Tag Archives: garlic

#422 – Pad Thai Lunch

Posted on 30 July 2010 by | 5 comments

#422 - Pad Thai

This lunch is my entry into the My Easy Cooking Thai themed first blogging event.  After my success with nut butter in the last Daring Cook’s Challenge I though I might try my hand at making satay from scratch, but after picking up a small brick of tamarind pulp at the New Asian Spice Supermarket in Sea Point I finally decided on Pad Thai. For inspiration I turned to Chez Pim and her method of making Pad Thai.

Today’s Lunch:

  • Pad Thai with
  • chopped peanuts seasoned with a little chilli powder and
  • a wedge of lemon

My easy Cooking Event # 1 - Thai
The first step is to prepare the Pad Thai sauce, but before I could do that I had to process my brick of tamarind pulp. For 250g of tamarind I used two cups of warm water letting it soak for a little while, then working the seeds and fibres from the pulp and finally straining the soaked tamarind to catch any bits I might have missed. This is the fun messy part  🙂

Once I had my tamarind paste I heated a 1/4 cup each of fish sauce, tamarind paste and unrefined brown sugar and 1 tsp chilli powder over a low heat until the sugar melted. This was enough for three portions. Now the sauce was completed I could move on to preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Ingredients (per portion):

  • prepared Pad Thai sauce
  • 1 tsp peanut oil
  • 1/2 a chicken breast, thinly sliced
  • 1/2 a clove of garlic, chopped
  • 1 egg
  • 60g rice noodles (approx 1/6 of a 375g bag), soaked in water till pliable
  • 6 prawns, cooked and shelled
  • 6 sugar snap peas, cut in half diagonally
  • 2 ears of baby corn, cut in half lengthways and then into thirds
  • 1/4 yellow pepper, thinly sliced
  • 1 spring onion, sliced diagonally
  • chilli powder (for serving)
  • Thai basil (for serving)
  • chopped peanuts (for serving)
  • lemon wedges (for serving)

Method:

  1. Heat oil in a wok or large frying pan.
  2. Add chicken, garlic and a spoonful of prepared sauce. Stir-fry until chicken is nearly cooked.
  3. Add noodles and another few spoons of sauce. Continue stir-frying until noodles soften.
  4. Push chicken and noodles to the side of the wok/pan, crack egg into empty side and quickly scramble till cooked.
  5. Add prawns, sugar snap peas, baby corn and yellow pepper. Stir-fry all ingredients together until vegetables are just cooked.
  6. Serve immediately, sprinkled with chilli powder, spring onions, torn Thai basil, chopped peanuts and spritz of lemon.

5 Comments

Posted in Packed Lunches, Recipes

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

#421 – Greek Pasta Salad Lunch

Posted on 27 July 2010 by | 2 comments

#421 - Greek Pasta Salad

If you follow me on Twitter you probably read my tweets about my newly acquired bento from The Crazy Store.  Fellow Tweeter and bento fan Amanda pointed it out to me and I’m so glad she did! It’s a great little set and I got to take it out on it’s maiden voyage today.

Today’s Lunch:

  • Greek flavoured pasta salad: pasta tossed with garlicky braised tomatoes, feta cheese, cucumber and yoghurt dressing (recipe below) topped with wilted pea shoots,
  • apple slices,
  • almonds and
  • wasabi peas.

I received a jar of Kara’s Original Greek Herb Dressing in my goodie bag at the SA Food Bloggers Conference earlier this year and since the conference I’ve used it to dress leafy salads and steamed vegetables with great results.  Here is my simple recipe for a Greek flavoured yoghurt dressing using this herb mix.

Ingredients:

  • 3 tsp Kara’s Original Greek Herb Dressing Mix
  • 6 tsp warm water
  • 1/2 tsp celery salt
  • juice of half a lemon
  • 150ml plain yoghurt

Method:

  1. Add warm water to herb mixture and leave to rehydrate for a few minutes
  2. Add celery salt and lemon juice
  3. Stir into plain yoghurt

This is enough to dress half a packet of pasta (250g dried). I think it would also make a great marinade or dip, although if you plan to use it as a dip you may want to use less salt.

2 Comments

Posted in Packed Lunches, Recipes

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

#407 – Thai Butternut Soup Lunch

Posted on 29 March 2010 by | 3 comments

#406 - Thai Butternut Soup

Have you noticed the seasonal change in the weather recently?  In Cape Town the evenings have a slight chill to them signalling the onset of Autumn and I think that is the perfect excuse to create giant pots of warm and comforting soup.  Like this Thai flavoured butternut soup I made last night.

Today’s Lunch:

  • Thai butternut soup and
  • two slices of muesli loaf from Knead.

Here is my recipe for Thai flavoured butternut soup.

Ingredients:

  • 1Tbsp coconut oil (I used the Kapruka brand that we received in our goodies bags at the SA Food Bloggers Conference)
  • 2 medium sized onions (roughly chopped)
  • 3 large garlic cloves
  • 1.5kg butternut (peeled, seeds removed and cut into large chunks)
  • 1.5ℓ vegetable stock
  • 1 stalk of lemongrass (split in half lengthways)
  • 3 dried limes leaves
  • 200ml coconut milk
  • 1tsp fish sauce
  • a large handful of fresh coriander (chopped)
  • the juice of half a lime

Method:

  1. Sauté the onions and garlic in the coconut oil until the onions are translucent.
  2. Add the butternut and stir-fry for a minute or two to coat with the coconut oil and brown slightly.
  3. Add the vegetable stock, lemongrass and lime leaves and cook for half an hour (or until the butternut is tender)
  4. Remove the lemongrass and lime leaves and then blend to a smooth consistency.
  5. Stir in the coconut milk, fish sauce, coriander and lime juice, bring to the boil and serve.

Makes approximately 9-10 servings

3 Comments

Posted in Packed Lunches, Recipes

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,