Crispy Chicken With Thai Green Curry and Rice Noodles with Red Cabbage Kimche Slaw

OK, this recipe is from Jamie Oliver's "Meals in Minutes" cookbook!  As most of you know I'm a big Jamie fan,  but I've been working on this meal for almost two hours, so be careful, maybe he meant meals in 120 minutes!  So bollocks to that, I fixed it a bit, but it's still going to take a while to cook.  The good news is, it's really good and easy to do, and it's a fun change of flavors.

Recipe for four:
Chicken:
4 chicken thighs, skin on and bone in
1 T honey

Red Cabbage Slaw:
1/2 small head red cabbage, thinly shredded
1/4 bunch cilantro, stems removed
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 small bunch radishes, thinly sliced in rounds (watch your fingers)
1 green chili, thinly sliced
1 red chili, thinly sliced
1 - 1" piece of ginger, peeled and crushed
Juice of two limes
A drizzle of sesame oil
Salt and pepper

Curry Sauce:
1 - 1" piece ginger, peeled
3/4 bunch cilantro, large stems removed
1 green chili, stem removed
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 lemongrass stalk, outer leaves removed and trimmed
1 bunch scallions
1 can coconut milk
Juice of one lime
2 T soy sauce
2 T sesame oil
1 t green curry paste

Noodles:
1 packet of rice noodles
Sesame oil
Juice of one lime

Get the oven hot, set it at 350*.  Place the chicken on a sheet pan or roasting dish, drizzle with a good amount of olive oil, and season with sea salt and pepper, make sure to use a lot of salt.  Then place in the oven.  It will take about one hour to cook.  Just before it's done drizzle the honey over the chicken, and cook for a few more minutes so it gets nice and sticky.

While the chicken is cooking, place all the curry sauce ingredients (except for the coconut milk) into a food processor and puree, then blend in the coconut milk.  Place the sauce in a saucepan and heat over a medium high heat.  When hot, cover and turn down the heat to low.

Now make the slaw in a large stainless steel bowl, adding all the ingredients except the lime juice and oil, add those at the last minute.

Boil a kettle full of water, place the rice noodles in a pan and pour the boiling water over them until they're covered, and let them soak for a bit until soft.  If you're ready to plate, place the chicken (remember to drizzle on the honey) onto warm plates, dress the slaw with the juice and oil, and place the stainless steel bowl with the slaw on the stove over medium heat and toss it just to warm it a bit, then plate it.  Now drain the noodles and return to the pan and pour in the lime juice and oil and stir, and plate, then add curry sauce on top of noodles.

Bon Appetit!  Chef Hobbes

Indian Chicken Curry

A traditional Indian curry.  You can ad meat, chicken, fish or tofu.  I made this dish for the kids the other night, served with rice and puppodums, a big hit it was!

Recipe for four:
1 13oz can organic tomatoes
1 13oz can organic stock (homemade is better)
1 large red onion chopped
4 carrots chopped
3 stalks celery chopped
4 cloves garlic skin removed
2" ginger skin removed
2 Tablespoons mild curry powder
2 Tablespoons coconut or olive oil (not extra virgin)
1 pack organic chicken tenders (optional)
8 Sharwoods plain puppodums available at gourmet galley
1 bunch cilantro
1 cup plain yogurt
2 three finger pinches of salt and pepper
Mango chutney

First turn your oven on to 325*  In a blender puree tomatoes.  place in a roasting pan along with the stock and cover with foil, place in the oven for two hours, checking once and a while making sure it doesn't dry out, adding more stock if needed.  Don't hurry this step, this is what gives the curry an intense flavor.  Tip: don't let the foil touch the tomatoes, tomatoes are acid and it will eat the foil!

Rough chop, onion, carrot, celery garlic and ginger.  Now place in the food processor or blender and puree,  if you use a blender you may need a little olive oil to make it work!  This will become the sauce.

Place a heavy saute pan over medium high heat with the oil or butter, when the pans good and hot, add the mixture and fry it, stirring so not to brown about 2-3 minutes.  Now add the curry powder and cook for another minute, season with salt and pepper.

When the tomatoes are done, add the vegetable mixture and stir, adding more stock if needed.  Place back in the oven for another hour.  Make sure there's enough liquid, don't let it dry out, add more stock if needed.  When it's almost done, start your rice.  While rice is cooking season the chicken tenders and saute in olive oil, browning both sides.  When cooked, add to the sauce.  If you're making this dish with beef or lamb,  flour and brown all sides, and cook with the sauce for about an hour.

Now cook the puppodums by frying in olive oil.  As soon as you put one of the discs in the oil, turn it and keep turning them.  They will cook very quickly!

When the rice is done, pull the curry out of the oven,  add the yogurt and cilantro and stir...  Serve over rice, with a little mango chutney on the side!  This sounds like a lot of work, but it's not, it takes time.

Bon Appetit!