Thai Green Chicken Curry

Here is a fast and yummy dish -- a favorite of my hubby.  I've prepared it quite a number of different ways in the few years I've been making it, but I think I now have a really good version.  

Thai Green Chicken Curry

2 cloves garlic
1 knob of ginger (about as much as the garlic)
2 pieces aubergine/eggplant
2 pieces chicken breast fillets, about 200 grams, cut into strips
1 can of coconut milk, about 400 ml
3 tablespoons green curry paste (I use the Mae-ploy brand)
1 teaspoon shrimp paste or bagoong
fish sauce, to taste

Cut the aubergine into strips, then boil until almost cooked. Set aside.
In a hot pan,  saute the minced garlic until it emits a nice smell, then add in the minced ginger. Stir around a bit, then add in the shrimp paste.
Add in the green curry paste next and stir around the mixture in the pan for about a minute.

Add in the chicken strips and stir until chicken is cooked.
Add in the coconut milk and let boil.
Bring down heat to a simmer, then add in the boiled aubergines.
Simmer the curry for about 30 minutes until cooked.
Serve with steaming, white rice.

Food and being Kapampangan -- my first Adobo recipe

Kapampangan = good food! That is always the association one gets in the Philippines. I grew up in Manila with my Kapampangan parents and grandmother.  Good, warm, comforting food was always a given.  There was always enough food on the table, for our family, for our friends.

Living away from home for quite some time now, I tap into my innermost Kapampangan-ness to try to recreate recipes that I have grown up with, and experiment with new ones.  

Here is my first recipe from my Mom -- the ultimate in Filipino comfort food, adobo.

Auring's Chicken and Pork Adobo

 1/2 kilo chicken, cut into serving pieces
1/2 kilo pork, with a little fat, and cut into serving pieces
100 ml soy sauce (preferably a Filipino brand, like Silver Swan, or Kikkoman)
100 ml vinegar (preferably Silver Swan white cane vinegar)
5-6 cloves garlic
black pepper
2-3 laurel leaves

Put the chicken and pork in a cooking pot, then add the soy sauce and vinegar.  Crush lots of garlic, add into the mixture. Crush some black pepper and add in. Finally, put in the laurel leaves.  Let the meat marinate in the mixture for about 30 minutes to an hour, then boil. Once boiling, cover pot and turn down heat to a simmer until cooked.  Do not mix with a spoon, just move around a bit so all parts are evenly cooked. An important piece of information from my Mom and the secret to our adobo, she claims, is that - once the adobo is cooked, take off the pot cover so that the extra water evaporates. Serve with warm, steaming white rice.

A Typical Swiss Raclette

I lived in Switzerland for a few years, and one of the recipes that my husband and I really liked was the Swiss Raclette.  We tried it once in a restaurant, and later just recreated it at home for a fun, simple meal.

Swiss Raclette

a raclette set

raclette cheese
boiled potatoes
pickled onions
pickles
meats (such as salami, prosciutto)
mushrooms
cherry tomatoes
paprika/green or red pepper

Set out all your ingredients. Start up the raclette. Place a piece of raclette cheese in the raclette plates. Place the pickled onions, pickles, meats, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, paprika pieces on the raclette grill (or put them on top of the cheese in the raclette plates). Once the cheese is nice and melted, scrape with your wooden spatula onto the top of your boiled potatoes.  Sprinkle some salt and pepper on top.  Eat together with pieces of grilled pickles, mushrooms, meats.  Bring out a nice bottle of dry white wine and enjoy!!!