Girls Dinner + A recipe: Chilli Sri Lankan Chicken
So on the weekend a few girls got together at one of our colleagues houses. We had a mini girl’s dinner at Sampathi’s house. We had lots of fun. Sampathi made us chilli Sri Lankan Chicken and a fried eggplant salad, she served this with pasta. It was really tasty.
Mona, Sampathi and Lisa after dinner
The chicken was quite hot, I was sweaty and had a running nose all the time I was eating but it was delicious. The eggplant salad was also quite flavourful. The fried eggplants reminded me a bit of fried plantains they had a bit of sweetness that paired with the tanginess of the spring onions was fabulous. After dinner Tomoko gave us some Japanese sweets that are made from beans. VERY interesting. After dinneer we got into some mischief of taking photos and some of us tried fitting into Sampathi’s massive reed basket. The photos follow :- )
Soraya and I
Lisa worked at the circus in her previous life 🙂
Sampathi sitting pretty 🙂
Can you believe she actually fit in there???
I attempted to fit inside..but ooh no it would not close
Do not worry the recipe is coming VERY soon
Mona, How cute does she look? like a scared kitty
Sam’s plate; chicken, spaghetti and eggplant salad
FINALLY the recipe 🙂
Ingredients
- 500 grams chicken on bone
- 4 tablespoons crushed garlic
- 2 teaspoon minced ginger
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
- ¼ teaspoon cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon tamarind paste (available at Nakumatt)
- 1 tablespoon French mustard
- 1 tablespoon coriander powder
- 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper (use more or less depending on your preference)
- 2 tablespoons turmeric
- 2 stalks of lemon grass (available at Nakumatt)
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 200 ml coconut milk (you can also use normal milk or a mixture of the two)
Instructions
Mix 2 tablespoons of garlic, 1 teaspoon ginger, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, tamarind, mustard, coriander powder and turmeric. Marinate the chicken in this mixture for at least 30 minutes. Longer if possible.
Heat oil in a pan, add the onion. Cook till the onions are soft. Add the garlic, ginger, lemon grass and chillies. Cook till fragrant. Add the chicken. Mix well. Reduce the heat and cover the pan. Let the chicken simmer.
Add a little water if needed. Cook until almost cooked through about 15-20 minutes. Add the coconut milk. Taste and make sure the flavour is as spicy as you would like it, if not add some cayenne pepper. Let it simmer for 10 minutes till cooked.
HAPPY EATING!!!
If you do not have tamarind paste substitute with Vinegar (1 tablespoon vinegar for 1 tablespoon tamarind paste ) or lime juice ( 2 tablespoons tamarind paste for 1 tablespoon tamarind paste) mix this with a little brown sugar. You can also use Worcestershire sauce. With this substitutes the taste will not be exactly the same but its close enough You can substitute the lemon grass for lemon rind
Canton Noodles with Sweet Ginger Spring Onion Sauce
Do you ever discover a recipe and wonder where it had been hiding all your life?
Where it was when you had to endure eating horribly made spaghetti and minced meat at someone’s house,
or where it was when you went to an Asian restaurant and got noodles that tasted like a shoe
or where it was when you couldn’t be bothered to cook and had to deal with having 2 minute noodles?
Well that was what I felt about this dish. I discovered this on Pinterest about three weeks ago and I have probably had it a total of 7 times since then. I LOVE IT. The sweetness of the honey and the tartness of the ginger coupled with the hot chillies…….. HEAVEN in my mouth I tell you.
I got this recipe from Simply Reem. I removed a few ingredients here and there like sesame seeds because I really do not like them; I substituted Chili oil for chilies, Soba noodles for Canton, and rice wine vinegar for white vinegar. You can play around with the ingredients depending on what is in your pantry. But try it this way first, it is heavenly. HAPPY COOKING!!
Ingredients
- 250 grams Canton noodles (you can use any type of noodles that you like eg egg, udon or rice)
- Salt and Pepper as per taste.
- Lime wedges optional.
- 1 ½ cups of finely chopped spring onions
- 2 Tbsp minced ginger
- ¼ cup chopped dhania (coriander)
- Sesame oil/ grape seed oil/ any neutral oil – 2-3 Tbsp.
- 1 teaspoon chilli flakes or cayenne pepper
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar (I used white vinegar)
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
Mix all the ingredients for Sweet Ginger Spring Onion sauce in the bowl, check for the seasoning. Keep it aside for 10 -15 minutes for the flavors to develop.
Boil the noodles as per the instruction on the package,drain.
Add the sauce to the noodles and toss the noodles well, check for the seasoning one last time. Sprinkle lime juice.
HAPPY EATING!!
https://www.themothershipvillage.com/canton-noodles-with-sweet-ginger-spring-onion-sauce/
Spaghetti with Shredded Chicken, Garlic, mushrooms and Olive oil
I tend to be a bit lazy of late. Like, I feel as though I really can not be bothered to cook a fancy meal. Especially on weekdays at lunch, I feel as though it’s too much of a hassle to make anything that will take more than 10 minutes and so for the last month I really haven’t made anything extraordinary at lunch time.
However, we all know that food doesn’t need to be fancy, have a complicated name or an unending ingredients to be tasty. Like this meal took me all of 10 minutes, and it had 2 main ingredients and the rest was spice, herb and oil easy ingredients, how cool is that??? And it tasted GREAT. It’s a very efficient way to use up left over roast chicken, I had quite a bit of kuku porno (rotisserie chicken) in my fridge so I used that, I reckon you can use any left over chicken you have. HAPPY COOKING!!
Ingredients
- 400 gms Spaghetti
- 90ml extra virgin olive oil
- 2 breasts of roasted chicken, shredded (you can use any kind of pre cooked chicken)
- 4 cloves of garlic crushed (use more or less depending on your taste)
- 2 chillies (preferably dried red)
- A small handful of dhania (coriander) roughly chopped.
Instructions
Cook pasta in a large pan of salted boiling water (this should take about 10-12 minutes).
Meanwhile, heat the oil very gently in a frying pan, add the garlic and chilli, stir till its fragrant then add in the chicken. Cook till the chicken begins to brown. Add dhania and mix through.
Once you have drained the spaghetti, mix it into the chicken mixture, once mixed through serve immediately
HAPPY EATING!!
When cooking your pasta make sure you use a large sufuria (pot). If the sufuria is too small the pasta will cook un evenly and clump together. Let the water boil first before you add the salt so as to ensure all the crystals dissolve well Once pasta is cooked and drained shake the colander so as to remove excess water Use pasta immediately it is ready DO NOT rinse the pasta unless the recipe says to do so. The starch that makes the pasta stick to itself also helps the sauce stick to the pasta. If you run the pasta under cold water, you wash off that absorbent outer surface, and the sauce doesn’t have anything to grab on to
