Tag: coconut cream

David Thompson’s Coconut Chicken Salad

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 2 – 4

This recipe dates back to the days of Darley Street Thai.

And wasn’t that just a brilliant restaurant, especially in the day. (I’m showing my age aren’t I?!)

We did a long Thai lunch, cooked exclusively from David’s tome of Thai cooking, ‘Thai Cooking’.

The pork and prawn egg nets by Nat were incredible, though this chicken salad was the standout. Totally luxurious, svelt, moorish and refreshing, all at the same time. And that kaffir lime!

Classicly good Thai – Royal Thai – cooking.

By itself or alongside a hot and sour curry, this simply speaks to why the Thais are just so clever with their food.

Yum!

Ingredients

1 c coconut cream
Pinch of salt
150gm skinless chicken breast fillet
1 – 2 tbsp chicken stock
Large pinch palm sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 tbsp lime juice
2 stalks lemongrass, very finely sliced
3 red shallots, sliced*
4 kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded
1 tbsp shredded coriander leaves
Handful of Thai basil leaves
1 tbsp ground, roasted peanuts

Paste

3 long red chillies, deseeded and grilled
2 garlic cloves, grilled and then peeled
Large pinch of salt

Method

  1. First, make the paste: gradually pound the ingredients together, using a pestle and mortar, until smooth.
  2. Heat coconut cream with salt, add chicken breast and simmer very gently until cooked (4 – 5 minutes). If the coconut cream seems about to separate, add a few tbsp of stock. Remove chicken, cool and shred.
  3. Return four tbsp of the coconut cream to the boil and mix in the paste. Season with the palm sugar, fish sauce and lime juice: it should taste rich, salty, sweet and sour. Mix in all the remaining ingredients and serve with a sprinkling of the peanuts.

* We tend to have quite large shallots in Australia and three of these would be too much. Play it by ear.

Roast Ocean Trout with Chilli-Turmeric Paste

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4

This recipe is awesome.

Think a good lashing of a wonderful, oily paste on a thick piece of ocean trout (or salmon), roasted at a high temperature.

Served hot with a drizzle of coconut cream and a squeeze of lime, this is what you would call vibrant. I mean, ocean trout in any setting is the finest of the fish, though add this wonderful paste and this is just moorish.

It would be just as good with barramundi or even chicken breast.

Just make sure you have a glass of cold, crisp white ready to go!

Ingredients

4 fillets of ocean trout
Coconut cream, for drizzling
Lime wedges and steamed rice, to serve

Spice paste

4 long red chillies, seeds removed
1 lemongrass stalk, white part, finely chopped
10gm piece of turmeric, coarsely chopped
1 small golden shallot
2 tsp dry-roasted, coarsely ground coriander seeds
1/4 c olive oil

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 240C. For spice paste, using a hand-blender, blitz ingredients with a pinch of salt until smooth.
  2. Heat a small frying pan over a medium heat. Add spice paste and stir until lightly roasted (1 – 2 minutes), then set aside to cool.
  3. Spread spice paste over fish and bake until just cooked through (8 minutes for medium-rare). To finish, drizzle fish with coconut cream and squeezed lime juice. Serve with rice.