Leftovers: Thai Paste
I whipped up an amazing little paste yesterday with some ingredients I had left over from the numerous Thai cookery classes last week. Although it involved getting out my mini Kenwood processor, I promise all the ingredients literally went into the bowl to be blitzed. Then it was simply a case of spreading over some chicken, tofu or in my case shitake mushrooms. For the chicken recipe I left it to marinate for a couple hours at room temperature (I’m not worried about bacteria, I had enough garlic in there to keep everyone at bay including Count Dracula). For the mushrooms I marinated them liberally, set aside for 30 minutes (they inevitably released water) and then pan-fried them on a low heat to caramelise them. Towards the end of the cooking process, I cranked up the heat to give them a crispy edge. They were delicious!
To cook the chicken version, start with a hot skillet or heavy frying pan, gentle heat to cook through with just a brush of oil, then add a few drizzles of oil and slowly caramelise. I got the thumbs up approval from my loyal and ever-ready guinea pigs – devotees of The Cooking Academy.
You could equally add some coconut milk towards the end of the cooking process and turn this into a curry or wet dish to serve with steamed rice or noodles, or apply a thin layer of the marinade to a piece of fish and grill it – healthy you!
There are many ideas to use this neat little marinade with a variety of ingredients, it’s so versatile. Do try it, it’s easy, tasty and healthy. Moreover, let me know how you get on!
Serves 4
Ingredients:
For the marinade
- 4 stalks of lemongrass – tough outer part removed
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 8 large stems of fresh coriander – stalks and leaves
- 1 stalk of fresh green or black peppercorns
- 1 green finger chilli
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- ½ tsp turmeric or 1 tsp fresh ginger
- 1 tbsp jaggery
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
- 8 chicken thighs boneless and skinless cut into 2 or 3 pieces
Preparation instructions:
- Place all the ingredients for the marinade into the processor bowl, blitz until a paste; it won’t be as smooth as other pastes such as red curry, since it has much less oil.
- Rub the paste on to the chicken pieces, massage well into chicken and set aside to soak up the flavours for about 1 hour at room temperature or refrigerate over night.
- Using a cast iron skillet or heavy based wide frying pan heat brush with a little oil and heat. Place the chicken in the pan, spreading out the pieces to make as much contact with the surface. Now cook on a low temperature to cook the chicken slowly, to tenderise and eventually caramelise. Drizzle with a little more oil if necessary, and turn over the pieces after about 10 minutes on low heat.
- When cooked through, garnish with fresh coriander and serve with a hot chilli dipping sauce.
Kumud Gandhi is a Nutritional Food Scientist bestselling Author, Broadcaster, and Keynote Speaker on the subject of nutritional health for productivity & performance in the workplace. In 2010 Kumud founded ‘The Cooking Academy’ a cookery school that focusses on cooking for nutritional health and wellbeing. Kumud regularly presents to international audiences on a variety of topics such as ‘Eating for Immunity and a Lifetime of Wellness’. She is an expert in the field of Wellness in the Workplace and works with organizations to create transformational change in employee health & well-being through nutrition and health coaching.
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