Junglefrog Cooking » Asian

Chicken curry and an Indian travel story

Simone (junglefrog) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:30:57 +0000

Delicious chicken curry

The very first time I had good Indian must have been in the UK. I was visiting friends at the time and we went to an Indian restaurant which just blew me away. I can’t even remember what we had, as we also shared most of the dishes but all of it was absolutely awesome and totally delicious. Since then I was hooked. Hooked on Indian food! Now obviously the Indian food we get here in European is I think slightly adapted to the Western palette, a little less spicy but still quite tasty overall. However when I finally went to India it was another experience all together!

Sarah and me posing in front of the Taj Mahal

I no longer work for Nike so I can now tell you that that ‘business’ trip we took 8 years ago was all about fun and just a tiny bit about work… I was Operations Manager at the time of the professional sports department. We took care of the entire logistics surrounding events like Olympics, Tour de France, World Cup Rugby and other fun events like that, so you can imagine that getting the clothes delivered to the athletes on time was crucial. We were used to working under tight deadlines and I was heading the department of 5. Mostly, we had a lot of fun, although we did work our buts off and certainly did not have a 9 to 5 job (more 8 to 8 most days!). I did travel quite a bit for work at the time too but in most cases

Sugar cane vendor

that was flying in, working late and flying back, so no space for fun. But Sarah and I, we came up with this brilliant plan of telling the Asian factories a bit more about ‘promo’. You see the trouble we always ran into was that factories, used to producing large quantities for retail, where not always very keen on producing 10 units for a track & field athlete, so we needed to educate them a little or so we managed to convince my manager…

I think in a way, she must have known that this was not a very hard trip to take and that we would have some fun in between but I also think she didn’t really mind. We had worked ridiculously hard the entire year so we earned it! We would be

Drunk man during the Holi festival

going for two weeks and visit three countries; Thailand, India and Sri Lanka. It was quite a bit of work scheduling it all, as we did have to visit the liaison offices in those countries, we would have to give them presentations (my biggest nightmare !) plus a few factory visits would have to be scheduled too. I think we were leaving around Easter, so we went a few days early to be able to visit the Taj Mahal and see some of India.

What we did not know before leaving, was that it was the Holi festival. A festival that – according to the Lonely Planet – is one of the few were you are not encouraged to go outside as a foreign female. So that was a bit of a bummer as it took an entire day out of our schedule. I understood later from Soma, that this is a festival we should have celebrated in an Indian home. On the streets of Delhi it was mostly drunk groups of men that were roaming around.

We did get to see the Taj Mahal and I loved that!! I thought I would not be as impressed as I actually was. I had seen so many images before going that I didn’t think it would be able to live up to the tale but it actually did. You have to see it with your own eyes to know what I’m talking about. Definitely a must see when in India.

But now the food…. We were lucky that we were mostly in the company of our Indian colleagues. That makes it a lot easier to make decisions on what to eat and what not. They took us to a typical small breakfast place, we had a fancy lunch at a posh restaurant and a dinner at a not so posh restaurant. In all cases, I totally loved the Indian flavors. Yes, some of it was so spicy I had steam coming out of my ears but for me Indian food is all about the combination of spices and flavors, which I think is unique to this cuisine. I wasn’t as much into food then as I am now, which is unfortunate, as I would love to go back and do it in a totally different way. I’m still trying to convince Tom that we have to visit India, but for some reason he is very hesitant to go.

Spicy but delicious

It’s a country of extremes I think and he fears he is not able to cope very well with the masses of people everywhere. I’ve only been in India for 5 days but in those 5 days I fell in love with the country, the culture, the food and the people. So we WILL go back at some point in the – hopefully – near future.

In any case, since then I have been trying to recreate the Indian flavors at home, but that is a whole different story altogether! Not so easy as it sounds too… Your spices or rather the quality of your spices, can make or break an Indian dish and sadly, good spices are not everywhere to be found as I soon found out when I had a very disappointing curry before. I now buy my spices in bulk and not ground but whole. I keep them locked away in a dark place and if I need some they are now fresh as they keep for a very long time. So whatever you do, make sure you’re spices still have some punch in them.

I now realize this has become a VERY long post for which I apologize..;) And I started out thinking; o, I have nothing to write about! lol… This delicious recipe is once again from my Indian guru, Soma from the gorgeous blog Ecurry. I was just looking back through my blog and notice I have made quite a few of her recipes. This one is delicious and I think the first chicken curry I made at home that actually tastes like Indian food, so mission accomplised!! It’s a simple one too, let’s call it curry for beginners…

Gridlled courgette & chickpea salad

Korma curry

Chipotle bread

P.S. These photos are taken with the leftovers; if you are wondering what happened to the chicken. Most of that was devoured already!

Chicken curry

Print recipe

Serves	4
Prep time	15 minutes
Cook time	45 minutes
Total time	1 hour
Meal type	Main Dish
Misc	Serve Hot
Region	Indian
Website	Ecurry

Ingredients

1 chicken (with bones but without skin)
fresh cilantro (for garnish)

marinade

2 tablespoons ginger paste (you can use fresh ginger and make this into a paste)
2 tablespoons garlic paste (use fresh garlic and ground this into a paste in pestle and mortar)
1/2 onion (finely chopped)
4 tablespoons yogurt
salt
1 teaspoon turmeric

curry

5-6 tablespoons oil
1 cinnamon sticks
2 pieces green cardamom pods
2 pieces cloves
2 pieces red onion (large size)
2 tablespoons ginger paste
2 tablespoons garlic paste
2 cups tomatoes (chopped)
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon sugar

curry (Optional)

2 teaspoons red chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cilantro
2 red or green chili (hot ones!)

Directions


Wash and clean the chicken and put all the ingredients for the marinade with the chicken. Leave to stand for a few hours or overnight is even better

Put a pan with a thick base on the stove (castiron is best). Add the cinnamon, cardamom pods and cloves in the pan and roast this dry until they become fragrant. This will take a few minutes. make sure not to burn them!

Add the oil to the pan and as soon as the spices begin to sissle, add the chopped onion, the chili and the sugar. Stir this on high until the onions begin to caramelize and colour lightly brown.

Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade and add them to the pan. Keep the marinade. Bake the chicken, stirring every once in a while until light brown. Make sure all the chicken pieces are coated with some of the oil and onions.

Add salt, turmeric, red chili powder, ginger paste, garlic pasta, cilantro powder and the rest of the marinade and tomatoes to the pan. On medium fire bake this for about 15-20 minutes until the oil starts to split (you will see the oil floating to the top)

Stir regularly and scrape over the bottom of the pan doing this. If you feel it is starting to stick to the bottom you can add a little water and make sure it gets removed from the bottom. You don't want it to burn and become dark brown. As soon as the oil separates you add 2,5 cups of water. Stir to mix.

Cover with a lid and cook for another 15-20 minutes or until the chicken is done. You should have some liquid left over in the pan, same as with a good mealsoup and enough to dip in some bread. If it is too liquid, remove the lid and cook until it is lessened. Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve with rice or bread

Note

This recipe is fairly spicy but I did add the optional chili powder in there. If you're not so fond of spicy food then ommit the chili powder to make it less spicy.

Marinated chicken on a stick and living leaner

Simone (junglefrog) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:00:32 +0000

Delicious meal

Now that the new year has started the term Living Leaner that Mona started on her blog Wisewords, takes on a bit of a double meaning for me. In fact, it takes on a triple meaning… I’m no different then anyone else around the world who wants to get fit and healthy in the new Year. Maybe with this difference being that I actually started right after Christmas (with just a short break at New Years) so this doesn’t count at all as a New Years resolution. I don’t do New Years resolutions so this just happens to be in the same period. And let’s face it, we’ve been here before now haven’t we? But in terms of living leaner; I could be a lot leaner myself and since Tom is still unemployed we have to live a lot leaner ourselves to. The budget has a limit!

And quite frankly, the way we were spending money before was – at some point – quite ridiculous. That’s the thing with having enough money; you tend to start living according to it. And that’s fine really but it also means that taking a step back is a bit harder. And it’s quite a big step back too. Finding a job in these days is hard. December is not the best month in any year to find a job but with the crisis everyone talks about, it is even harder. We’re still hopeful all will turn around soon but as of this month Tom is on unemployment benefit for the first time in his life (and I bet he also wishes it is going to be the last time too)

Skewered chicken with orange fennel salad

And the worst thing is that we do not know at this point how much money we will have left. I have an irregular income and Tom will only hear at the end of the month how much his benefit will be. So we’re preparing for the worst case scenario, just in case.. That means that we’re on a tight budget. I do realize there are loads of people out there that have a far worse situation then we do, so believe me, I’m not complaining. I’m merely stating the facts. So that means that we have to also become a bit more creative with what we eat. Once a week (on saturday) we get a crate of organically grown produce including meat, vegetables, cheese, eggs etc. If we use it wisely it would be enough to feed us for a week if we add some extra’s to it such as pasta, spices etc. It’s always seasonal and local too. Going to the supermarket would possibly be a tiny bit cheaper but then I wouldn’t know where it came from and I would like to still support the local farmers where we can. And for now, we still can, so no reason to get rid of that.

This particular meal does have a lot of ingredients but most of that we always have in house so there was no extra cost involved. The only thing I needed to buy was the chicken, the fennel, the salad and the oranges and the cost of those you see below. It was delicious, especially the marinade on the chicken gets high points. We had this with some plain rice as otherwise the meal would have been too light. And while I do want to lose weight, I want it to be sensible too!

And so you can all check how I’m doing I’ve added a little weight loss badge on the right in the sidebar… If it stays at the same number for too long, you can come and kick my butt!

Spicy skewered chicken with fennel-orange salad

Print recipe

Serves	2
Prep time	20 minutes
Cook time	10 minutes
Total time	30 minutes
Meal type	Lunch, Main Dish, Salad
Region	Chinese
From book	Chinese food made easy

Ingredients

200g chicken breast
olive oil

Herb mix

1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon chili flakes
1/2 teaspoon paprika powder
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon seasalt
1 teaspoon arachid oil (nut oil)
1 teaspoon shaohsing ricewine or dry sherry

orange fennel salad

4 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons orange juice
1/2 piece lime juice (juice from half a lime)
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon roasted sesame oil (I used regular sesame oil)
200g mixed salad leaves (washed)
1 piece fennel bulb (sliced thinly, soaked in cold water for 30 seconds and drained)
2 pieces oranges (peeled, parts cut out from between the pith)
seasalt
pepper

Directions


Soak 8-10 bamboo skewers for 20 minutes in cold water

Mix all ingredients for the herb mix in a bowl. put the meat in and coat them with the mix before you put them on the skewers

Heat a griddle or grill pan on high and sprinkle the meat with a little olive oil. Put the skewers in and grill the meat until golden brown, turn and grill the other side too. take of the fire.

For the salad put olive oil, orange and limejuice, soysauce, sesame oil and salt and pepper in a bowl together and whisk. Put the salad leaves in another bowl and divide the fennel and orange parts; sprinkle the dressing over the salad.

Divide the salad over 2 plates and put the chicken skewers on top and serve immediately.

Note

The original recipe uses lambfillet but that is hard to find here so I went with chicken instead!

Cost:

Fennel € 1,30
Oranges € 0,50
Chickenbreast € 1,50
Mixed Salad leaves € 1,50
TOTAL 4,80

Obviously the salad leaves could have been cheaper had I used regular salad but these were bought for a photoshoot so I figured I might as well use them!

Moo Shu – Daring Cooks October 2011

Simone (junglefrog) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 07:00:27 +0000

Mu shoo pancakes

Yes, you are reading that correctly! In – what seems like forever and is probably close to it anyway – I’ve finally managed to complete a Daring Cooks challenge again! Whoohoo!! I love doing those challenges but sometimes it is just too time consuming to keep up with everything and work at the same time. After a fairly busy summer and a rather unsettling spring before that, I simple didn’t get around to doing any after the last one in March of this year. But life seems to have settled down a bit so hopefully I should be able to join in some fun challenges in the coming months!

The October Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Shelley of C Mom Cook and her sister Ruth of The Crafts of Mommyhood. They challenged us to bring a taste of the East into our home kitchens by making our own Moo Shu, including thin pancakes, stir fry and sauce.

I also particularly liked this months challenge as the Asian kitchen is one of my favorites. It’s usually quick, light and healthy and with the winter months and heavy Christmas food ahead of us, that is just what we need to stay sane and healthy.

Moo shu pancakes

This challenge was all about making specific thin Chinese pancakes and then fill them with a stirfry. In addition to that we also had to make our own hoisin sauce as well. I use hoisin sauce quite a lot when cooking (as we do cook Asian flavors a lot) but had never even thought of making my own. To start with that, as I also started actually by making this sauce first. It’s simple; you whip the ingredients together and you’re done. I did think that the taste was too salty but that could have been because I used a dark soy sauce. I never know what to use if something is too salty… Anyone?

Little jar of hoisin sauce

The pancakes took the longest as it involved making the dough, having it rest for 30 minutes and then rolling it in three separate cigar shapes, cutting that into 6-8 pieces, rolling a ball of each and then transferring that into a paper thin pancake. Right… As you can probably see by looking at the photos, my pancakes could have definitely been a little thinner. I thought they were thin but the examples made y Shelley and Ruth looked much thinner, more like crepes almost. They gave us three different ways of making the pancakes but I just stuck to the first. What I did have – and I have no idea if that is supposed to happen – was that my pancakes puffed up while baking them. Did anyone else have that? Or was that because I cooked them too thick or too long?

Cutting into the pancakes

Whatever the case; it was really delicious so in that sense it was all success. I didn’t make any photos during the making of the pancakes as it was pitch dark at that time.. Not really ideal for photos.. I will definitely be making this recipe again, although I will not be making my own pancakes. Or maybe a different kind that would be easier to work with. Have to think about that!

Here are the recipes!

Thin pancakes (for mu shoo)

Print recipe

Serves	25
Prep time	45 minutes
Cook time	45 minutes
Total time	1 hours, 30 minutes
Meal type	Main Dish, Side Dish
Region	Chinese
From book	The Chinese Kitchen

Ingredients

560g all purpose flour
300ml hot (boiling) water
1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Directions


Sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Gently pour in the water, stirring as you pour, then stir in the oil. Knead the mixture into a soft but firm dough. If your dough is dry, add more water, one tablespoon at a time, to reach the right consistency. Cover with a damp towel and let stand for about 30 minutes.

Lightly dust the surface of a worktop with dry flour. Knead the dough for 6-8 minutes or until smooth, then divide into 3 equal portions. Roll out each portion into a long sausage and cut each sausage into 8-10 pieces. Keep the dough that you are not actively working with covered with a lightly damp dish cloth to keep it from drying out.

Roll each piece into a ball, then, using the palm of your hand, press each piece into a flat pancake. Dust the worktop with more dry flour. Flatten each pancake into a 6 to 8 inch (15 cm to 20 cm) circle with a rolling pin, rolling gently on both sides.

Place an un-greased frying pan over high heat. Once the pan is hot, lower the heat to low and place the pancakes, one at a time, in the pan. Remove when little light-brown spots appear on the underside. Cover with a damp cloth until ready to serve.

Alternate method for preparing the pancakes: Once the dough has rested and been kneaded again, divide it into an even number of small pieces, rolling each into a ball. Working with two balls of dough at a time, dip the bottom of one ball lightly into sesame oil and press it onto the top of the second ball. Press the double layer flat, then roll the doubled pancake layers into 6 to 8 inch circles. In a dry pan, cook on each side until dry and lightly blistered (but without browning). Separate pancakes after cooking. Alternately (I know, an alternate to the alternate...), if you would prefer not to dip the dough in the sesame oil, you can achieve a similar result with a slight modification. Again working two pieces at a time, roll each piece into a three inch pancake. Using a pastry brush, brush sesame oil onto the top of one of the pancakes, and top it with the other pancake. Further roll the doubled pancake into a 6 to 8 inch circle and cook as the above alternate method. This method was actually our favorite of the three, and yielded the best results – very thin pancakes that held up a little better and had the most authentic texture. We had the best luck brushing a bit of sesame oil on both circles of dough, then sandwiching them together. Just be careful separating the pancakes after cooking them on both sides – heat (steam) does get caught between them, so don't burn your fingers!

Note

Be sure to use very hot-to-boiling water, as it helps relax the gluten, which will aid in rolling the pancakes super thin.
Adjust the heat of your pan as needed to cook the pancakes without burning them. I had to keep my burner on medium (rather than low) heat in order for my pancakes to cook properly (low was drying them out too much without cooking them fully), so watch your pancakes carefully.
If the pancakes are not to be used as soon as they are cooked, they can be warmed up, either in a steamer for 5-6 minutes, or in a microwave oven for 20-30 seconds, depending on the power.
And, in case you are curious, we both asked our local Chinese food restaurants about their Moo Shu pancakes, and they informed us that they purchase them prepared, and simply steam them for their customers as they order the dish.

Mu shoo pork

Print recipe

Serves	4
Prep time	30 minutes
Cook time	8 minutes
Total time	38 minutes
Meal type	Main Dish
Region	Chinese
From book	The Chinese Kitchen

Ingredients

150-200g various mushrooms (I used shii-take, oyster mushrooms and chestnut mushrooms)
450g pork loin or butt
100g bamboo shoots
170g Chinese cabbage (thinly sliced)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 scalions (or spring onions)
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
2 teaspoons rice wine
a few dropssesame oil
12 pieces thin pancakes (to serve)

Directions


Clean the mushrooms of your choice and finely cut them. Thinly cut the pork, bamboo shoots and Chinese cabbage into matchstick-sized shreds. Lightly beat the eggs with a pinch of salt.

Heat about 1 tablespoon (15 ml) oil in a preheated wok and scramble the eggs until set, but not too hard. Remove and keep to one side. Heat the remaining oil. Stir-fry the shredded pork for about 1 minute or until the color changes. Add the fungus, bamboo shoots, Chinese cabbage and scallions. Stir-fry for about 2-3 minutes, then add the remaining salt, soy sauce and wine. Blend well and continue stirring for another 2 minutes. Add the scrambled eggs, stirring to break them into small bits. Add the sesame oil and blend well. To serve: place about 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of hot Moo Shu in the center of a warm pancake, rolling it into a parcel with the bottom end turned up to prevent the contents from falling out. Eat with your fingers.

Hoisin sauce

Print recipe

Serves	1
Prep time	10 minutes
Meal type	Condiment
Region	Chinese
Website	Epicurian

Ingredients

4 tablespoons soy sauce (I used dark soy but thought it was a bit too salty. Will use light soy next time!)
2 tablespoons peanut butter (or black bean paste)
1 tablespoon honey (or molasses)
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons sesame oil
20 drops Chinese style hot sauce
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Directions


Simply mix all of the ingredients together by hand using a sturdy spoon. At first it does not appear like it will mix, but keep at it just a bit longer and your sauce will come together.

Thai chicken, cucumber and coconut salad; healthy food…

Simone (junglefrog) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 16:38:26 +0000

Healthy and delicious

We all know those moments…. those moments when you realize those lovehandles can no longer be called ‘love’ handles, but are more going towards “terrible-fat” handles. That moment when your favorite pair of jeans all of a sudden feels like it has shrunk dramatically in the wash, or that moment when you look in the mirror and get a sinking feeling… Please tell me we all have those moments! I know I’ve bored you with my weightloss struggles many times before, but well… I guess I am like a lot of people; I have the best of intentions and then slowly but surely life gets in the way. But truth be told; I really DO need to lose weight as I’m not feeling comfortable the way I am right now and that just has got to get better. So… prepare to be bored (once again) with tales of ongoing weight battles. If you’ve read my blog for a while you probably also know that I am a firm believer in a “no-diet”-diet meaning I think we should be able to lose weight by following sensible rules, exercise and eat healthy. I do eat fairly healthy but it doesn’t help that I have to bake for my job at the moment. Even though I bring most of the cupcakes and pies and whatever to family and friends there is still enough tasting involved (how can you not taste, right??)

You did NOT see that bottle of wine did you?

My first goal is to get my butt moving again. I used to go to spinning classes three days a week, but because I’ve been busy (and those classes are in the morning) I’ve had to cancel to many of them. You know… you get to the point where it’s going from missing one week, to one month and before you know it, you’ve missed half a year… Ofcourse I know that it’s just an excuse. (I’m very good in selfreflecting..lol) I could have done any other kind of exercise if spinning was not an option, but instead I chickened out and left it all together. Hmmm, that’s gonna be a hard one. I would love to go running, but I can’t due to an ongoing Achilles problem. Not an option. I like biking but it’s not exactly been fabulous weather lately plus living in this fairly flat area makes the wind killing, but still… if it’s not raining that is a good option. Spinning when I can… (although I am dreading the moment that I will first step into the gym again… I know my spinning mates… )

And then ofcourse food… It’s need to be more regular… I sometimes forget to eat when I’m busy only to make up for that later in the day and I know that’s just the wrong way to do it. So more fruit and veggie snacks in between and better meals in the evening. One such delicious and healthy meal is this Thai salad. I made it together with Charlotte when we were cooking together one friday afternoon and it was a delicious surprise! The recipe comes from Olive and really worth trying out!

Thai chicken, cucumber and coconut salad; healthy food…

5.0 from 1 reviews

Recipe type: Lunch or light main

Author: Olive magazine

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 40 mins

Serves: 4

Loved, loved that chicken poached in the coconut. Brilliant idea and incredibly tasty!

Ingredients

400 gr skinless chicken fillets
165 ml coconut milk
40 gr palm sugar
3 tbsp fish sauce
1 large cucumber
2 long red chillies, thinly sliced
small bunch of coriander, leaves picked
thai shallot or regular shalot, finely sliced
roasted peanuts, 50 gr crushed

Instructions

Put the chicken between two sheets of cling film and bash it flat with a rolling pin or heavy pan. Make sure it is all equal thickness.
Put the coconut milk, palm sugar and fishsauce in a wide shallow pan. Add the chicken to the cold liquid. Gently bring to a simmer. Cook for 15 minutes, take off the heat and leave to cool in the liquid.
Using a vegetable peeler, cut the cucumber into long thin ribbons
Take the chicken from the poaching liquid and slice as thinly as possible, them mix all the ingredients except the roasted peanuts. Serve drizzled with some of the poaching liquid and sprinkle with the peanuts

Notes

Be sure to taste your chillies before you add them to your salad. We used it in liberal amounts as our red chillies are usually rather mild. Not this time! It was blazing hot! So we should’ve checked but forgot…

Vietnamese springrolls

Simone (junglefrog) — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 11:00:47 +0000

Vietnamese springrolls

We get out of the boat and walk onto a barren piece of land, slightly confused as to what we are doing here. Across the barren patch of land awaits a tiny village. Our guide, a tiny Vietnamese woman, leads us through small alleyways where little kids peer curiously from around corners and start to follow us, giggling every time we look at them. It’s hot and big Europeans that we are, we start sweating more and more. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that everything sticks to my body in the humidity and am looking forward to the moment we will be back on the moment, with hopefully a little breeze welcoming us. But for now it seems to get hotter with every step we take. We finally end up at a small open square, surrounded by wooden shacks and the sudden silence seems to increase the heat.

Vietnamese schoolkids

Our guide gestures that we have to wait and she disappears inside one of the building, leaving us in the sweltering heat with no shade to speak of. Most of our little group try and press ourselves against the buildings attempting – in vain mostly – to disappear into the shadows. After 5 minutes, that feel like eternity, our guide comes out again and waves us over. We have no idea what to expect and are surprised when we peer inside a building and see a classroom full of happy kids smiling up at us.

Their teacher looks at them sternly, warning them to remain in their seat and not move. You can tell by the excited faces and bright smiles that we are a welcome distraction in their busy schoolschedule.

Concentration..

But after just a few minutes the regular routine of their schoolafternoon takes over and they concentrate back on their schoolwork, only glancing at us every now and then, only to be met with a stern look from their teacher. We just stood there, watching kids on a regular schoolafternoon and while it may not sound very exciting, we had a great time. Vietnamese kids are – in general – entirely adorable, cute, happy and friendly little creatures and when they all march around in their crisp schooluniforms or ride around on their bikes it’s just a sight to be seen…

But ofcourse Vietnam would not be Vietnam, if not for the Vietnamese kitchen. I love Asian food in general but the food in Vietnam, Thailand and India are among my favorites. It was here that I first ate traditional springrolls. Not the fried variety, although we had those as well, but the rolls made with fresh vegetables and wrapped in ricepaper. We had them made for us at the table by beautiful Vietnamese ladies, their hands quick and precise in making one beautiful roll after another.

Mine may not be so good looking but they are incredibly delicious. You can keep them vegetarian or add chicken or pork and any kind of vegetable you fancy. Here the original recipe is from Steamy Kitchen again and that peanut sauce, I can tell you, is a worthy addition to these delicious little rolls.

Vietnamese springrolls

Print recipe

Serves	6
Prep time	25 minutes
Cook time	5 minutes
Total time	30 minutes
Meal type	Appetizer, Lunch
Misc	Healthy, Serve Cold
Region	Vietnamese
From book	Adapted from Steamy Kitchen Cookbook

Ingredients

1 packet rice paper wrappers (can be found in most supermarkets)
1 soft lettuce (I used little gems)
1 cucumber (cut into matchsticks)
2 carrots (cut into matchsticks)
1 bell pepper (cut into matchsticks)
1 handful fresh mint
1 handful Thai Basil (you can use sweet Italian basil as a substitute)

meat

500g chicken filet
1 lemon grass stalk (outer leaves peeled until you reach the pale yellow leaves, bottom part grated)
2 cloves garlic (finely minced)
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon sugar

peanut dipping sauce

2 teaspoons cooking oil
2 cloves garlic (crushed in garlic press)
1 teaspoon fresh ginger (grated)
3 tablespoons sweet chili sauce
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
160ml water
3 tablespoons chunky peanut butter

Directions


For marinating the chicken; slice the chicken as thin as you can. In a bowl combine the chicken with the rest of the ingredients for the marinate and marinate for at least 15 minutes or overnight. Prepare the vegetables and herbs for the rolls. Heat a wok or frying pan and add the marinated pieces of chicken in a single layer. Bake until they are done. Have the cooked chicken and all your cut vegetables ready to roll your wraps. Jaden has a really clear instruction in her book which will tell you exactly how to roll the ricepaper. In short; Fill a pietin or a large plate with enough water to dip the ricepaper in. Make sure the water is warm, but not hot. Dip the ricepaper in very briefly, about 2 seconds each side. It will still be fairly stiff when you take it out. Lay the still stiff paper on a dry surface and fold in two. On the bottom half arrange your ingredients and then proceed to rolling it carefully tugging it in where needed.
Peanut dipping sauce

Heat the oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. When the oil is just starting to get hot, add the garlic and ginger and fry for 30 seconds until fragrant. Add the sweet chili sauce, hoisin sauce, water and peanut butter and stir until smooth. Simmer until thickened. Let kool. Keeps in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. If the sauce is too thick after storing, whisk in a bit of water to thin it out.

Note

Beautiful, light and fresh this is the perfect starter for any Asian inspired meal or it is great on it's own too as a (very) light lunch

Junglefrog Cooking » Asian

Chicken curry and an Indian travel story

Chicken curry

Ingredients

marinade

curry

curry (Optional)

Directions

Note

Related Posts:

Marinated chicken on a stick and living leaner

Spicy skewered chicken with fennel-orange salad

Ingredients

Herb mix

orange fennel salad

Directions

Note

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