recipes

For Stock:
Chicken Bones
2 pieces Garang Ga
1 stick Lemon Grass
3 roots of coriander plants
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 whole garlic with skin
5 cloves
I quarter skin kaffir lime fruit
1 big piece of ginger – crushed
Quarter block palm sugar
½ teaspoon salt

For Soup:
3 chicken breasts
1 packet rice noodles (or yellow noodles)
4 teaspoons chopped spring onions
4 teaspoons chopped coriander
4 teaspoons chopped Chinese garlic leaves
1 teaspoon chopped garlic (fried till golden)
1 teaspoon chopped Chinese radish
4 cupfuls of sliced cabbage

To make the stock:

Boil enough water to cover the chicken bones. Add chicken bones and stir for one minute. Throw away the water and rinse the bones. Bring 3 litres of water to boil,

add the bones and all the above ingredients. Simmer for about five hours. Let cool and strain. There should be about 2 litres left.

To make the soup:

Boil some water in a pot and throw in the noodles until cooked (if it doesn’t say on the packet go by the taste – Asian noodles usually take between two and five minutes).

Blanche the cabbage. Thinly slice the chicken against the grain.

Bring the stick to the boil. Put  the chicken in a sieve and dip into the boiling stock for about three minutes or until cooked. Take it out and leave to one side. Take four large soup bowls and put a quarter of the cabbage at the bottom of each, add a quarter of the noodles, chicken and each of the other ingredients to each bowl. Pour the boiling stock into the bowls and serve immediately.

Serve with lemon wedges, dreid chilli,, chopped peanuts and the soy and corainder sauce and the sour sauce.

For Stock:
Chicken Bones
1 Onion
1 Carrot

For Soup:
4 Small Chicken Breasts
1 cup button mushrooms (recommended) or 3 medium sized field mushrooms
3 Shallots (use 1 red onion if you cannot find shallots)
1 stick Lemon Grass
5 pieces of Garang Ga (optional)
2 Kaffir lime leaves (optional)
1 tablespoon tom yum paste
½ teaspoon crushed palm sugar
Equal amounts freshly squeezed lemon juice and light soy sauce – to taste; but about 2 tablespoons of each.
1 three finger pinch salt
1 tablespoon chopped Coriander
1 tablespoon chopped Spring Onion
4 Cherry tomatoes
2 chillies (optional)

To make the stock:

Boil enough water to cover the chicken bones. Add chicken bones and stir for one minute. Throw away the water and rinse the bones. Bring large pot of water to boil and add the carrot chopped into three and the onion whole. Add chicken bones and reduce heat to as low as possible. Leave for four to five hours – it must be hot but not come back to the boil. Let cool and strain. Any extra stock can be frozen.

To make the soup:

Put four cups of the stock into a cooking pot and bring to boil. Take the shallots and, using the flat side of a knife, squash them and add to pot. Cut the lemon grass into 3 cm lengths and do the same. Add kaffir lime leaves (with spine taken out) and garang ga.

Cut the button mushrooms in half and boil in a separate pot for one minute then strain and add to soup. Slice the chicken breasts against the grain and add to soup.

Add the tom yum paste, lemon juice, soy sauce, salt and palm sugar.

Let simmer for five minutes and check taste. Add more soy sauce and lemon juice (in equal amounts) if you want a stronger taste. Add chopped chillies if you like it hot.

Pour the soup into four bowls and sprinkle the chopped coriander and spring onion on top.

Take the cherry tomatoes and slice them three quarter way down in the shape of a cross.

Float one on top of each bowl.

Serve immediately.

4 Bananas
1 tin coconut milk
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of palm sugar
1 teaspoon corn flour
½ cup milk
2 pinches of salt

Cut bananas into 3 cm chunks. Put ¾ of the coconut milk into a saucepan with the palm sugar and a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil and add the bananas –simmer for five minutes.

To make the sauce:  Put the rest of the coconut milk into a saucepan with the teaspoon of palm sugar and a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil.  Mix the corn flour with some milk and add slowly to the boiling coconut milk. Boil until slightly thick.

To serve, put the bananas into pudding bowls and top with the sauce.

4 chicken breasts sliced against the grain into roughly 1 cm chunks.
1/3 tin coconut milk
2 tablespoons coconut cream powder
1 tablespoon cooking oil
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon mild curry powder
Satay sticks

Sauce
3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoon tamarind
1 ½ teaspoons yellow curry paste.
1 can coconut milk
2 tablespoons palm sugar
½ teaspoon salt.
2 tablespoons cooking oil

Mix the chicken slices with the first ingredients and leave for half and hour then thread onto satay sticks.

Soak the tamarind in ½ cup of warm water and squeeze out the juice – throw the tamarind away.

For the satay sauce; heat the 2 tablespoon s of cooking oil, add the yellow curry paste and a little coconut milk and stir fry for about 1 minute. Add the rest of the coconut milk and when it boils add the tamarind juice and peanut butter. Mix well.

Meanwhile grill or braai the chicken sticks for about five minutes or until done.

Serve with the satay sauce poured over the top and the sour sauce on the side.

2 medium sized chicken breasts
1 large or 2 small mushrooms (the dark ones – not button mushrooms)
1 carrot
1 medium onion
4 spring onions
1 cup jelly noodles
Spring roll pastry (or filo pastry)

Marinade
1 tablespoon coriander
3 garlic cloves
½ teaspoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 teaspoon light soy sauce
2 drop dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon corn flour
1 tablespoon sesame oil
Big pinch of salt
½ teaspoon sugar

Soak the jelly noodles in water for about 20 minutes to soften.

Make the marinade by mashing the coriander, garlic and peppercorns together in a mortar and pestle. Add the rest of the marinade ingredients and stir thoroughly.

Slice the chicken, mushrooms, carrot and onion into long thin strips. Cut the spring onions crosswise into small pieces.

Mix all the ingredients, including the jelly noodles, together with the marinade.

Put one piece of pastry in front of you in a diamond shape. Put two large tablespoons of the ingredients onto point of the pastry nearest to you. Roll it up away from you till half way up then fold the two outside corners in towards the middle; then carry on rolling. Dip your finger into water and touch it onto the far corner of the pastry to make it stick to the rest of the spring roll.

Put enough cooking oil in either a wok or saucepan so that the spring rolls can cook without touching the bottom of the pan. Heat the oil until it bubbles when an implement is dipped in it. Put the spring rolls into the oil and cook until brown on both sides – turning half way through. This should take about ten minutes. Take out and drain on kitchen towel.

Serve immediately.

 6 medium sized chicken breasts
½ kilo pumpkin or butternut cut into 2 to 3 cm chunks
1 ½ tins of coconut milk or cream
6 kaffir lime leaves
2 teaspoons red curry paste
10 sweet basil leaves
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
2 teaspoon corn flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
4 tablespoon cooking oil
1 teaspoon palm sugar

Cut the chicken into 1 cm slices against the grain. Mix together the soy sauce, corn flour, salt, sugar and 1 tablespoon of the oil and marinade the chicken slices for at least 15 minutes (overnight is good).

Heat the remaining oil in a wok and stir in the red curry paste. Add the chicken and cook for about five minutes, stirring constantly. Add coconut milk and leave to boil. Then add the pumpkin, pushing down gently into the chicken mixture but not stirring. When it comes to the boil, stir gently and turn down the heat until just simmering.  Take the spine out of the kaffir limes leaves and add to the pan. Simmer for about twenty minutes or until the pumpkin is cooked.

Crush the palm sugar in a mortar and pestle with a pinch of salt and add to the curry just before you take it off the heat. Stir.

Take off the heat and add the roughly chopped basil leaves.

Serve with rice.

¼ cup light soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
2 or 3 teaspoons of lemon juice
2 teaspoons finely chopped coriander
1 chopped chili (according to taste)

Mix all the ingredients together.

½ cup white vinegar
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cucumber
1 fresh chilli, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon finely chopped coriander
1 tablespoon roughly chopped onion

Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise then slice finely.  Mix all the ingredients together and serve with the pork on toast.

1 cup peanuts
1 cup white vinegar
½ cup water
½ cup sugar
1 heaped teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon chilli sauce
1 tablespoon corn flour

Fry peanuts as slowly as possible with a few drops of cooking oil for about fifteen to twenty minutes, moving around often.

Whilst the peanuts are cooking boil the vinegar, water, sugar, salt and chilli sauce together for about ten minutes, stirring constantly. Mix a little water into the corn flour, a bit at a time, until it is the consistency of cream – then pour it slowly into the boiling vinegar mixture. Simmer for another five minutes, still stirring constantly.

When the peanuts have cooled enough, rub them vigorously in your hands to remove the skins. When most of the skins are off – take the frying pan outside and toss the peanuts gently whilst blowing across the top of the pan. The skins should blow away leaving the shelled peanuts behind. Crush the peanuts roughly in a mortar and pestle.

Mix everything together and serve with the pork on toast.

250 grams minced pork
2 teaspoons finely chopped coriander
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon corn flour
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
1 pinch salt
2 large cloves garlic
3 slices white bread

Grind up the coriander seeds and the garlic in a mortar and pestle, then mix all the above ingredients, apart from the white bread, together. Quarter the bread and spread about two heaped teaspoons of the mince mixture  firmly onto the pieces. Sprinkle sesame seeds onto a plate and press the pieces of bread, mince side down, onto the seeds.

Deep fry the slices upside down in hot oil until the edges go brown, then turn them over and carry on cooking. The cooking should take roughly one minute for each slice. Take out of the oil and drain on kitchen paper.