Red Seafood Curry

A good friend of mine concluded, after moving to Singapore, that all his previous attempts at making curries had been suboptimal at least in part due to the inferior curry pastes that has been available to him in the US. To back up his claims, he brought me over a selection of curry pastes from Singapore when we met up before Christmas - so thanks to him for providing the curry paste used here.

Generally, mini-eggplants are not available around here, so when I found some when I went to a new store, I immediately picked some up - thinking already of using one my packs of parallelly imported red curry paste.

Ingredients:
- sesame oil
- red curry paste^[1]
- 200 g (7 oz) crayfish
- 100 g (3.5 oz) shrimp
- 200 g (7 oz) squid rings
- 10 mini eggplants, quartered
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- coconut cream
- kaffir lime leaves
- salt
- large bunch scallion, chopped
for serving:
- boiled rice
- roasted peanuts
- fresh Thai basil

A little sesame oil was heated in a wok, then added a dollop of the curry paste, followed by the crayfish. After frying for 1-2 minutes, the shrimp were added and after an additional 1-2 minutes the squid rings. 1-2 minutes later, the quartered mini-eggplants were added, then the chopped bell pepper, dried kaffir lime leaves, the remaining curry paste and the coconut cream. The contents were brought to a boil before reducing the heat and letting it simmer for a few minutes. The dish was seasoned to taste with salt. At last the scallions were added and after a minute or so the wok was removed from the heat.

Served with boiled rice, roasted peanuts and fresh Thai basil.
Delicious. For my taste the spiciness of this dish was just right.
Now I just have to find out where I can buy more of similarly good curry paste - or if I can emulate it from more basic ingredients...

^[1] Curry paste brand: Dancing Chef.

Pork Wok w/ Thai Basil

Until I saw one at the supermarket I had no idea there was such a thing as 'Thai Basil'. In hindsight it makes perfect sense, though: all those times in Asian food I had something which was almost exactly like basil, yet unmistakeably somehow ... different.
When we first got it home it looked kinda sad, but after being watered and allowed to stand in our eastbound kitchen windowsill it looked much happier. Now, weeks later, it's still going strong and I hope to have it for a while yet even though the hours of daylight here are rapidly declining.

I decided to use some leaves of it one day when I was in the mood for pork..

Ingredients:
- oil
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 medium-strong chilli, seeds removed
- 350 g (12 oz) thinly sliced pork chops, cut in strips
- 3 red onions, cut in boats boats
- 1 head cabbage, coarsely chopped
- 1 can coconut milk
- freshly cooked rice
- roasted peanuts
- fresh leaves of Thai basil

The pork chops (which were only some 3-4 mm (¹/₆ inch) thick) were cut in strips about 1.25 cm (¹/₂ inch) wide and stir-fried with crushed garlic and finely cut chillies till browned all over. Then the onion boats were added, and a few minutes later the cabbage together with the coconut milk. When everything was warm, it was served on rice with roasted peanuts and fresh leaves of Thai basil sprinkled on top.

Minty beef wok

Last year when we had a lot of mint on the balcony we talked about trying this recipe from figs, lavender, and cheese. Before we got round to that we went away on vacation and effectively killed our herbs with negligence and then the summer was running out. As we have recently gotten started on growing mint again we decided it was about time we try the idea.

Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 head broccoli (separated into smaller bouquets)
- 250 g (~ ¹/₂ lb) rice noodles
- oil
- 1 red onion (cut in thin boats)
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 red chilli, finely diced
- 200 g (~ ²/₅ lb) beef, thin strips
- fresh mint
- fresh basil

At first the sugar was dissolved in the soy, fish, and oyster sauce - this combined sauce was set aside for later use.

The broccoli bouquets were boiled in lightly salted water, then drained, and set aside. Likewise for the rice noodles.

A wok was placed on high heat, coated with a thin layer of oil and the onion was added - after stir frying for about a minute, the crushed garlic and the chilli was added. After an additional 30 seconds or so the strips of beef were added and stir fried till browned on all sides. Finally the combined sauce (see above) was added together with whole leaves of fresh mint and basil. I used more mint than basil - mainly because I had more mint, but I quite liked the result.

After a final 1-2 minutes the wok was removed from the heat and the minty beef was served on the noodles with broccoli on the side - and a beer.

Sesame Rice & Coconut Prawns

The decision to make this dish was largely motivated by our stockpile of sesame seeds (keeping in mind that we will have to move again in a couple of months) and the prawns we had had lying in the freezer since New Year when our dinner plans were changed...

Mrs. Erator took over the kitchen for this one.

Ingredients:
sesame rice:
- 3 dL (1.25 cups) jasmine rice
- 6 dL (2.5 cups) water
- salt
- 4 tbsp white sesame seeds, toasted
- 2 tbsp black sesame seeds
- 1 bunch chives, chopped
coconut prawns:
- oil
- 12 tiger prawns, peeled
- 1 zucchini, cut in half slices
- 1 onion, coarsely chopped
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1-2 tsp sambal oelek
- 200g (1/2 lb) green cabbage

While boiling the rice in lightly salted water the white sesame seeds were toasted on a pan. When the rice were done, the sesame seeds (white toasted, black raw) and chopped chives were stirred into the rice.

A little oil was heated in a wok, then added the pealed prawns. When the prawns had turned pink all over the sambal oelek was added, then onions. When the onions were translucent the zucchini were added, and after another few minutes the coconut milk. When the coconut milk was warmed up the cabbage was added and after a few minutes it was ready to serve.

Delicious. To the extend that extra spice was wanted we used Thai sweet chilli sauce.

Green Eggplant Stirfry

Near to my new home I've found a lovely little store called Asian Spices - all kinds of exotic goods from all over Asia are crammed into this small store and I quite like perusing their shelves. On a recent visit I noticed these little green eggplants in the fresh food section, and I decided to try them out.

Ingredients:
- oil
- 1 chicken fillet (sliced)
- salt
- 1 clove garlic (mashed)
- 1 scotch bonnet chilli
- 1 onion (boats)
- 1 mild green pepper (diced coarsely)
- 5 green eggplants (quartered)
- fish sauce
- soy sauce

Served with brown rice.

Oil was heated in a wok, and the chicken was stir-fried with salt [1] and finely chopped scotch bonnet chilli [2]. When the chicken was cooked through, the onion and the mild pepper was added and a few minutes later the green eggplants. Finally was added fish sauce and soy sauce before reducing the heat and covering to let it simmer.

The green eggplants look nice, taste a lot like eggplant, but seemed to me to hold their texture better than ordinary (large) eggplants, although this might be a function more of their size than anything else.

[1] Given the amount of soy sauce I used, I should have left out the salt.

[2] Without a hood over the cooker this is downright inadvisable - it's a bit too much like pepper spray while cooking (which correlates nicely with the fact that the end result wasn't as spicy as I expected).

Stirfried Duck

OK, I don't actually have a wok here, but I have a large non-stick pan which is sort of wok-shaped and I figured this would be a nice way to make duck and cabbage, so I thought I try to use it for this kind of a meal. The use of cow's milk is perhaps not super authentic to the Asian kitchen, but hey..

Ingredients:
- duck fillet (ca. 300 g, 2/3 lb)
- 1 medium large red onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 mild, large green pepper
- 1 scotch bonnet [1]
- 1/2 head savoy cabbage (ca. 250 g, 1/2 lb)
- olive oil
- salt
- milk

The fillet of duck was cut in thin slices and fried in the wok/pan in oil, with salt, mashed garlic, and finely cut chilli. When the meat was fully cooked the onion (in boats) and the large pepper (coarsely diced) were added and stir-fried. After a few minutes long strips of cabbage and some milk was added before covering and turning down the heat. When the cabbage was steamed to a nice texture, the whole thing was served with brown rice.

[1] These are sold as piment cloche here and as far as I can figure out they are what is also known as scotch bonnet i.e. a variety of the habanero chilli. They are quite potent and as far as my taste goes 1 of them is quite sufficient for 1 meal, which makes it all the more interesting that the store sells them in packs of 25 or so.

First meal in my new home..

Years I ago I thought this was funny...

Q: What's the difference between snot and broccoli?
A: You can't make a 5-year-old eat broccoli!

I was reminded of this joke recently when I saw this post. Personally I never had anything against broccoli - although I'm not sure I like it as much as my girlfriend. For our first self-prepared meal in our new home we decided to stir fry some broccoli.

Ingredients:
- chicken breasts
- broccoli
- red bell pepper
- scallions
- paprika, salt, (Indian) curry

The chicken breasts are seasoned with curry and paprika and fried in the pan.

In a wok stir fry first strips of bell pepper, then add broccoli and scallions - season with salt and curry.

Served with rice.