Thai Green Curry

This is a delicious recipe that got the major thumbs up from the boy. It is spicy, salty and sweet... it's bloomin' delicious and authentic (as close enough to the real McCoy as I possibly could get) to boot.

This is a recipe comes from my travels in South East Asia and one that I learnt from Siam Rice Cookery School in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

This is also great as the quantity will make roughly two batches of paste so the other half you can put in your freezer for another day.

You my friends, are in for a treat!

 Ingredients

Paste

5 green chillies- you can add more if you wish

Half a shallot

3 gloves of garlic

1 tablespoons of grated fresh ginger

2 pieces of lemongrass

1/2 tablespoon of shrimp paste (if you can't find, use anchovies or fish sauce)

2 tablespoons of chopped stems of fresh coriander

1 teaspoon of turmeric

Curry

250g chicken breasts (optional)

1 heaped tablespoon of green curry paste

A choice of vegetables- I used sugar snaps, red pepper, broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, spring onions

1 can of coconut milk

1 tablespoon of fish sauce

1-2 tablespoons of sugar

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

2 kaffir lime leaves

Chopped fresh coriander

1 fresh lime

Half a red chilli

First things first is to get your paste ready, which is stupidly easy. Simply roughly chop the lemon grass, chillies, garlic  and shallots. Add these, with the rest of the ingredients (for the paste) to a blender and blend until smooth. Done. 

See, I told you that was going to be easy.

Next, heat your oil in your wok or frying pan- on a medium heat and add your paste for around 1 to 2 minutes. Add about 2 tablespoons of coconut milk to stop the paste from burning. Chop your chicken into chunks and add to the pan, making sure they get fully coated with the paste. Once the meat has turned white all over (don't brown it!!) add the coconut milk, sugar and fish sauce. Stir.

If you are not using meat just add the coconut milk etc after the paste has been cooking for a few minutes.

Once it has been cooking for around a minute add the broccoli and carrots (if using baby corn add those too) with the kaffir lime leaves. Cook for around 2 minutes. Next add the rest of the vegetables. Cook for around another 2-3 minutes. If the curry is getting a little thick just add a little splash of water.

I like my vegetables still to have a little bite so turn off the heat when you like the texture of the vegetables. If you haven't cooked this before-  make sure to check your chicken to see if it cooked all the way through!

That's it. Done.

Serve with a rice, a sprinkle of fresh coriander, sliced red chill and a slice of lime.

I hope you like it. 

Chilli Infused Poached Egg with Smashed Avocado

If you haven't guessed by now I love, and I mean LOVE chilli. Anything spicy and I am drooling. So usually when I have a poached egg I partner it with sliced avocado, splashed with tabasco, coriander and lime. This is a slight twist on this. And probably prettier on the eye too.

I eat half an avocado nearly everyday, maybe every single day. I can't get enough of it and I am known for going on about the little fella. I add it to salads, I make guacamole by the vat load, and have it in a sandwich with red onion, tomatoes lime, tabasco (obviously) and coriander. I ADORE the stuff. It is probably my favourite fruit and not only is it tasty but it's bloody good for you in so many ways. 

Avocados are very nutritious and contain a wide variety of nutrients, including 20 different vitamins and minerals. They not only make your hair and skin super shiny but they also help to lower cholesterol and help to prevent cancer... and the list goes on, there is a whole bunch of other goodies under the alligator style jacket of Mr Avocado. 

Now the method of cooking this poached egg is slightly different to the norm. You're going to cook your egg in cling film- yes, you heard right! This is a great way to cook different flavoured poached eggs and funnily enough an ex of mine first introduced me to cook them this way, however he didn't oil the cling film and managed to melt the cling film to the bottom of my mum's frying pan, so we ate over cooked mashed up plastic infused egg... we were 17 at the time. However the past couple of years I have seen Jamie Oliver use this method- and it's a fab way to infuse your eggs... you can even add fresh herbs to the cling film. It makes the egg look beautiful! 

Anyway back to the point... you want to know how to cook the above. And yes, you should have this dish sat in front of you in less than 10 minutes... and probably consumed in less than 5 minutes.

This is to serve one person. Gosh I seem such a selfish cook!

Ingredients

1 free range egg

half a red chilli

half an avocado

a quarter of red onion

half a lime

4 cherry tomatoes

a small bunch of fresh coriander

a slice of rye bread

olive/rapeseed oil

extra virgin olive oil

salt and fresh ground black pepper

First grab yourself a sheet of cling film, lay it down flat on your work top. Drizzle with a little olive/rapeseed oil (I use my fingers to spread over the middle of the cling film.). Next thinly slice the red chilli and scatter over the middle of the cling film. Then crack your egg into the centre of the cling film and bring together the corners of the cling film and twist making sure there is no air trapped inside. Leave your little egg parcel to the side whilst you prep the rest.

Mash your avocado in a bowl and add the lime juice, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Stir.

Chop the red onion finely and in little squares. Cut the tomatoes into quarters. Roughly chop the coriander.

Next boil the kettle and pour into a sauce pan.  Now, I use a skewer to to keep the cling film from the most hottest part of the pan (I pierce the twisted part of the cling film, pull the skewer through and then rest the skewer on either side of the pan so the egg is completely in the water but not touching the bottom of the pan) but to be honest you shouldn't need to do this but I prefer to.

Pop your egg into the pan of boiling water (keeping the gas to a simmer) and cook for usually 6 minutes.

Whilst it is cooking, toast your rye bread and put a good dollop of the smashed avocado on top of the bread. 

Your egg should be ready so take it out of the cling film and place on the avocado. Sprinkle your dish with the tomatoes, coriander and red onion.

Done. Simple eh! On your marks, get set... SCOFF.

Kick Ass Spicy Tomato and Red Pepper Soup

This is a super easy, quick, cheap, healthy soup that will awaken your taste buds. You don't need to be a pro in the kitchen and you can also adapt the herbs if you want a slightly different taste. Most of you will already have these ingredients in your cupboards so you can cook this up pretty much any day.

This soup was made on the spot so my measurements are a rough guess- it's all about trial and error! But hopefully you too will be able to enjoy this simple soup.

Also to note that I cooked the soup for myself so the quantities are for one bowl, if you need to make enough for two mouths, then double the quantity.

Oh and a tip- with fresh tomatoes, don't store them in your fridge as they won't ripen properly and they can absorb the flavours of your fridge, a little like eggs. Leave them out to ripen to their full potential which add a great sweetness.

Ingredients

2 ripe fresh tomatoes 

a quarter of a fresh red pepper

half a red chilli (optional if you're not keen on spice)

half a red onion

1 clove of garlic

a pinch of smoked paprika

a teaspoon of fresh flat leaf parsley (you can use basil if you wish)

half a teaspoon of vegetable stock (I recommend bouillon)

salt and fresh ground black pepper

a drizzle of oil (I used cold pressed rapeseed but if not olive oil)

the juice of half a fresh lime (you can use lemon if you would prefer)

a glug of hot water

First you need to peel the tomatoes. Pop the kettle on and fill a bowl with boiling hot water. Using a knife score all the way around the tomato and do the same on the other half so it makes a sort of X. Place the tomatoes in the boiling hot water for around 15/20 seconds. Pour the hot water out and replace with cold water. Leave to the side to cool.

Next is to prep everything else. I like to get everything ready before cooking.  

Finely chop (but don't worry about being neat as you will be whizzing everything up in a blender anyhow) the half red onion, the garlic and the red pepper. 

Next peel the skins off the tomatoes and roughly chop the flesh. 

Place to one side some chopped parsley.

Heat the oil in a saucepan on a medium heat and add the onion, making sure not to let it catch. Add a splash of cold water to help it soften without browning and stir every now and again. After the onion starts to go a little see-through, add the chopped garlic, chilli and the red pepper and stir. After a couple of minutes add the tomatoes and smoked paprika and stir. Let it cook for a couple of minutes. Add the stock and a glug of water- not too much I would say about a quarter of a cup. Season with salt and pepper and add the parsley. Taste to see if you need any more seasoning but you will be adding lime to the soup so no need to add a huge amount of salt as the lime will add saltiness to the dish.

Allow everything to cook for about 5 minutes-  I would say to try to not let the peppers get too soft, they still want some nutrients left in them plus they will be blended anyway. Just before you switch the hob off add the lime juice and stir.

Then simply blend everything (watch out with the blender as the steam can blow the lid off, yes I am talking from experience! So either wait until cool, blend then reheat or blend a little at a time) I then put a couple of shavings of parmesan, a little parsley and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil (make sure it is extra virgin as this is used for dressings only whereas olive oil is for cooking only) which adds another dimension to the taste of the soup.

Voila. Enjoy.