新年， 新的开始！New Year, New Beginnings!

Happy New Year Everyone! 

With the onslaught of exams, papers and final assignments I had to take a break from my delicious meals, movie binges and blogging once again. The good news: I finished my first semester of grad school with a bang. Bad news: I haven't been here in over a month! But its a new year and I have some new recipes for you all to try! I'm glad to be home for the holidays. While at home I was able to recreate some delicious Thai treats I've been dying to try out on my mother. Check out the blog later this week for my movie post!

Thai Chicken & Lemon Grass Curry

4 servings

Ingredients:

3 tbsp vegetable oil

2 garlic cloves, crushed

Chicken breast tenderloins, chop into bite sized pieces

3 tbsp fish sauce

1/3 cup + 1 tbsp chicken stock

1 tsp sugar

1 lemon grass stalk, chopped and crushed

5 kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced

1 tsp cumin

Curry paste:

1 lemon grass stalk, chopped

1 piece ginger, chopped

2 kaffir lime leaves, chopped

3 shallots, coarsely chopped (or ½ onion)

1 tbsp cilantro or ½ tsp ground cilantro

1 tsp fish sauce

1 tsp ground turmeric

Steamed Rice

First, make the curry paste. Place all of the ingredients in a food processor (or a blender) and process until you have a smooth paste.

Then heat the vegetable oil in a work or heavy sauce pan. Add the garlic and cook over a low heat, stirring until golden brown. Make sure you don’t burn the garlic or else it will taste bitter. Definitely done that before and its nasty! Add the curry paste and stir fry for about 30 seconds.

Next, add your chopped (bite size) chicken pieces to pan and stir until thoroughly coated with the paste. Stir in the fish sauce, chicken stock, sugar, cumin and cook stirring constantly for about 2 minutes.

Finally add the lemon grass and lime leaves. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. I actually used this lemon grass paste tube and minced garlic jar. Your hands don’t get smelly and you can put the jar and tube back in the fridge to use for many other recipes. It’s also really nifty because on the back of each tube and jar is a conversion chart telling you approximately how much paste in tbsp. or tsp. correlates to a stalk of lemon grass or a clove of garlic. 

These items can be found at Kroger, Harris Teeter, Wal-Mart, etc. in the produce section with the fresh herbs.

But if you prefer to use the fresh lemon grass make sure you crush it really well or else lemongrass can be kind of scratchy going down your throat.

I served this dish on a bed of steamed rice with a side of sautéed spinach. My mom describes my dish as aromatic, spicy, bold and delicious.