Thai Chicken & Pineapple Salad

Quick recipe for a hot summer night. Enough for two people.

Ingredients

2 cups diced leftover roasted or bbq chicken
1 cup fresh diced pineapple
2 tbsps chopped cilantro (may substitute with basil)
2 tbsps chopped fresh mint
1 Thai red chili pepper (seeded, minced)
1 tbsp apricot jelly
1/4 cup ginger sesame dressing

In a large bowl, mix chicken, pineapple, cilantro & fresh mint.

In a small bowl whisk apricot jelly, chili & dressing together.

Drizzle mixture over chicken mixture.

Toss well and serve. Great for lettuce wraps or salad roll filling.

Enjoy :)

Thai Style Beef & Potato Stew

Ingredients:

1.5kg of cubed lean beef
1 large potato diced (in this recipe I used a yam because I was out of russets)
1 tbsp whole tricolor peppercorns
6 lime leaves sliced to thin fine strips
1" piece of galangal sliced
3 tbsp minced garlic
2 sprigs of Thai basil
2 cups beef stock
2 tbsps of EVOO

Turn the stove to Medium high heat.
In a pot place EVOO and garlic. Stir and cook till slightly golden. Add beef and brown all sides of the meat.
Deglaze the pot with stock scrapping the browned bits off the bottom for added flavour. Stir in the potato and bring to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes and turn down the heat to Medium.

Add peppercorns, lime leaves, galangal, whole basil stalks only, reserve the leaves for later. Stir and combine with stew mixture.

Cook covered at medium heat for 45 minutes to an hour occasionally stirring. Garnish with reserved basil leaves. Serve with rice, noodles or bread.

Enjoy :)

Thai Red Carrot Curry

I was on a whim of trying something new today. I had about a half cup of baby carrots and some thai red curry paste that I have purchased from my local thai restaurant. I thought maybe I could make it a carrot curry sauce. And so I did. For the curry paste recipe, incorporate 1/2 cup carrots with 2 tbsps of your favourite red curry paste. Blend with 1/2 cup of coconut milk. You should end up with a chunky paste.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, sliced
1 tbsp fish sauce or tamari sauce
1 tbsp golden cane sugar or palm sugar
2 tbsps corn starch
2 tbsps garlic granules
1/2 cup carrot, roughly chopped
2 cups coconut milk, seperated into 1-1/2 cups & 1/2 cup
2 tbsps red Thai curry paste
1 handful coriander leaves, roughly chopped
1 cup asparagus, 1" lengths
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 ginger slice, minced

In a glass bowl marinate chicken with fish sauce, sugar, corn starch and garlic granules for 30 minutes to an hour.

In a wok heat up 1 tbsp of cooking oil, add garlic and ginger and stir till it is golden brown. Add mushroom slices and pan fry till golden brown. Add chicken and let cook for 5 minutes, occassionally stirring. Add curry paste and 1-1/2 cups of coconut milk. Simmer for 3 minutes. Add asparagus, stir and cover for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and serve with coriander as a garnish.

Keep in mind that the vegetables can be substituted with any vegetable of your choice. But the carrots will remain an ingredient for the sauce. :) You can also make this a vegetarian dish, use tempeh or tofu in place of the chicken. If you want it to be a vegan dish, then use tamari instead of fish sauce.

This curry is best served hot with steamed rice or flat bread. Hope you enjoy my recipe and feel free to leave me a comment below.

Happy Cooking :)