Fajitas, Thai Style…

This chicken mince dish, kind of Thai larb-ish, is adapted from a that’s life! reader recipes compilation, and I served it with tortillas and Greek yoghurt, to make it a fajita meal. Yum. The coconut milk gave the chicken a definite Thai flavour.

Soooooo quick, the whole thing was cooked and ready to serve in 20 minutes. Definitely one to rival Jamie with his very quick meals – including chopping time it was less than 30-minutes from start to finish. A weeknight winner, and especially good at this crazy time of year!

Thai Chicken Fajitas

2 tbsp olive oil

500 gms chicken mince

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 red chilli, finely chopped

1 red onion, finely chopped

1 stalk lemongrass, finely chopped

165 mls low-fat coconut milk

¼ cup sweet chilli sauce

2 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp fish sauce

3 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan or wok. Add chicken, garlic, chilli, onion and lemongrass, and saute, stirring often to break up lumps, for about 5 minutes.

Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve with tortillas and Greek yoghurt (optional – add shredded lettuce as well).

Serves 2

Happy Summer fooding!

Need to Get Healthy Again….

Salsa

I had a severe meat overdose last week.

Firstly, I made a beef stir-fry which lasted me for two evening meals – no particular recipe, just chucked in some marinated beef strips plus whatever veggies I had and a few sauces. It was good.

Secondly, I tried the Indian cafe at the end of my street, for the first time (even though it’s been there for over 2 years….) on Friday night – I bought takeaway lamb saagwala, rice, naan bread and vegetable pakoras. Apart from the pakoras, which were delicious, the rest was awful – undercooked, tough lamb with no flavour, and too-chewy naan bread. The service was also very poor – 25 minutes to get a takeaway order when there was only one order before me and one table of 6 in the actual restaurant. Plus, the girl taking the orders stopped halfway through an order to take an obviously personal phone call, which she then proceeded to take outside to carry on in private! I won’t be going back there again. Shame, as it is so close to home and they home-deliver for free if I really can’t be bothered walking 100 metres haha.

Thirdly, on Saturday, I decided to cook lamb shanks in a cook-in-the-bag thingy, with roasted veg. This was quite lovely – I don’t use a lot of pre-prepared foodstuffs, but I like the convenience of these flavour sachet/bag things for an easy, family-style meal occasionally. I had, however, eaten the leftover lamb saagwala, on a roll at lunchtime (because despite its lack of flavour excitement, I do hate to waste food, especially when an animal has died to provide it), plus I had a slice of roast beef on my crumpet for breakfast, so the whole day was very meat-intense, which is not like me.

And finally, on Sunday I went to “high tea” at a posh hotel in the afternoon. I deliberately ate nothing but a crumpet early in the morning, to build up a good appetite. I will write about my total pig-out separately, but suffice it to say, I did not need dinner that night and in fact felt quite disgustingly bloated and huge afterwards. Not only that, but the skirt I wore to the high tea was tight and it is usually quite a loose fitting one, so that means I still haven’t physically gotten over my excess of cheese and pastry whilst in the UK!

Time has come for some detoxifying……for me that means not eating meat for a while – not that I will ever completely be a vegetarian, as I do love a good curry, roast or  meat stir-fry. But I know my body, and I do just feel a lot healthier when I stick to veg & fish/seafood. I’d like to say I would give up alcohol to detox, but hmmmmm that will never happen. I have to have something to keep me sane….

I’m really big on mushrooms at the moment, so this is what I had last night – I simply placed 200 gms (9) cup mushrooms (stalks cut off then finely chopped) in a baking dish and topped with 100 gms crumbled feta, the chopped mushroom stalks, 50 gms pitted kalamata olives, cracked pepper and some fresh basil leaves. Baked it for 30 minutes at 160C and served with a freshly made salsa – in this case I used the kernels from 1 corn cob (I don’t bother blanching it, just slice it off raw – yummo), 1 red onion (finely chopped), 1 tomato (finely chopped), 1 avocado (chopped), a pinch of salt, cracked pepper and a splash of lime juice.

Mushrooms, Feta, Olives

This was a delicious and healthy comfort food – filling and “meaty” tasting thanks to the mushrooms, but without the blurrrrggggghhh feeling of eating too much meat in one hit.

This mushroom idea actually works well as a side dish, rather than the main meal that I made of it. I made this quantity just for me – it was too much of course, but bearing in mind that mushrooms shrivel a lot when they cook, you would need to increase the quantities if you wanted this to be a main dish for a few people or a side dish for a large group.

Mushrooms + Salsa = Yum

Happy Fooding!

Thai Red Curry Prawns

I’ve had a bit of a meat-free phase recently – kind of a post-Christmas detox, only not really as I haven’t given up wine haha. I just sometimes feel my body needs more vegies, and I firmly believe in listening to what your body tells you.

I am eating lots of fish and prawns, and am also eating a lot of spices at the moment, no idea why. There are many versions of red and green Thai curries around, so I made up my own prawn dish using the elements I liked from several dishes. The result was quite good, medium hot and not too complicated to make.

The prawns I bought were quite small – I should have bought the giant king prawns and shelled them myself, but I just couldn’t face the messiness of peeling/deveining them myself . You just have to be in the right mood for that, so I cheated and bought smaller prawns, already peeled with the tails left on. Of course they shrink when cooked as well, so ended up quite small. Instead of cooking rice or noodles to go with it, I decided to have Thai fajitas! Prawns wrapped in tortillas with a little yoghurt instead of guacomole – yum!

Thai Red Curry Prawns

2 tbsp olive oil

500 gms prawns, tails left on, peeled/deveined

1 brown onion, cut into wedges

1 small carrot, peeled & thinly sliced

1 tbsp freshly grated ginger

2 tbsp red curry paste

400 mls coconut milk (I use low-fat)

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp brown sugar

2 kaffir lime leaves

1 cup fresh basil leaves

100 gms baby spinach leaves

Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a wok or saucepan; add prawns and toss for 1 minute or until starting to change colour. Set prawns aside.

Heat remaining oil, and saute onion, carrot and ginger for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add red curry paste and stir to coat, for 1 minute.

Add coconut milk, fish sauce, brown sugar and kaffir lime leaves. Bring to the boil and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.

Return the prawns to the wok along with the basil and baby spinach, and simmer for 2 more minutes.

Serves 2-4 depending on what other things you have with it.

Happy Summer Fooding!

Quick Apricot Couscous

I love couscous, quinoa, burghul – so healthy – I add anything I have lying around, a bit of lemon juice and lots of cracked pepper. Here is what I made on Sunday for a quick and easy dinner. I often make something like this to take to uni for my lunch as well.

Apricot Couscous

3/4 cup couscous

3/4 cup boiling water

1 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

grated zest of 1 lime

1/4 cup pine nuts

1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1/4 cup fresh coriander, chopped

cracked pepper, to taste

Place couscous in a large bowl; pour over boiling water and set aside for 5 minutes until liquid has absorbed. Fluff up with a fork to separate grains.

Whisk lime juice and oil together. Add all ingredients to couscous and mix well.

Serves 2.

Easily doubles or make a huge quantity for a salad – you don’t really have to measure, just toss it all in. Use whatever nuts you like, and whatever juice you like – lime, lemon, orange. If you like things a bit salty, add a splash of soy sauce (not too much).

Happy Fooding!