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badseed1980I am a poster child for bad posters. It's not like I haven't been cooking since the last time I made a cooking post! I have cooked many tasty things, in fact, and may go back and write about some of them later. My first real ratatouille, for example...some mint chocolate chunk cheesecake bars...the Octo-Pie (octopus pizza)...
Last night, I made Thai green curry chicken with veggies. Ordinarily, I am quite content to use jarred curry paste for a dish like this. While I'm sure it's far from perfect, it's generally very flavorful and makes a good meal. This year, though, I'm growing lemongrass in my garden, and I decided I wanted to use it (along with other stuff) to make a green curry paste from scratch. I also decided to use the green jalapeños from my garden instead of getting Thai chilies, because, well, I had them!
I've read in a number of Serious Eats articles that making herb/garlic/etc. pastes with a mortar and pestle leads to more flavorful results than using a food processor or blender. I figured I'd give that a shot, so as I minced up ingredients, I threw them into my granite mortar. I used the following:
Garlic (two fat cloves from a fresh head from the farmers' market)
Ginger (about as much by volume as the garlic, chopped from a fresh root)
Jalapeño (one big ol' fat one, seeds and all)
Cilantro (stems included--they're more flavorful!)
Lemongrass stalks (mine are thin, so I used a few)
Galangal (powdered, from Penzey's)
Coriander seeds (from the dead cilantro plant in my garden)
Salt
It took a while to mash them into the paste-like consistency I was hoping for. When it was done, I stuck it in the fridge for the flavors to meld while I prepped the other ingredients: some flat beans (Romano and dragon's tongue), mushrooms, onions, kale, and purple bell pepper, and of course the chicken--a couple of breasts cut in half flat and then sliced. I sautéed the veggies until they were getting tender, then added the chicken. When that was nearly cooked through, I poured in the curry paste, coconut milk, fish sauce, and soy sauce, as well as a sprinkling of brown sugar. I also added a handful of torn basil leaves from the garden. The end result was pretty tasty, if I say so myself. It went well with brown basmati rice.
Last night, I made Thai green curry chicken with veggies. Ordinarily, I am quite content to use jarred curry paste for a dish like this. While I'm sure it's far from perfect, it's generally very flavorful and makes a good meal. This year, though, I'm growing lemongrass in my garden, and I decided I wanted to use it (along with other stuff) to make a green curry paste from scratch. I also decided to use the green jalapeños from my garden instead of getting Thai chilies, because, well, I had them!
I've read in a number of Serious Eats articles that making herb/garlic/etc. pastes with a mortar and pestle leads to more flavorful results than using a food processor or blender. I figured I'd give that a shot, so as I minced up ingredients, I threw them into my granite mortar. I used the following:
Garlic (two fat cloves from a fresh head from the farmers' market)
Ginger (about as much by volume as the garlic, chopped from a fresh root)
Jalapeño (one big ol' fat one, seeds and all)
Cilantro (stems included--they're more flavorful!)
Lemongrass stalks (mine are thin, so I used a few)
Galangal (powdered, from Penzey's)
Coriander seeds (from the dead cilantro plant in my garden)
Salt
It took a while to mash them into the paste-like consistency I was hoping for. When it was done, I stuck it in the fridge for the flavors to meld while I prepped the other ingredients: some flat beans (Romano and dragon's tongue), mushrooms, onions, kale, and purple bell pepper, and of course the chicken--a couple of breasts cut in half flat and then sliced. I sautéed the veggies until they were getting tender, then added the chicken. When that was nearly cooked through, I poured in the curry paste, coconut milk, fish sauce, and soy sauce, as well as a sprinkling of brown sugar. I also added a handful of torn basil leaves from the garden. The end result was pretty tasty, if I say so myself. It went well with brown basmati rice.
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Date: 2016-08-06 01:11 pm (UTC)