Hi, Ray here.
Once again, I took the plunge into the kitchen to try out one of the curry focus yummy recipes.
I chose the Thai Curry Chicken and Vegetables recipe because I love chicken curry and the vegetables made the recipe sound healthy.
Most of the ingredients were already in my pantry. I had to make a special trip to an Asian supermarket to get some rice wine vinegar and water chestnuts (the can of water chestnuts that I found was double the recipe quantity and I decided to put them all in).
I saw that the cooking was going to take place in about 4 different phases. So I measured all of the first batch of spices into a little bowl that I could just tip into the frying pan (I don’t have a wok so used a thick frying pan instead).
Then I washed and chopped up the vegetables and put them to the side
Then I grated some fresh ginger and put it with the spices.
Then I cut up the chicken (I had bought skinless and boneless chicken).
Then I opened up the cans of coconut milk and water chestnuts, drained the water chestnuts, sliced them up and put them with the brocolli and carrots.
Then the other ingredients that I would need were laid out on the side.
Finally, I washed some basmati rice that was going to be eaten with the meal and took out a couple of stuffed chappatis that I had bought from an Indian food store.
All ready to go.
First up, I heated the oil and then added the spice mixture and soy sauce. After a minute or so, I added the chicken and cooked it for the recommended 8 minutes. Then I added the broth, vinegar, coconut milk and curry powder and brought it all to the boil (the food smells were sensational – I wanted to eat it all there and then).
I started to simmer the food for 20 minutes. After 15 minutes, I popped the basmati rice into the microwave and set it cooking for 14 minutes. Once the 20 minute simmer period had ended, I mixed in the vegetables and brought the mixture to the boil again.
Once the microwave had finished cooking the rice, I quickly put one of the chappatis into the microwave and set it going for 90 seconds whilst I drained the rice.
The second chappati was hurled into the microwave for 90 seconds whilst I was serving the curry on a bed of rice.
I cut the chappatis into halves for the table and served the meal to a small gathering of friends. Not only were they amazed that I could cook properly (instead of just randomly throwing whatever I found into the pantry into a pan) but were, like me, delighted with the results. The curry was delicious. It was very, very tasty and will definitely be on the menu in this household again.
I’ve never rated a menu before but would give it a 9/10. It’s going to be hard to top this one.
