(no subject)
For my friend looking for take-to-work meal ideas:
Ellen's Not-Exactly-Famous-But-Really-Damn-Good Coconut Curry Chicken
First, in a large/high sided frying pan over med/high heat you brown about 2-3 chicken breasts (they're the best but you can really use any skinless/boneless portions you have) cut into pieces. Add any veggies that you enjoy (I usually only include onion, although adding chickpeas will be my next experiment and cauliflower is always a good choice for dishes like this) about mid-way through cooking the meat, depending on how much cook time the veg needs.
When meat is cooked through, add curry paste (about a tablespoon per breast portion, but this is really to-taste) and let this cook for a few minutes (~3-5min - raw curry paste = bad for you). Then dump in a can of coconut milk, stir this around to get all the tasty bits on the bottom of the pan and generally mix the flavours around. Then you turn down the heat and let this simmer. I will usually let it simmer for quite some time so as to let it thicken and the oil will rise to the top and can be skimmed off after about 30-45 min, but as soon as it's hot, you can serve it right away. This makes it a good dish to make when having ppl over since timing isn't essential.
This is served with/over rice: Use 1/2c uncooked rice for every 1c cooked rice desired, rinse uncooked rice in cold water, bring big pot of salted water to a vigorous boil, add rinsed rice (and when cooking Indian dishes like this, I like to add some cinnamon stick and a handful or cardamom pods to the water at this point too - gives some nice subtle flavour) and let it boil uncovered until testing a grain proves it's just underdone - a little crunch left - use pot lid to drain off excess water from the rice and then cover the pot tightly (I sometimes put tin foil over the pot before putting the lid on to get a good seal) and let the rice sit untouched - NO PEEKING! - for a good 5-10 min (or however long it takes till you're ready to serve). When uncovering the rice, be careful not to let all the condensation on the lid pour back into the rice. Fluff with a fork and it's ready.
If eating this right away, be sure to get some Naan from the grocery store (or a bakery) and wrap it in tin foil and heat it up in the oven or toaster oven until it's toasty warm and serve with the Chicken and rice. Any left-overs are great heated up in the microwave. I'll sometimes make a big batch of this to make it last as lunch for several days at a time. Heating it up in the lunch room always creates jealous looks cause it smells so damn yummy!
If you like Indian food, you can also buy the sauces pre-made in jars where you just cook your meat/veg and then add the sauce, let it simmer till it's heated through and serve. I don't know about over there, but in Safeway (and the other big name stores) here you can get Tikka Masala, Butter Chicken, Vindaloo... all sorts of good ones.
Ellen's Not-Exactly-Famous-But-Really-Damn-Good Coconut Curry Chicken
First, in a large/high sided frying pan over med/high heat you brown about 2-3 chicken breasts (they're the best but you can really use any skinless/boneless portions you have) cut into pieces. Add any veggies that you enjoy (I usually only include onion, although adding chickpeas will be my next experiment and cauliflower is always a good choice for dishes like this) about mid-way through cooking the meat, depending on how much cook time the veg needs.
When meat is cooked through, add curry paste (about a tablespoon per breast portion, but this is really to-taste) and let this cook for a few minutes (~3-5min - raw curry paste = bad for you). Then dump in a can of coconut milk, stir this around to get all the tasty bits on the bottom of the pan and generally mix the flavours around. Then you turn down the heat and let this simmer. I will usually let it simmer for quite some time so as to let it thicken and the oil will rise to the top and can be skimmed off after about 30-45 min, but as soon as it's hot, you can serve it right away. This makes it a good dish to make when having ppl over since timing isn't essential.
This is served with/over rice: Use 1/2c uncooked rice for every 1c cooked rice desired, rinse uncooked rice in cold water, bring big pot of salted water to a vigorous boil, add rinsed rice (and when cooking Indian dishes like this, I like to add some cinnamon stick and a handful or cardamom pods to the water at this point too - gives some nice subtle flavour) and let it boil uncovered until testing a grain proves it's just underdone - a little crunch left - use pot lid to drain off excess water from the rice and then cover the pot tightly (I sometimes put tin foil over the pot before putting the lid on to get a good seal) and let the rice sit untouched - NO PEEKING! - for a good 5-10 min (or however long it takes till you're ready to serve). When uncovering the rice, be careful not to let all the condensation on the lid pour back into the rice. Fluff with a fork and it's ready.
If eating this right away, be sure to get some Naan from the grocery store (or a bakery) and wrap it in tin foil and heat it up in the oven or toaster oven until it's toasty warm and serve with the Chicken and rice. Any left-overs are great heated up in the microwave. I'll sometimes make a big batch of this to make it last as lunch for several days at a time. Heating it up in the lunch room always creates jealous looks cause it smells so damn yummy!
If you like Indian food, you can also buy the sauces pre-made in jars where you just cook your meat/veg and then add the sauce, let it simmer till it's heated through and serve. I don't know about over there, but in Safeway (and the other big name stores) here you can get Tikka Masala, Butter Chicken, Vindaloo... all sorts of good ones.