THAI CHICKEN WITH PEANUT SAUCE

A recipe that led to a marriage proposal gotta be pretty awesome, don’t you think? You can check out the details on this blog post. I modified slightly the recipe, which is delicious, but could not possibly end in engagement, as I am – as you know – very happily married already. The flavors are complex and the whole meal super satisfying. It would work on any type of weather, cold evenings, or warm nights. So even if you are in Brazil or Australia, grab the ingredients and go for it.


THAI CHICKEN WITH PEANUT SAUCE
(adapted from Well-Plated blog)

for the sauce:
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup tablespoons water (or more if needed)
2 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

for the stir-fry:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 medium shallot, thinly sliced
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 medium size head of broccoli, florets only, chopped
½ cup dry-roasted, unsalted peanuts
fresh cilantro leaves, amount to taste

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sauce ingredients until smooth: the peanut butter, water, honey, soy sauce, red curry paste, vinegar, ginger, and red pepper flakes. Set aside.

Make the stir-fry: In a deep, large nonstick skillet or wok, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot but not yet smoking, add the shallot and cook until fragrant and beginning to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the chicken and salt, and sauté, stirring occasionally, until fully cooked through, about 4 minutes. Transfer everything to a plate.

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, then the mixed vegetables. Sauté until the vegetables are crisp-tender. You can close the pan with a lid and reduce the heat for a couple of minutes to promote even cooking by steaming, then remove the lid, increase the heat until they are done to your liking.

Return the chicken and shallot to the skillet. Add the peanut sauce. Toss to coat evenly, and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. Stir in the peanuts and cilantro. Taste and add additional soy sauce or red pepper flakes, adjust salt if needed.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Peanut butter is obviously super thick and dense. I found it better to reduce the amount and dilute it a bit further with water, compared to her original recipe. If you don’t do that, it will be a bit too thick once you add it to the pan and heat it with all other ingredients. Feel free to add garlic if you like, if you’ve been around my blog you might remember we have issues with it, and never use it. Other veggies can be used instead of broccoli, but I would keep the bell pepper – orange, red or yellow – avoiding the green like a plague as it creates hell in my digestive system.

Leftovers were enjoyed by yours truly over shirataki noodles, for a low carb lunch that was exactly what I needed to keep me going…

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MAHI-MAHI IN THAI-CURRY SAUCE

This is another example of a “lightened-up” version of a classic that worked so well I could not wait to share! Two ingredients are absolutely mandatory: red curry paste and fish sauce. I realize that opening that bottle of fish sauce requires a little psychological preparation, but it is worth it. Just hold your breath as you measure the amount. Actually, I do have a very sharp sense of smell, so it could be less of a problem for you.

MAHI-MAHI IN THAI-CURRY SAUCE
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)

2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste 
1/2 cup unsweetened light coconut milk 
1/2 cup full-fat yogurt
1 Tablespoon fish sauce
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced 
1 cup sliced fresh shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
3 mahi-mahi filets, cut in chunks
smidgen of olive oil + squirt lime juice + salt + pepper to season fish
fresh cilantro leaves
lime zest for serving

In a medium pot over medium heat, whisk together the curry paste, coconut milk, and yogurt. Bring to   a simmer and cook, whisking until the mixture is smooth, but don’t let it boil too hard. Add the fish sauce, sugar, and water; stir until the sugar has dissolved. Simmer for a couple of minutes, cover and remove from heat. Reserve.

Season the pieces of fish with a tiny bit of olive oil, lime juice, salt and pepper. I just squirt a very small amount of oil to lightly coat the pieces, no need to measure. Use a light hand. Same goes for lime juice, salt and pepper. Reserve.

Heat a 12-inch skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Once it is hot, add the oil and heat until it is shimmering. Add the bell pepper, and mushrooms, and cook until the vegetables are starting to soften, about 3 minutes. Then add the fish and sauté for a few minutes. Pour the curry sauce into the skillet and heat it through. Serve the curry over rice, garnished with fresh cilantro and a little bit of lime zest, added right on the plate.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: This was such a delicious meal! It had that feel of “eating out” which… come to think of it we cannot do that often, as our little town does not have a Thai restaurant. It is probably my favorite type of food, but I can only enjoy it when we travel. You know travel, right? That act of leaving your home with luggage, stepping on a plane and landing in a totally different spot? Yeah. It’s been a while.

We enjoyed it over white rice. I added a bit of lime zest on my serving, and to my taste it was perfect. You can use a squirt of lime juice or omit it altogether, but if you have the same passion I do for all things citric, go for the zest. It packs a nice little punch of flavor. The only thing you need to be careful about is not boiling the sauce too hard. Because it has less fat than a regular recipe, it tends to separate a bit.

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THAI-STYLE PESTO WITH BROWN RICE PASTA

As someone who owns a disturbingly high number of cookbooks, subscribes to several cooking magazines, and downloads cookbooks on her iPad on a regular basis, I am aware that those should be my main source of inspiration for dinners. Surprisingly, one more time I will blog on something seen on FoodTV.  Go figure. Rachael Ray enticed me with this pesto, especially through her description of how floral and complex-tasting Fresno peppers can be.  I had most ingredients around, all I needed to grab at the grocery store was the bright red Fresno pepper.  Quick to put together, this turned out as a very delicious pesto.  Not sure about the floral, though. Read on…  😉

Thai-Style Pesto

THAI-STYLE PESTO WITH BROWN RICE PASTA
(adapted from Rachael Ray)
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1 pound brown rice spaghetti
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
1 cup fresh baby arugula leaves
5 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
2 tablespoons tamari
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lime, juiced
1 Fresno chile, seeded
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
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Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water, add the pasta, and cook until al dente.Place the basil and arugula leaves, 3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds, tamari, garlic, lime juice, and chile into a food processor. Pulse into a paste. Drizzle in the extra-virgin olive oil. Pour the pesto into a large bowl and reserve.  If the pesto seems too thick, reserve a little bit of the pasta cooking water, and use it to thin the pesto right before incorporating into the cooked spaghetti.
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Drain the pasta, add to the pesto, and toss to combine. Garnish with the remaining 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds.
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ENJOY!
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to print the recipe, click here

ingredients

Comments: Rachael Ray’s title for this show was “Thai Tonight”, and she served the pasta with a stir-fry of chiles and chicken over shredded iceberg lettuce.  I had some iceberg lettuce in the fridge, but went with grilled flank steak.  I simply seasoned the lettuce with lime juice and a tiny bit of grapeseed oil, added some Campari tomatoes that were feeling ignored and risking the cruel fate of a compost pile. The grilled steak rested on the bed of this improvised salad.  A simple main dish to allow the pasta to shine.

meat

I did not have a lot of basil available, so I used baby arugula to compensate, I like its sharper nature. Now, let’s address the floral component of a Fresno chile.  When I plated the dish, I told Phil that next time I would use two peppers to make it more colorful, because “Fresno is all about flavor, not real heat.”  After the second forkful of pasta, lips burning, taste buds fried, we were both grateful that I used only one!   😉  Either Rachael’s tolerance for heat is a lot higher than mine, or I managed to pick a mutant pepper with unusually high levels of capsaicin at the grocery store. But, the interesting thing is that after a while we more or less got used to the heat and the sweat dripping from our foreheads, and thought the level of spice was just right.  So I say be brave, grab a Fresno (make sure you seed it) and go for it!

Rachael used brown rice pasta as the starch component.  Traditionally, one would choose the regular, white rice noodles associated with Thai cooking, and of course they work great for this type of dish.  But I loved the slightly firmer texture of the brown rice spaghetti.  Nowadays I use whole wheat pasta almost exclusively, but both brown rice and quinoa pasta have their spot in the Bewitching pantry.

platedDinner is served!

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