Slice chicken thinly and pan fry in vegetable oil till brown on both sides. Set aside.
In a pot or wok, heat a little oil, add the curry paste and some of the coconut milk. Fry until it bubbles and becomes fragrant. Add the sugar and fish sauce and stir well and cook for a few mins. Add the rest of the coconut milk and cook for 15 mins on low heat letting it reduce and thicken.
Rough chop the ginger, red chilli and lemon grass. Add to a blitzer with some water and reduce to a paste.
Add the cooked chicken to the sauce and stir. Then add the ginger, lemongrass and chilli paste and stir in.
Cut chicken breast open like a book. Place in bowl, add garlic powder, onion powder, paprika and olive oil and mix. In hot pan (not a non-stick), add some olive oil and fry chicken for 3 mins each side, or until brown. Remove to plate.
Add the onion and garlic to pan and fry for a few minutes till it starts to brown. Add tomato paste, sundried tomato, and oregano. Fry till tomato puree starts to leave a fond on base of pan.
Add stock and cream and reduce by half. Add the parmesan and stir in. Add the chicken and heat through. Add the basil and spinach.
Serve with roasted new potatoes and a green vegetable.
Loosely based on a recipe of John and Lisa’s Saturday Kitchen, see full recipe here.
Serves 4
1 kg of chicken
100g red curry paste (Mae Ploy brand is good)
30g brown sugar
2 tins of coconut milk
1 tbsp Thai fish sauce
2cm ginger
2 lemon grass stalks
1 red chilli
2 garlic cloves
Potatoe and peppers (optional)
Limes
Jasmine rice
Slice chicken thinly and pan fry in vegetable oil till brown on both sides. Set aside.
Rough chop the ginger, red chilli, garlic cloves and lemon grass. Add to a blitzer with some water and reduce to a paste.
In a pot or wok, heat a little oil, add 2 tbsp of coconut milk fry until bubbles. Then add the curry paste and fry until it bubbles and becomes fragrant. Then add the sugar and fish sauce and stir well and cook for a few mins. Then add the ginger, lemongrass, garlic and chilli paste and stir in. Add the rest of the coconut milk and cook for 15 mins on low heat letting it reduce and thicken. At this stage you could add some sliced peppers and cubed potato, the potato alone with help thicken the sauce. Add the cooked chicken to the sauce and stir.
A hardy perennial round these parts. The recipe on the BBC does it well. I made a big batch with 2.5kg of mince which made c. 5kg of Bolognese for the freezer packed into 4 packs, sufficient for four dinners for our family for 7. The recipe below is for 500g mince. Multiple as you want for a big freezer batch.
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
4 streaky bacon, finely chopped
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 carrots, trimmed and finely chopped
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
2-3 sprigs rosemary leaves picked and finely chopped
500g beef mince
For the Bolognese sauce
2 x 400g tins plum tomatoes, blitz
small pack basil leaves picked, ¾ finely chopped and the rest left whole for garnish
1 tsp dried oregano
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp tomato purée
1 beef stock cube
1 red chilli deseeded and finely chopped
125ml red wine
To season and serve
75g parmesan grated, plus extra to serve
400g spaghetti
crusty garlic bread
On high heat, fry the bacon in the olive oil till golden crispy.
Reduce the heat a little, then add the sofrito (onion, celery, and carrot), the garlic and rosemary and then fry for 10 mins. Stir the veg often until it softens. Add the tomato puree and stir until it starts to caramelise.
Increase the heat and add the mince and brown using a spoon to make sure it is well separated.
Then add the tomatoes, basil, oregano, bay leaves, stock cube, chilli, wine.
Stir and simmer for up to 4 hours if doing a large batch. The sauce will thicken and change to brown but delicious tomatoey colour.
Serve with spaghetti and parmesan cheese and maybe some garlic bread.
Capellini (Angel Hair) or Spaghetti or Medium Egg Noodle
Cook pasta and wash in cold water, set aside.
Chicken
2 x Breast of Chicken
Poach the Chicken Breasts in chicken stock for 20 mins and let cool in stock. Then pull chicken breasts apart in thin strips along the grain.
In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients (chicken, noodle, vegetables, herbs, nuts, dressing) together with your hands. Take time to gently mix well getting all ingredients evenly mixed. Cover and leave in fridge for an hour or so. Then mix again and leave for another 30 mins.
4 red Thai chilies, you can use more if you like a spicier dish
6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
juice of one whole lemon
salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
2 teaspoons sweet or smoked paprika
¼ cup olive oil
Chicken
Buy a whole chicken. Spatchcock the chicken. Press flat and place in zip lock with marinade for a few hours. Then move to tray and bake in oven for 30 mins.
Then finish chicken on BBQ. Turning frequently, char the skin, basting with the piri-piri sauce as you cook. The chicken will easily break into parts as you cook on BBQ. Use a knife to prise apart leg from breast. On a board before serving, cut along breastbone to spilt the breast in two parts.
A more refreshing version of the fried version full of fresh herbs, prawn, pork and noodle, with delicious dips.
Ingredients
Rice vermicelli
Lettuce
Basil
Mint
Coriander
Prawns
Loin of Pork
Rice wrappers
Cucumber
Vinegar
Hoisin Sauce
Sweet Chilli Sauce
Peanut Butter
Soy
Coconut Milk
Lemon
Fish Sauce
Limes
Garlic
Sugar
Red Chillis
BBQ Pork
Cut loin along grain into 2 cm thick strips. Cook on BBQ. As it cooks, turn and baste will mixture of soy, honey, sweet chilli sauce. Remove from BBQ, baste some more and sprinkle some sesame on top. Let cool a little and cut into thin slices.
Prawns.
Cook tiger prawns on the BBQ or in a pan for 2 mins each side. Remove from heat. Let cool and the slice in half.
Pickled Cucumber
Peal some of the green skin off cucumber. Cut cucumber down the middle. Using a teaspoon, remove the seeds. Then slice thinly. Place in bowl and add 1 tsp of salt. Leave for 30 mins. Then remove and to strainer and rinse. Then put in bowl with 2 tbsp of vinegar.
Dipping Sauces
Three dipping sauces below.
Hoisin Place 2 tbsp hoisin sauce in a bowl. Add 1 tbsp water and stir together.
Peanut Sauce
200g Smooth Peanut butter
400ml Coconut Milk
200ml Water
3 tbsp Sweet Chilli Sauce
1.5 tbsp Soy Sauce
3 tsp Lemon Juice
Place all the above ingredients in a pot and bring to simmer. Stir and reduce until it starts to thicken. After about 15 mins, remove from heat and let cool, then decant to a bowl for dipping.
Nước Chấm
4 tbsp fish sauce
4 tbsp water
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 clove garlic, minced.
2 tbsp white sugar
1 red chilli, diced.
A traditional Vietnamese condiment. Mix all ingredients in a bowl.
Making wraps
Dip a rice wrapper in tepid water to soften, place on flat surface. Then layer on prawn or pork, noodle, lettuce, mint, basil, coriander. Roll and close the wrapper. Place the pork or prawn first will mean it will display through the transparent wrapper in visually appealing manner. See nice video of technique here.
Braise cook lamb shanks for 3 hours in Indian spices for a delicious curry. Thanks to Latifs Inspired for the recipe.
Ingredients:
6 pieces lamb shank (on the bone), seasoned with salt and pepper
1/2 cup oil
2 Onion, sliced.
2 tsp whole cumin
4-5 bay leaf
4-5 pieces cinnamon
15 cloves
20 peppercorns
12 cardamom
15 clove garlic
2 inch ginger, chopped
10 green chilli, chopped
1 400g tin chopped tomato, blitzed.
2 tbsp tomato puree
Water, enough to cover the meat.
Butter
Spices:
2 tsp salt
3 tsp fennel powder, toast some fennel seeds on pan and grind in pestle and mortar
1.5 tsp turmeric
3 tsp chilli powder
4 tsp coriander powder
3 tsp curry powder
2 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp garam masala
Get a big pot on medium/high heat, sear the shanks, browning them on all sides. Remove shanks to a tray.
In the same pot on medium heat, add the oil onion and all the whole spices and aromatics (cumin, bay leaf, cinnamon, clove, peppercorn, cardamom, garlic, ginger), sauté until the onion starts to brown. Then stir in the tomato puree and let it caramelise a little. Add the chillies and powered spices and cook for 5 mins. Then add the tinned tomatoes and stir. Add the six lamb shanks. Add water to cover the shanks. Bring to a boil and then move to low heat and simmer for 3 hours. Give the pot a stir every now and then,
After 3 hours, remove the lamb shanks to a tray. Remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaves and blitz the sauce. Then over a medium heat let the sauce reduce and thicken for c. 20 mins. Add big knob of butter and stir. Add the shanks back to sauce and stir in chopped coriander.
CONOR'S DINNERS 
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