had the slight sourness of tamarind to it . I had also added extra chillie powder to the tamarind/fish sauce sauce because I like it hot. This was a noodle dish that did not blow me away but it was not bad. It was good. I'll give it a 7. I'll give Char Kuay Teow a 12 ~ no matter which competent person fries it. Pad Thai lovers please don't hit me. But you know, maybe it's just me. Maybe I...

Glass noodles ~ cellophane noodles ~ mung bean threads ~ su'on ~ tunghoon ~ they're all one and the same. Slippery glass threads that are near impossible to scoop up if they were put into a soup. It's not to be confused with rice noodles. It's complete transparency and its feel as it slips through your lips, slides over your tongue and slithers down your throat makes it a very unique noodle.  It is an ingredient in a lovely soup with dried or fresh shrimps  that I used to eat as a child. A soup that's made up of bean curd skin, loofah, wooden ear fungus, golden needles and finally the glass noodles. Delicious. It was a favourite vegetable soup. But it was always the glass noodles that attracted and fascinated me more than anything else. It kept me busy. But the Thais have made it the main ingredient in a light and lovely salad. Less slithery because it is not in a soup but is a moist salad and very delicious because it is mixed with a spicy, salty, sour and sweet dr...

This is my third contribution to Food For Thought, a fortnightly meme where books combine with food in a post, hosted by the wonderful and talented Jain of Food For Thought , Food With Style and  Once in a Blue Moon .   THE GIVER ~ ***** This book came with an ending that I could never quite forget. Not because it was spectacular, unexpected or odd but because it was warm, inviting and absolutely welcoming. It was a beginning. When you read about people who think about love as being meaningless or obsolete, when their life is black and white and grey, literally or otherwise, when pain and suffering has been lost to a world long ago that the wisdom that comes with it is no more, you begin to ponder on the purpose of their existence.  This is a childrens' modern classic. It is a book that has become required reading in schools across America and in Germany while at the same time arousing debate and controversy over the suitability of its mature themes such as euthanasia, ...