THAI GREEN CHICKEN CURRY

Let’s make a Thai Green Chicken Curry today. And we will make our own green curry paste. You can buy delicious Thai curry pastes, it is true. But we will make ours from scratch. It is not difficult. And it will be rewarding.

Ingredients:

Thai Green Paste:

1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
12 black peppercorns
12 small dried shrimp or 1 teaspoon shrimp paste
20 Thai green chillies
2 shallots
1 lemon grass stalk
3 kaffir lime leaves
Some grated kaffir rind
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh galangal (or ginger, if you cannot get galangal)
½ teaspoon salt
½ tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Chicken Curry:

1 big chicken breast
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ chopped onion
½ cup cubed squash
½ cup chopped green pepper
1 chopped carrot
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 tomato
1 teaspoon fish sauce
½ cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon chopped cilantro

First we will make our green paste. We will take the cumin and the coriander seeds and we will dry-roast them in a pan. Be careful, do not burn the seeds. Once this is done, put them in a mortar and grind them along with the peppercorns and the dried shrimp.
Prepare the green chillies. You will have to remove the seeds and chop them a bit. Now we will start mixing all the green paste ingredients in a blender. We will chop the shallots and lemon grass and then we will put them in the blender. We will do the same with the kaffir lime leaves, the galangal and the garlic. We will add the grated kaffir rind. Now we can blend a little. After this, we will add the rest of the ingredients for our paste: the green chillies, the mix with cumin, coriander, dried shrimp and peppercorns. We will blend again and then we will add some sugar, some salt to taste and some vegetable oil. We have to use the oil to get a delicious green paste, so use it to get the paste to your taste. And with this we will have our green paste.
Now we will start with the curry. We will cut the chicken the way we want, cubes, strips, it is up to you. We will prepare the vegetables too.
Then, in a wok, we will heat the vegetable oil. Once it the oil is hot, we will start cooking our ingredients. First, the onion, the carrot and the green pepper. A couple of minutes later we will add the chicken to the wok. Stir continuously, that is always a good idea. You can add some extra garlic and galangal (or ginger) now. We have these ingredients in the paste but it would be good to add some more.
We will add now the fish sauce. And then we will add the mushrooms and the squash. A minute later we will add the green paste, two or three tablespoons, to your taste. We will stir and mix everything and then we will add the tomato cut in little pieces.
Now is when we can add the coconut milk. We will cook our curry very gently now. It is the time to add the lime juice and the chopped cilantro.
We can add some other ingredients. For example we can add some peanuts and bamboo shoots. Do this when u add the chicken to the wok. A good touch is adding some basil, Thai basil if you can get it. Add it when you add the fresh cilantro. We will have our Thai Green Chicken Curry ready now. You just have to serve it with some Thai Jasmine rice. And enjoy your Thai Green Chicken Curry cooked with your own Thai Green Paste!

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SWEET POTATO CHIPS

More vegetarian. Why not cooking some Sweet Potato Chips. Everyone likes chips. Today, instead of cooking regular potato chips I will use sweet potatoes, something different and delicious.

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato
Some extra virgin olive oil
Some salt to taste

We do not really need many ingredients for this recipe. Just sweet potatoes, oil and some salt. We will use extra virgin olive oil. I do not think I have to tell you why.
Sweet potatoes are very common in the United States. In Spain are not used much, to tell the truth. And it is a pity, because sweet potatoes are very good vegetables.
Our recipe is very easy. We will peel the sweet potatoes first and then, using a mandoline, we will make thin slices. Then we will heat some extra virgin olive oil in a pan. The next thing is frying the potatoes in several batches. Make sure they are well done and add some salt to taste. Leave the chips on kitchen paper towel to get rid of the oil they might have. You can serve them with your favourite dishes, burgers, chicken… Now is up to you. Enjoy!

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FRIED CAULIFLOWER

Vegetarian today. Indian influences, Indian spices. Something very healthy. And very easy to make. I like this recipe because is a different way of eating cauliflower. Those who do not like this vegetable will find it interesting.

Ingredients:

½ cauliflower
2 eggs
4 tablespoons milk
Some freshly ground black pepper
Some salt to taste
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon turmeric
Some vegetable oil

First we will cut the cauliflower in little pieces. The next step is steaming them for five minutes. Once this is done, we will drain the cauliflower.
In a container we will mix the eggs, the milk, the pepper and the salt.
Now, using a pan without any oil, we will toast the cumin seeds gently. Do not let them get burnt. It is important to shake the pan with the cumin seeds. When they start to get brown remove the pan from the heat.
Now we will add half of the seeds to the container with the eggs and the milk. We will mix this well. Then we will add the cauliflower pieces to the mixture. And then we will fry pieces of cauliflower and egg mixture in a frying pan with hot oil. We may need to do this in several batches.
Finally, add the rest of the cumin seeds, pepper and salt to taste. And enjoy your Fried Cauliflower.

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