Thai Sunday

Sunday I decided it was time to clean up my apartment, and off I went. Almost as soon as I was done I kept eyeing my nice, clean kitchen. There is just something about a clean kitchen that makes me want to cook. I had all but two ingredients for Thai noodles, and I figured that coriander and fish sauce aside, I could make it. It does make me mad to know that I JUST threw out my fish sauce b/c it spilled during the move and made all my spices smell like a sweaty, fishy mess. Showed that fish sauce who was boss, didn't I?! And now I am without. Anyway, I started by chopping the veggies:

Starting with carrots and going clockwise we have chopped garlic, limes, chopped chili pepper, shallots, and green bell pepper in the middle.

Next I chopped up some chicken tenderloins and peeled & deveined some shrimp, like so:

Thirdly I boiled some water and cooked the noodles. Immediately after taking them off the stove, I rinsed with cold water so that the cooking process would stop. Once I forgot to do this and they got all gloopy and gross before I could toss them in the wok.

Lastly, I gathered the spices I would need to make this the best damn Thai dish I could muster (without fish sauce and coriander). From left to right we have white wine vinegar, garlic chili sauce, ginger, and basil.

I will admit that there is one thing I forgot to take pics of: the chopped peanuts. I only had peanuts that were in their shells and was quite surprised by the mess peanuts make when you're not enjoying them the "regular" way, and by that I mean sucking off the salt, cracking the nut, and eating the peanut, shell and all (and washing them down with beer). Despite the fact that I'm the only one partaking of this dish, the cook in me could not bring myself to tongue the nuts (huh huh huh huh huh) beforehand. As a result, my newly vacuumed floor now has bits of peanut skins and shells scattered around my desk. Hey, I already vacuumed once this weekend, thus I have hit my quota. I then had to chop them all up because my fancy schmancy kitchen stuff is in storage. It wasn't so bad though. It made me remember the time Dad needed 1/2 cup of mayonnaise and the stores were closed, so we made some from scratch. A'yup, eggs, lemon, and vegetable oil- whisk until you collapse. From that perspective, chopping peanuts wasn't such a big deal.

Confession no. 2: I got all my stuff ready and decided that I'd have it for "linner" (lunch/dinner) after I had gotten some sun by the pool. As I have relayed in earlier posts, the easiest way for me to tan is to bring my best bud, Bud Light, to the pool with me. So I drank some beer, caught some rays, and once inside my apartment I didn't much care to continue my pictorial. But, here's how I cooked it:

1) Coated my wok with sesame oil and cooked the chicken. When the outside of the chicken was white, but it was not quite done yet, I then added the shrimp (b/c if you add the shrimp too soon you'll either get not-quite-cooked chicken, or gummy, tough shrimp). I also seasoned w/salt, basil, and pepper. The recipe called for chicken broth, but instead I just added some water to the wok so that the drippings could mix and make it's own broth. I took out the meat and placed it to the side.

2) To the broth I added the garlic, shallots, and chili pepper. Once softened, I dumped in the carrots b/c they will take longer to soften. I covered to "sweat" the veggies a bit. I also added some white wine vinegar, more basil, some ginger powder (I would've liked to have used real ginger root, but I didn't have any), and salt.

3) Next I uncovered the wok and added the green peppers. For the remainder of the cook-time I would cook uncovered b/c I needed the broth to evaporate. Once softened a bit (not too much! The veggies have to be firm enough for you to toss into the noodles later), I took the veggies out of the wok and placed aside.

4) Once again coated the wok with oil. Sometimes I'll fry an egg into the oil, but usually only if I'm using rice, not noodles (I dunno why). Since these were noodles I skipped that step. Once the wok was hot I added the noodles and mixed them up (they had clumped a little bit, but the heat and oil made them seperate), and made sure they were heated through. Next I added the veggies and tossed them in with the noodles. I also squeezed the lime into the veggie/noodle mix and I also added the chopped peanuts.

5) Once everything is heated, I added the meat last. I do this because I don't want to overcook the shrimp. Also note that while you can cook all this in stages, but I try to make sure the meat doesn't completely cool down, otherwise you'll have the same problem I listed above: either warm-ish chicken pieces or overdone shrimp. I guess you could also keep the chicken and shrimp seperate, but I just find it easier to cook it all at once and keep the meat the warm.

6) Once it's all mixed and heated through I save the best for last; the garlic chili sauce. It's already got some heat to it b/c of the chopped chili pepper, but if you're like me, the more spice the better. And that's it! Thai noodles for dinner! (And lots of leftovers for lunch the next day!)

Messy plate; I was using it to store the veggies/meat in order to avoid making too many dishes to wash later on. :-)