197 posts tagged “asian”
Well this is an extremely artistic and clever picture — I am a very creative and artistic kind of a a guy. And clever. But not clever enough to actually operate this camera. Gah. Heh, it does look kinda good, though...
Salmon fillets, skinned and diced, dipped in seasoned flour, egg and finally seasoned panko bread crumbs. I used an Indian style curry seasoning. 'Twas pretty damn tasty, I must say.
This was actually supposed to be a red curry (ie., with a stew-like consistency) but I had to improvise quite a bit since I ran out of certain ingredients. It was supposed to use only red curry paste, but I had to supplement it with some green paste, which is much, much hotter. Then I had to adjust with additional coconut milk and also water, and a prolonged cooking period to reduce the hotness. Very improvised, and a bit embarrassing. But it did taste great.
I think I've seen recipes that combines the red and green pastes, and that I might have cooked a dish like that. Whether I have or not, those two pastes actually creates a really interesting taste.
Clearing out the last remaining tomatoes, I decided to completely improvise. To the point that I don't clearly remember exactly what I did. It was just a standard mirepoix with tomatoes added, plus typical Thai things like fish sauce and kaffir lime leaves — and plenty of other things, I'm sure. I've got some in the freezer, that I will add coconut milk to when I thaw it, because this soup was a little too sharp. It would probably be much better when rounded off and softened a little with the sweetness of coconut milk.
A really nice mixture of cumin, coriander, chiles, cardamom, cinnamon, turmeric, coconut cream and kaffir lime leaves. The cashews were both roasted and added as a garnish, as well as being ground to a paste and used as a thickener, as well as a flavoring. Very nice, hot and sweet.
Dagnabbit, that doesn't look good at all. It tasted great though. I've been making Szechuan chicken and Kung Pao chicken (there's a certain overlap) for a long time, and decided to try it with shrimp. It worked a treat, even if it doesn't look too impressive.
Sorpotel comes from the same spot as the Vindaloo: the former Portugese colony and current-day hippie hangout of Goa (hey, the Beatles went there, even). It is traditionally made with pork innards, which I avoided. There's a broccoli dish that I can't remember. And of course, raita. Ugh, this doesn't look too good.
Well, nothing to say here — just the plain glory of aloo gobi.
Haven't done this one in a long, long time. Part of the reason for that is that Thai green curry paste is so damn fiery — to the point that after my first encounter with it, I made my own paste... But this time around, I made a mistake, and ended up having to simmer things a bit, which mellowed the paste a lot. An accident that made the dish better — you don't see that too often. But it happens.
And yeah, the small kaffir lime leaf was for decoration. Of course, them things were used in the dish. They are fantastic.
A simple meal, served cold, for someone going on a long car journey — not heavy, but tasty. Salad with garden tomatoes, and breaded strips of chicken breasts, that were flavored with my own curry powder. I used no dressing on the salad, but in retrospect I think I could, or even should, have done something more to the salad part of it all. But you do what you can, with what you've got. Looks good, though.
It's been a while since I've updated this blog. These are meatballs that quite frankly weren't as good as I hoped for — the Thai peanut dipping sauce I made came from a meatball recipe that was much better.
It doesn't present very well either, in spite of a fancy-pants little dipping sauce cup on the plate.
The broccoli in oyster sauce (with some bean sprouts) don't present very well either, but oh well. I'm serving veggies, and that can't be bad.
