alpha whiskey hotel

My colleague Mari was kind enough to share this recipe with Stumpy and I the other day. It’s not really Thai, but it’s at least Thai-style. Well, assuming that coconut milk makes something Thai-style. In my book it does. I like it because it’s quick to prepare, and not too expensive as long as you can find a good place to buy curry powder.

1. Start your rice cooker working now. Otherwise you’ll have to wait a long time for rice, and you won’t want to wait with this curry in your kitchen.

2. Cut up an onion (I used 2 onions because they were kinda small) into a microwaveable dish and put it in the microwave until the onions are soft. In Japan, where microwaves are typically 500W, this means 5 minutes.

3. While the onion is cooking, cut up 500g of chicken (Stumpy used shrimp instead) and stir-fry it in a big wok (or big saucepan if you don’t have a wok) with 1 Tbsp of ground ginger and 1 Tbsp of ground garlic.

4. When the onions are done, mix them together with 3 Tbsp of curry powder, 1.5 Tbsp of corn starch, and between 0.5 and 2 Tbsp of chili powder depending on your taste. Make sure they are mixed very well and that there aren’t any powdery lumps left over. I had to use a drop of oil to get them all mixed.

5. Into the chicken, mix the onions, a 400mg can of diced tomatoes, a 400mL can of coconut milk, 4 Tbsp sake (or wine or mirin), 4 Tbsp fish sauce (or soy sauce), 2 chicken bouillon cubes, and 200mL water. Let it simmer for a while (at least until the rice is done).

6. Spoon over rice and enjoy!

This recipe should be enough for 3 or 4 good-sized meals. For calorie counters, the entire recipe is about 1840 kcal (prepared with skinless chicken breast and soy sauce), so figure on about 400-600 kcal/meal (plus whatever rice you use). Using light coconut milk instead of regular brings the recipe total down to about 1320, but affects the taste.

Stumpy’s instructions for preparing roast garlic. We couldn’t remember what a “group” of garlic was called (“a head”) so he made this recipe so that we’d remember.

1. Take off as much paper as possible from the garlic heads (without separating the cloves)
2. Cut off the top of all the cloves
3. Drizzle olive oil over the (open) tops of the cloves. Add salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, other spices.
4. Put garlic heads into a muffin tin with a bit of water in the bottom of each space
5. Cover with tinfoil
6. Bake at 190 degrees (Celcius) for an hour

Tasty!

Take a can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup and mix it in the usual way. Stir in a couple of tablespoons of Patak’s Hot Curry Paste (or any other kind of pre-mixed curry paste, I suppose). Crumble in some cheddar cheese and let the whole mess simmer for 20-30 minutes. This was my surprisingly successful attempt at making curry soup this evening…