Thai Green Curry ala Nikki

Thai Green Curry ala Nikki.....yummmm....served with rice or rice noodles.

My mother Nicole is a Siamese cat, therefore I'm half Siamese. (Does that explain the blue eyes?) Anyway, being Siamese also means I'm partial to Thai food.

You must know that Thai cuisine is more than just Tom Yum or Patprik. There's also the curries - red, green, panang and massaman. My favourite is green curry with loads of lime leaves. I just love the balance of hot, sour, salty and sweet of it. The aroma of kaffir lime leaves and lime juice just give it that extra "kick". You can make the curry with meat, fish or seafood. My favourite is chicken - just the thigh fillet....*drool*

We made this for lunch yesterday. The aroma just enveloped the whole house and made my tummy growl non-stop until lunch time. We also grilled some mackerel....but that's another story.
Here's the recipe we used. It's the classic green curry recipe but of course tweaked here and there to suit my palate.

First, gather all the ingredients. It's a long list of exotic Asian stuff but just pay a visit to Chinatown or Vietnamese shops in your area. They should have most of the ingredients.

We made the paste from scratch using the ingredients. Slice them up and then plonk them in the food processor or blender, grind until fine. In the old days, the chefs would use stone mortar to make this paste:

4 cloves garlic (we used smoked garlic)

1 red onion

1 cup fresh coriander - root, stem and leaves

12 kaffir lime leaves - deveined

1 thumb (human thumb not my paw) sized galangal

10 Thai bird chili (this gives about the right degree of spiciness, you can lessen or add)

2 stalks lemongrass

1 teaspoonful shrimp paste

All (almost) of the ingredients for the dish.....the small green round stuff at the top are pea eggplants.

This is how galangal looks like. Also available bottled in brine or dried. We use the fresh one, of course.

Next step, prepare rest of ingredients:

2 cloves garlic - sliced finely

4 kaffir lime leaves - deveined and sliced finely

1 cup pea eggplants - separate stem from fruit

1 cup coconut milk - we used powdered with 1 cup water

2 tablespoonful fish sauce (nampla)

1 pound boneless chicken thigh fillet cut into bite-sized pieces

2 tablespoonful cooking oil

2 tablespoonful lime juice - freshly squeezed from three limes

1 teaspoonful brown or palm sugar - or to taste

2 cups basil leaves - any kinds, Thai, sweet, Italian, as long as not the red ones

I just looove the fragrance of kaffir lime leaves.....hmmmm.....

Aaah...the smell of garlic in hot oil.....the tummy goes rumble rumble...

Now, start cooking. Use a medium-sized pot or wok. We used an aluminium pot.

1. Heat oil in pot. Stir fry garlic until fragrant.

2. Next, pour in green curry paste. Lower the heat so it didn't get burnt.

3. Mix in fish sauce and stir. Let simmer.

Green curry paste happily simmering in pot.

4. Now, add in the chicken pieces, stir to let paste coat the chicken. Let simmer until chicken is cooked.

The chicken happily simmering with paste in pot. Ahh...what a merry combination.

5. Throw in pea eggplants, let simmer until soft. This is optional as it's not widely available. You can substitute with any eggplant (diced) or even snake beans. I've eaten green curry using both pea eggplants and snake beans.

Freshly squeezed lime is the best. Or you can also use the commercial bottled ones. Never ever substitute with lemon.

6. Mix in lime juice and coconut milk. Also sugar. Adjust according to your taste.

Useful tip: Don't wash blender after using it to make the paste. Instead, pour in coconut milk powder and water in there. Blend and it will mix with the paste left over. No waste.

7. Last but not least, separate basil leaves from stems, wash and add into curry. Remove from heat and serve with rice or rice noodles.

A pot of happiness on a Saturday afternoon.

Beautiful basil leaves....we used to plant this in Sydney as it was expensive.

Nikki's note: Burp!!!! meoww....Nikki

Asam Pedas for Uncle Lee

My dear Uncle Lee,
This one's for you. I was sad when I read your heart-wrenching story about Yvonne. Of trust broken and love shattered. So, I've decided to cook a special dish for you. As I'm a cat, it has to be something "fishy" too. Thus, we can kill two birds with one stone, OK?
I hope you'll like my version of Asam Pedas Ikan Tenggiri with Belimbing. Please tell Mrs Lee to set the table, she's invited for dinner too. Though, can she stand seeing me being cuddly cuddly with you? I'm not just a cat but a very sexy puttytat....an SYT (in your books). teeheehee...

What do you think? I managed to get the largest piece of Spanish Mackerel at the market for you. Yummy?

Ingredients: (to serve 2)
2 pieces Spanish Mackerel cutlets
2 tablespoons cooking oil
3 pcs of Spanish onion, peeled and sliced thinly

Spanish onions for Spanish Mackerel...get it? Anyway, the red onions are tastier than the brown or white variety.

3 cloves garlic, peeled
2.5cm piece of ginger, peeled
2.5cm piece galangal
0.5cm piece turmeric root
1 bunch of daun kesum (laksa leaves or Vietnamese mint)

We got this bunch of Vietnamese mint from Aunty H's garden. Ours died last winter and we haven't replanted.

10 pcs dried red chilli (I use Kashmiri chili), cut and soaked in hot water
2.5cm piece of belacan (shrimp paste)
1 tablespoon tamarind paste
1 lemongrass, green part discarded
2 pcs coriander root (from 2 bunches of fresh coriander)
5 bilimbi (belimbing buluh)

I couldn't get fresh bilimbi but these frozen ones (right - light green) should do fine. Oh, they're imported from the Philippines. Those are coriander roots (middle), widely used in Thai cooking too.

3 small eggplants, peeled, cut into pieces and soak in water (room temperature)
10 okra (ladies' fingers), cut off heads and tails
7 cherry tomatoes

I love to put heaps of vegetables in my Asam Pedas. Saves the trouble of preparing another vege dish actually.

salt and palm sugar to taste

Methods:
1. Put the garlic, ginger, galangal, turmeric root, coriander root and dry chili in food processor. Press the button and make sure everything binds into a smooth paste.

Don't you love the food processor? It makes kitchen work a breeze.

2. Heat the cooking vessel, I prefer to use a claypot for this dish. Pour oil once pot is heated through.
3. Fry onion in hot oil, until caramelised, then put in the shrimp paste. Fry for about 1 minute.
4. Next, pour the paste from the food processor into the pot. Mix and stir fry until fragrant.
5. When the mixture is somewhat dry and cooked (the Malaysian term is "pecah minyak"), put in the fish cutlets.
6. Mix tamarind paste with a cup of water and pour mixture on fish. Crush lemongrass with mortar and throw into pot too. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes, add a bit more water if the gravy dries up.
7. When fish is almost cooked (tender but not flaky), throw in the accompanying vegetables.
8. Put in about 1 tsp salt and 3 tsp brown or palm sugar.
9. Let simmer until vegetables are soft and fish is fully cooked. Remove from heat and serve.

Best served with rice. Bon appetit!

Unfortunately, the Canadian customs confiscated the parcel containing this dish that we couriered to you, Uncle Lee. So, you going to have to buy that ticket and come here.

We'll have dinner at my place. It's OK, Prince William has gone back to England. purrr.....meow!

The Feline Masterchef

As head of the household, I'm supposed to provide for my feline family. At times I'll have to don the chef's hat and cook-up a storm in the kitchen. It's a tough life but I try to be the best, most times.

Cooking is actually very easy. First, must get a human to open the fridge door for you. If I were a Norwegian Forest Cat, perhaps I can open it myself but since I'm a non-pedigree, albeit a bit overweight, it would be impossible for me, right? OK, let's put it this way, I'm vertically-challenged (that's PC for "short").

I'm not very good at writing unlike my sister Angelina. So, I'll compose a pictorial essay instead.

1. First, look for the right ingredients. Other beings plan their menu and then buy the ingredients. I do it in reverse. My menu will be based on what's already available. No need to mess up my handsome head.

2. Hmmmm...looks like Mama has stocked up on a gazillion organic stuffs in the fridge. Now, let me see, is there any lemongrass? Oh...I simply love the smell of it....I can see stinky beans, scallion, coriander, lettuce....


3. Keep looking, persevere...yoohoo...lemongrass, where are you? Show yourself to me. I won't harm you.

4. Focus! Ah...there you are. Come to Papa you munchy munchy sweetie....

5. Be thankful....finally, the lemongrass is within my grasp. Now, kids, shall we have tuna in tomyum soup today?

6. Enjoy! Voila! This is the masterchef creation today. Very very yummy.....

Call me if you want the recipe. OK?

Gardening in Winter

Clear sunny days are rare nowadays. Almost always we'll wake up with "threatening" sky - dark, with symptoms of heavy rain or storm. Sometimes we can't even open the balcony door because of heavy wind. Drought has besieged Australia for years but lately, when it rains, it pours!

Thus, when we saw a glimpse of the sun last weekend, the whole family decided to finally open the door and tiptoe into our "Garden in the Sky." OK, so we don't have a backyard but I'm happy to report that Mama has green fingers. Her potted plants are alive and healthy.

I would sometimes help Mama rake the soil but she usually gets upset as she thought I was attempting to make poo in the pot. No way Jose! I prefer the proper loo...

I'm officially Mama's favourite gardening buddy...

The Sydney skyline is part of our "Garden View".

Brad's trying to decide if rose leaves are good to eat too.

Not exactly ours but this gregarious plant in the neighbour's backyard is glorious. The flowers only come around this time of the year.

The money plant is happy indoors.

Besides the ornamentals, I could lump Mama's collection of plants into three other categories: culinary herbs, cat snacks, and succulents.

In the cat snacks category, Mama has planted lemongrass (my fav), mondo grass, cat grass (she got the seeds from a petshop in Homebush) and catnip. Catnip is a type of mint. Unfortunately it didn't survive long.

We don't like this mondo grass, it's not palatable at all.

Mama's lemongrass hardly survives my constant munching...it's yummy....

I've been told to stop eating the lemongrass though...

This cat grass is Brad's favourite snack.

The ornamentals and succulents are mostly Australian natives. They seem to thrive in the harsh conditions (and Mama's forgetfulness in the watering department) and don't require much attention.

I love this colourful coleus, it has medicinal properties I heard.

Delicious looking sedum, unfortunately not cat food either.

I was told that aloe vera was the secret beauty ingredient of ancient Egyptian queen Cleopatra.

Such lovely succulents...they can grow anywhere with very little water.

Mama's favourite category - culinary herbs. What do we have in the garden now? There's a fairly large curry-leave tree, Thai basil, flat-leaved parsley, lemongrass, chili and rosemary. In the past she's grown coriander, sweet basil and lemon balm too.

The oldest surviving plant in Mama's garden - the curry leaves are handy to have around when you love curry!

Mama's praying hard her precious bird chili plant will survive this winter.

Mama thinks she has enough flat-leaved parsley for making tabouleh (Lebanese salad) now.

I love the aromatic Thai basil, Mama uses them a lot in her cooking.

The humble ginger is Mama's favourite culinary herb.

Mama's pot of mint - crush some mint leaves, a slice of lemon, plonk in a tall glass of ice water....hmmm...refreshing summer drink..

I was told that the morning sun is good for me too.

After a hard day's work in the garden, I took a break by hiding among Mama's chili plants. I forgot to take pictures of Mama's humongous cactus and palm trees. Oh well...next time maybe. At least this cat knows how to use macro lens now...purrr purrr...