Sunday's Thai experiment

The mange tout peas are proving to be one of my most productive crops. Very nice straight off the plant, or stir fry would be my usual default cook but I wanted to try something different.

Somehow I got it in my head that I would do a Thai curry. I have never done a Thai curry before and to be quite honest I don't really know how it differs from a non-Thai curry, except that I think it should have lemongrass in it. So I picked up some lemongrass at the supermarket the other day, as well as some spring onions which I thought would be appropriate, and hoped that I be able to cobble the rest of the ingredients together from the fridge/freezer/cupboards.

I thought that it would be a good idea at least get some sort of recipe to work to. I found one about how to make a Thai curry paste but had barely any of the components, and another for Thai vegetables with coconut milk. As it was I basically ended up making something up. We are trying to clear a bit of space in the freezer for more ice-cream so I decided to use up some of the white fish that we have stored away from various bargain purchases. Matt kindly helped out by defrosting.

The curry also had in it (in addition to the mange tout, lemongrass, fish and spring onions):

• Groundnut oil – in preference to olive oil, I thought it would be more authentically Thai (or at least more Thai than olives)
• Red pepper – I sliced this thinly and put it in to fry off before anything else. Red pepper never seems to cook enough so I wanted to give it a fighting chance
• Celery – the recipe had this in. I wouldn't usually put it in curry but didn't see that it could do too much harm
• Chilli – I put a whole one in (chopped) and just had to hope that this wouldn't make it too hot. Following my most recent chilli incident I am being most wary of touching my eyes / lips etc
• Cumin – Matt's favourite spice
• Ginger – my favourite spice
• Sweet potato – grated. The recipe suggested one and a half cups
  
  of grated pumpkin. I didn't have any pumpkin but was intrigued by this kind of thing so used a sweet potato instead. I don't like using “cups” as a measurement because it is not specific as to what size cup it should be or how densely packed the ingredient should be in it. So I used one medium sweet potato. It looked just like grated carrot and I am contemplating its possible role in a cake.
• Coconut milk, lime juice and vegetable stock – added as it was all looking rather dry.
• Broccoli – probably not very Thai but I love it. I put this in right towards the end so it steamed in all the vapour.

Due to my inability to reliably cook rice I would have been quite happy to eat the curry without any accompanying carbohydrate, but Matt volunteered to do some rice for us. As usual his rice came out perfectly. When I try to replicate his method I still fail.

We were a bit unsure as to how edible this would be – Matt suggested that it would be somewhere on the spectrum between average and excellent (it did smell good). I had barely followed any recipe and all the quantities were guesstimated. With the lemongrass I had used an ingredient that has never before graced my kitchen shelves, I sliced it up a little bit and crushed it a little bit before putting it in the pan; we decided that we wouldn't eat it and pulled the little woody bits out as we went along. But now I'm kind of curious to know what it would have tasted like.

The verdict on the whole thing was that it was towards the excellent end of the spectrum, but that it could have taken a little more spicing. Matt may regret saying that as next time I'll put two chillies in.

Monday's chilli incident

Again, I find myself in the position of having a surfeit of courgettes. They looked so nice in their little net the other day and I am determined to use them while they are relatively nice, before they get to that pre-slime stage.

It being Monday I had to do something quick. This is because Monday night is band night. And given that we only have pathetically tiny baking potatoes (based on my knowledge of potato farming this is probably because of sub-optimal potato growing conditions recently), and that courgette doesn’t really go with baked potato anyway it would be a pasta evening.

A pasta dish would also be a good opportunity to use up some feta cheese, which has been open in the fridge since a friend wanted it on a crumpet a few weeks ago. Matt, my husband, deemed that this was still fit for human consumption.

So the pasta sauce would consist of red onion (x 2, sliced), courgette (x 4 small, “ribboned” with the peeler), chilli (tiny bit, chopped up really small), thyme (few sprigs, from the garden, still uncommonly exciting), feta (about half a block, chopped in dice sized bits), low fat soft cheese (tablespoon or so), sundried tomatoes (x 8, quartered) and black pepper (few grinds). The most difficult part was deciding what pasta to use; the options being twists, tubes or spaghetti. I went for the twists, purely on the basis that there was about the right quantity for dinner for two, which would have the consequence of freeing up a plastic canister for some pasta bows (my favourite pasta shape).

It took longer than planned to make. Mainly because I wanted to make sure that the onions were nice and soft before adding the rest of the sauce ingredients. I would not be making it to band on time and so was really hoping that my improvised cooking delay would be worth it. From somewhere I had the inspiration to add a few pine nuts just as the sauce was nearly finished. I would have grated over some parmesan before eating if we had some. But we didn’t, and low fat cheddar seemed somehow unfitting.

Even if I do say so myself it was one of the best pasta dishes I have had in ages. Based on the “mmm” sounds, Matt agreed. I was especially pleased because I seemed to have got the chilli just right for my husband’s delicate palate. It gave it a nice warmth, but didn’t make his mouth hurt or my nose run. And the pine nuts were a good inspiration, giving it just a little bit of crunch in random mouthfuls.

It was gone 8 by the time we had finished and I umm-ed and ahh-ed about whether to go to band as I was feeling very tired. But I decided to venture out (mainly to leave Matt in peace with his skirting boards).

It was a particularly comical rehearsal. I do my best to keep “smut” out of these blogs but these sound bites from our fabulous conductor just have to be shared: “Does anyone have the horn?” and “You’ve really got to feel each other”. It would have probably gone un-noticed (not the most innuendo loving room of people you could get) but for the clarinettist I was sat next to who pointed these out to me and had a little chuckle. And for some reason the mood I was in I descended into hysterics.

Having composed myself the rehearsal proceeded uneventfully for a while. And then I got a little itch in my eye, or maybe my eyes were feeling tired. Either way I gave my eyes a little rub. I had clearly not removed all traces of chilli from my fingers. I think I let out a little yelp. The chilli in the eye thing is one of those things that you always hear about but can’t really believe ever happens, or at least not to you. Well it does. And it really stings. It is one of the most sting-y things I have ever experienced.

This called for a quick dash out to the toilets but I didn’t really know what to do. My instinct would be to bathe my eye in water but I couldn’t stop thinking about when you eat a too spicy curry and water makes it worse but beer or milk makes it better. Being in the toilets of a church I had neither beer nor milk available to me. The stinging was clearly not going to go away on its own. This called for a quick call to my mum. Although she was clearly inexperienced in first aid for chilli related eye injuries she was calm in her advice to put cold water on it and I felt bolstered to follow this course of action. It helped. So much so that I was able to go back and join in the remainder of the band rehearsal unimpeded (apart from my lack of skill at high notes – there’s a reason I play 3^rd clarinet).

I think I might cook the rest of the courgettes without chilli. 

Tuesday's inevitable stir fry

Despite finishing work on time today (a rare event but something that I’m hoping will become more common) I didn’t have much time to make tea. This was because by the time I had watched one of my favourite celebrities doing some dancing on the television I was very hungry.

Matt often makes the tea on weekdays but was home late himself this evening after a (thankfully fruitless) trip to the DIY store. I had just come up with the bright idea of asking our neighbour who’s a carpenter if he has an appropriate saw we can borrow and so was pleased that Matt had avoided adding to his own collection.

The stuffed cabbage had only used up eight leaves of savoy cabbage and the rest was still lurking in the fridge. So this really did seem like the right night for a stir fry.

I think that all households have some meals that they eat over and over again and stir fry is one of ours. When Matt makes it it’s usually after he’s done the shopping online and bought some of those bags with all the bits prepared. He hates chopping. When I make it  it’s in a effort to use up an array of veggies. Today as well as the cabbage there was pepper, mushrooms, carotts, courgettes and mange tout peas. This was the first time I have ever cooked mange tout peas.

We had enjoyed some mange tout very much at a friends’ a week or so ago and I didn’t argue too much when Matt put them in the trolley, especially as they were on special offer and I love a special offer. This was the same occasion that I picked up the savoy cabbage. So it seemed in some way right that they were reunited this evening.

Yet again I misjudged the quantity of ingredients required and ended up with a vast mound that would not fit comfortably in the wok. Volume wise this was mostly made up of cabbage. But I was fairly confident that it would reduce down and I just had to be patient. I was and it did (but there’s still enough for tomorrow).

The flavouring of stir fries is something that I’m not particularly adventurous with. Matt will sometimes use the intriguing pre-prepared sauces but I like to add my own flavourings. This most often will be ginger and soy sauce and sometimes pineapple and / or chilli. Today I really fancied pineapple and it’s something I always assume will be in the tinned fruit section of the cupboard. But alas it was not so today. And I didn’t really think that tinned prunes, mandarins, pears or peaches (or any combination of the above) would really work. So I just added a shake of chilli flakes.

My diet earlier on in the day had been fairly dreadful (lunch had been some flavoured rice cakes and a cereal bar: at Matt’s request I now permanently carry such things in my car for occasions, such as today, where I fail to pack lunch) so I felt the need for some protein as well as all the veggies. We don’t eat that much of the “meat substitute” products, usually opting for “actual” vegetarian foods (like beans and lentils). But we do have a stock of the substitutes in the freezer and the bird like bits do go nicely in a stir fry. Sometimes I put some nuts in but I’m in a brazil nut phase at the mo (apparently they’re very good for selenium whatever you need that for) so had probably reached my daily nut quota by 9am.

Matt cooked the noodles. And we settled down in front of our current DVD box set (it’s naughty I know but the dining room is out of action due to current DIY / decorating endeavours and it’s really cold in the kitchen) with a big bowl of vaguely oriental inspired tea.

It tasted good but was tainted by 1) the guilt I had about the number of miles the mange tout had travelled to feed me and 2) the stringy bits of the mange tout getting twisted around my tonsils requiring unladylike removal from my mouth. Maybe that will serve me right for eating vegetables from Guatemala.