Thai Chicken - Retro-style!

Oh my word, friends!  This is one heck of a retro recipe!  And I love it - such fun:=)  Here is a recipe from one of my fave authors Roald Dahl; he and his wife Felicity (Flick) put together a cookbook called Memories with Food At Gipsy House, published in 1991.  It clearly has a 1980s vibe though!  I remember making "coconut milk" this way, by soaking dessicated coconut in boiling water.  Crikey, this sounds like something from the Ark :=)  Well, it makes me sound like a deckhand from the Ark.

I may have mentioned my story before, about making several different types of curry, and lugging the big pots to a local park (back in our younger days).  We invited heaps of friends, and had "Curry in a Hurry" in the park's rotunda.  Luckily, the local police were understanding of our madness :=)  

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention a fave recipe from this book - Rose Petal Sorbet.  I used to "borrow" lots of rose petals from the old couple next door's garden, to make it!  Yep I was a naughty gal back then!  He was Dutch and had fought in the Second World War, and she was the daughter of the fellow who owned the local stables waaay back in the day (I'm thinking turn of the century).  We still had the old horse troughs buried in our yard (we shared a boundary line with them).  And mysteriously, our backyard was (very) full of ashes - perhaps the dead horses? :=)

        

throw on that coriander

Marinate this overnight, folks (or at least 8 hours)!

Serves 6:

ingredients:

Marinade:

6 Tbs dark soy sauce

2 Tbs ground cummin

3 Tbs hot Madras curry powder

1 Tbs turmeric

3 cloves garlic, crushed or chopped finely

4 Tbs sweet chilli sauce

3 sticks lemongrass (or use 3 tsp of lemongrass paste from a tube!)

150 mL/5 fl oz oil (I used olive oil, but use a neutral oil like grapeseed if you please)

1.6 kg/3.5 lb chicken breasts, chopped or (large) diced   see Notes

The Sauce:

5 Tbs crunchy peanut butter

85g./3 oz dessicated or shredded (unsweetened) coconut, soaked in 180 mL/6 fl oz boiling water

1 bunch fresh coriander leaves, chopped or torn (by hand)

Garnish:

230g./8 oz bean sprouts (who cares?  No need to measure these)

more coriander leaves, if you wish

guess?!

Method:

Grab a large non-reactive bowl (glass or ceramic), and throw in the marinade ingredients

Give it a good stir, and then add the chopped chicken pieces - and let it marinate overnight (I forgot and only gave it 9 hours the next day - in fact, I'd suggest if you buy the already-chopped chook, the shorter marination time is fine and dandy)

The next day, in a large and heavy-based frypan, saucepan or skillet, cook up the chicken pieces till they turn opaque, then add the peanut butter and the coconut and soaking water

Cover and simmer very slowly for 15-20 minutes till the chicken is tender, then add some of the coriander leaves

Serve with rice or rice noodles, and add plenty of the bean sprouts and more coriander leaves

add plenty!

Notes:

I wish they had given a weight for the chicken!  I looked it up, and Google says a chicken breast can be anything from 170g.-250g.  I just based it on 200g./7 oz per breast; the recipe says to use 8 breasts

I bought diced chicken breast that is already chopped into large chunks - saved so much time and mess :=)

My (and Mr P.'s) suggestion is to add less chicken, but bung in some eggplant and capsicum - it was a bit too meaty for us

Also I reckon a good big slurp of tinned coconut milk at the end would be a splendid thing!  And probably some chilli flakes (I only had a mild Madras curry powder, so extra chilli was needed)

lemongrass stalks

(most of the) ingredients gathered 

the marinade

chuck in the chook!

some more ingredients

9 hours later - I started cooking ...

and in go the peanut butter and coconut

and on goes the coriander

add the bean sprouts to your bowl

Mr P. bought me this one - mm yep just a few years ago :=)

(Joining in with Jo from BKD Cookbook Club for her monthly link-up!  This month we are focusing on an "oldie but a goodie" cookbook in our collections.)

Baked Fish with Lemon Cream Sauce

Mr P. and I don't eat much meat these days (a throwback to our youthful vego. days perhaps), but we do like a bit of fish.  In fact, we had salmon just the other night, but we don't let that stop us from having fish again :=)  So this time, we went for some good old Aussie barramundi (tho' thinking on it, it was possibly from Vietnam or Thailand).  Though you have to be careful, as some naughty restaurants and seafood mongers like to trick us with cheaper fish.

Oh yes, here we have another recipe from Nagi Maehashi's Dinner.  Good old Nagi!  She never lets us down, with her fabulous recipes.  Sadly her gorgeous pup Dozer died recently (at a ripe old age).  I wonder if she will get another beautiful boy soon?  I keep threatening to get another pup, but Mr P. is not keen.  Two of our pups are buried in the backyard (maybe a tad illegal? Nah, I've checked; go ahead!), just as several of our pets are buried at our previous house.  I wonder if the new owners ever dug them up by mistake? :=)  

lemony, fishy and creamy!

Serves 4:

ingredients:

4 x 180g./6.5 oz skinless white fish fillets (about 1.5 cm thick)

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1.5 Tbs very finely minced/chopped French shallots/eschalots

Lemon Cream Sauce:

50g./1.8 oz butter

60 mL (1/4 cup) thickened cream

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 Tbs mustard (Dijon or your fave - I love my homemade wholegrain)

1.5 Tbs lemon juice

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

To serve:

2 tsp parsley, chopped  (seems stingy; maybe you need more - hehehe)

some chives, finely chopped - 1 tsp? - or more if you please

lemon slices

Mashed potato, and some green leaves if you want to feel virtuous

ingredients gathered (ignore the coriander seeds jar)

yep a bit of mustard does the trick!

Method:

On goes your oven to 200C/400F to heat up

Now onto the lemon cream sauce:

Put all the saucy ingredients into a heatproof jug or bowl, so you can microwave for 2 x 30 second bursts (give it a stir after the first 30 seconds!) - you want it wonderfully smooth and combined

And now for the fish: which is going into a baking dish (Nagi says 30 x 20 cm/12 x 8 in)

Season both sides of the fish pieces, and place them in the baking dish, with a bit of space between them

Cast the French shallots over the fish, and pour the sauce over

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or till the flesh flakes easily

Place the fish fillets on serving plates, and give 'em a five minute rest

When the 5 minutes are up, spoon the sauce (that's still lurking in the baking dish) over the fish, sprinkle with the parsley and chives, and serve with lemon slices, mashed potato and some green leaves tossed with a bit of oil and lemon juice (or your fave dressing)

love me some chives :)

lemon cream sauce, heading for the microwave

Notes:

Nagi says to use thick, white fish fillets; I bet you could even use crocodile!  I do love a bit of gummy shark (flake) myself, though not so easy to get in sunny Queensland.  Happily, the GoodFish Sustainable Seafood Guide says they are not endangered which is a good thing (not sure about crocodiles tho!)

fish into the dish, then the shallots and sauce over

chop your parsley in a jug with scissors - so easy!

throw on your lemon slices

and now throw on the parsley!

is that Hagrid overlooking my dinner? :=)

In My Kitchen - June 2026

June?  No!  Hey, it's my birthday month!  How the heck did that happen?  And what a month it will be - medical stuff, hubby stuff, going away for my birthday for a bit stuff, getting my licence renewed stuff, and the stuff goes on.  But that's good, isn't it?

Hubby has almost finished his radiation treatments, so hopefully that will be it for the while.  You know, it amazes me that you have to pay for parking at the hospital, tho' the radiation is free, so there's that.  And what is it with hospital parking?  You need to sell off a kidney to pay for it.  Anyways, enough whingeing from me!  Let's get to it:=)      

those matcha Pocky and the tiramisu mochi - so good!

In My Kitchen:

you know I can't resist a wee fishy dish :)

and another memoir-type book with cooking

I made a quadruple chocolate on chocolate loaf!

gorgeous!  Fab Nigella L. recipe

a recycled platter from Banish using plastic bread tags - so clever!

Sorry, I know it's hard to make out, due to the tablecloth being nearly the same colours!

yep, another tea towel (merch supports the fight)

I am a supporter of a protest group who are trying to stop (but clearly in vain, very sadly) the building of a huge stadium for the Brisbane Olympics in 2032.  Never mind that Victoria Park was heritage-listed, and an important indigenous site, and it will cost us billions of dollars to build ...  I am so furious!

I stewed up some apples and strawberries

and turned them into muffins

a huge salad bowl from Banish, also made with bread tags

This is a really deep bowl!  You can get a massive salad in this baby.

this green glass salt pig is so gorgeous!

I pickled some beetroot and French shallots

so delicious!

These are so good.  The recipe is from the Roving Haggis, a fabulous Scottish cook.  I am going to keep making her version from now on.  She was actually here in Australia recently, at a Celtic festival.  Wish I had known earlier :=(

and I made pineapple muffins

the curveball - carved from King Billy Pine, by Carol Russell

c. Sherry M.

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