Prawns & Pineapples In Coconut Milk (no oil, no salt)

Tags

asian, asianfood, autumn, food, pineapples, prawns, spicy, sweet

It has been salads and grilled chicken for lunch and dinner these past couple of weeks which is fantastic! I’ve even got back into my running and feeling a lot stronger with much more energy!

Now that the weather is cooler in the evenings, I find myself craving for a warm asian dish with a slight kick of chilli. So last night for dinner, I decided to treat us with this simple no oil and no salt dish. This is my grandma’s recipe, which she usually makes with blue crab…but seeing as I still have this weird fear of cooking crabs, I substituted it with prawns instead.

Ingredients
• Fresh prawns (without shells)
• Half a fresh pineapple (roughly cut)
• 2 shallots, 4 cloves garlic, fresh chillies, black peppercorn (pound these in a pestle & mortar – adjust the chilli according to your own taste)
• Coconut milk
• Fish sauce
• 1 lemongrass
• Turmeric powder (if you can get fresh turmeric, pound around half thumb size of it with the garlic & shallots)
• Cilantro (optional)

Method
1. In a wok/saucepan, place all the pounded ingredients, coconut milk, turmeric powder, lemongrass, fish sauce and leave to simmer on a low heat for 15 to 20 mins until you get a lovely aroma.
2. Add the pineapples into the wok, gently stir them and leave to soften slightly for 3 mins.
3. Add the prawns and simmer till they are cooked thoroughly. (You can add cilantro at this point if you wish.)

Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with boiled white rice…

This dish is a little sweet, a little spicy and the aroma of the pineapples in the coconut milk was so divine, I was immediately transported back to my grandma’s kitchen.

Maybe one day I’ll gather my courage to make it with crabs!

Have a wonderful Thursday!💛

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Peppered Beef in Oyster sauce

Tags

asian, food, spicy, steak

A lunch date with my husband last Tuesday ended up with him having to rush to where I was and taking me to the hospital to get my hand checked out after it was rammed and jammed by a heavy iron door at a secured ATM area.

Anyway, I am truly blessed and grateful that I didn’t break any bones but was in a temporary cast for 48 hours and got 2 tetanus shots. I was just very upset that I wasn’t able to cook for a few days. So when the swelling went down, I was desperate for some Asian delights!

Ingredients
• good quality fillet steak (thinly sliced)
• Garlic & ginger (minced with lots of cracked black pepper)
• Onion (cut into thick rings)
• Carrots (thinly sliced)
• Green pepper (roughly cut)
• Red pepper (roughly cut)
• Oyster mushrooms (roughly cut)
• Sesame oil
• Sesame seeds
• Oyster sauce
• a little bit of chopped chillies (optional)

Method
1. In a heated wok, sauté the onions for 2 mins in the sesame oil.
2. Add the beef and fry till halfway cooked before adding the minced garlic & ginger and chopped chilli. Fry this for another 2 mins.
3. Add the vegetables and fry for 3 mins (I like the vegtables to be slightly crunchy). To that, add a good quantity of oyster sauce and mix till everything is coated in the sauce.
4. Add some sesame seeds to the wok, mix and it’s ready to serve.

Serve with boiled white rice…

This dish is very simple yet full of flavours! I was very careful not to hurt my finger while cooking as it was still very bruised.

Enjoy! 😊

Sweet Chilli Chicken with Pineapples

Tags

asian, Chicken, food, pineapple, spicy, sweet chiilli

After a few days of not having any rice while my friend was over for a visit, I decided to make this colourful dish so full of fresh flavours to have over some rice for dinner last night.

Ingredients
For the chicken…
• 6 pieces of chicken thighs & drumsticks
• 1tsp ground turmeric
• 2tsp cracked black pepper
• 2tbsp sesame oil
• salt to taste
(Rub the chicken with the above ingredients and marinade for at least 3 hours)

For the sauce
• 150ml sweet chilli sauce (you can get this in any Chinese supermarket)
• 3 cloves garlic (minced)
• 2 thick chunks of ginger
• 1 small red onion (cut in rings)
• half sweet red pepper (cut in chunks)
• half sweet green pepper (cut in chunks)
• Pineapples (quantity as desired!)
• Chopped cilantro & spring onions (scallions)

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius and place the chicken to roast for 1 hour or until skin is crunchy.
2. In a heated wok, add 1 tbsp of sunflower oil and 1 tbsp of sesame oil and sauté the onions, garlic, ginger and peppers for 2 mins.
3. Throw in the pineapples and cook for a further 5 mins or until the pineapples are slightly soft.

4. Place the roast chicken thighs & drumsticks on a serving dish and pour the sauce over them.

Garnish with chopped cilantro & spring onions…

Serve immediately.

Sweet, a little bit spicy, SO simple and plenty leftovers if you’re just cooking for 2!

Have a happy Thursday! 😊

Simply Spicy

Tags

asian, fast food, food, noodles, spicy

After being out all day yesterday in the glorious weather, the last thing I wanted to do in the evening was cooking a time consuming dinner. So I prepared a super easy spicy noodle stir fry.

I won’t go into details as to how it was made because everyone knows how to make a stir fry. The ingredients I used were the usual base of garlic, ginger, onions and chilli. The other main ingredients were egg noodles, chicken breast (sliced), Italian sweet red pepper & pak choi. No salt, just fish sauce and cracked black pepper to season.

…and because of my love for spice, I served it with a little touch of Sriracha sauce!

Quick, simple and ready in 20 minutes!

Plenty leftovers for a late lunch today so off I go to enjoy the beautiful weather we have today in Bilbao! Dare I say that Spring has finally sprung? I think so! ☀️🌸

Have a happy Sunday! 😊

Crispy Chilli Chicken

Tags

asian, Chicken, chilli, food, sesame, spicy

I must say that am not a big fan of anything that’s deep fried…but this spicy dish is an exception and I only cook it once every few months. I think the last time I cooked this dish was when we were living in Galicia, probably 4 months ago. But last night I had a hankering for it and wanted something spicy!

What you will need…
– Chicken breast (cut into long thin strips)
– Garlic (minced)
– Onion (quartered)
– Ginger
– Fresh Red Chilli (from a jar seeing as I’ve not found fresh ones here)
– Fish sauce
– Sesame seeds
– Broccoli
– Sesame oil (for flavour)
– Sunflower oil
– Cracked black pepper
– Egg (beaten)
– Flour (enough to coat the chicken strips)

I have not given the quantity of the ingredients this time as you can make this according to your own taste.

Method
1. Firstly, prep the onions, garlic and broccoli then put aside for now.
2. Set 2 bowls aside, one for the egg and one for the seasoned flour.

3. Cut the chicken breast into thin long strips.

4. In a heated pan, deep fry the chicken dipped in egg and the seasoned flour.

5. Once they are golden, remove from the oil, drain the excess oil well and set aside.

6. Now in a hot wok, add sunflower oil, sesame oil and sauté the onion, garlic, chilli and ginger.
7. When onions are soft, add into the wok the crispy chicken strips and some fish sauce. Make sure the chicken is covered in the ingredients.
8. Add the broccoli and a little water to work up a steam.
9. Sprinkle with some sesame seeds and it’s ready to be served.

The only tedious and time consuming part of this dish was deep frying the chicken strips. Other than that, it’s a matter of minutes!

Spicy, tasty & it will make your tastebuds happy! 😊

Yet another dish without salt!

Sweet & Spicy Dark Chocolate Cookies

Tags

cookies, dark chocolate, spicy, sweet

I was browsing through recipes on wordpress and stumbled upon this amazing sweet & spicy dark chocolate cookies. Although mine did not turn out like the original, the taste was still amazing! Plus, I did not have all the ingredients to hand so I substituted the chocolate chips for peanuts and I did not add orange zest to the recipe.

(Recipe source from Olas & Chanclas)
YOU WILL NEED
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar (I reduced the amount a little)
1/2 cup brown sugar (again I reduced this amout too)
1 egg
1 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or 1 tsp. for a spicier cookie)
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I did not have choc chips so I used peanuts instead)
Sea Salt for sprinkles

DIRECTIONS
You will need to chill this dough for about an hour before baking, so no need to re-heat the oven just yet. The key to a chewy cookie is cold dough into the oven. Warm dough spreads out immediately and gives you a thinner, crisper cookie. I wanted these a bit chewy, so chilled the dough first.

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and both sugars. Mix well until fluffy and smooth.
2. Add the egg and mix until smooth again.
3. Add to this the cocoa powder, baking soda, cayenne pepper and salt. Make sure you blend this very well to distribute the cayenne pepper thoroughly so that you make sure the heat is distributed evenly.
4. Next, add the flour in thirds until it’s incorporated completely into a nice thick delicious dough.
5. Fold in peanuts and refrigerate for about an hour.
6. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.
7. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet about 2″ apart and bake for 10-12 minutes.
8. Halfway through baking, sprinkle the coarse sea salt on them.
Of course, if you like them a bit crisper add another minute.
9. Cool them for 2-3 minutes on the cookie sheet then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

These cookies are divine and thank you Olas & Chanclas for posting the recipe! It’s a must try!!! 😋

Spicy Peanut Crusted Chicken

Tags

asian, Chicken, food, noodles, peanuts, salad, spicy

Hope you had a lovely relaxing weekend! I don’t normally cook on Saturdays…(if I can help it😉) as it’s always nice to eat out and discover different food places for a change. So, apart from the lazy dish I made for our Sunday lunch, I prepared this simple spicy dish on Friday night and served it with a warm mixed crunchy vegetable & egg noodle salad.

Ingredients
for the chicken…
– 2 pieces of chicken breast
– 5 cloves of garlic (minced)
– 2 chunky slices of ginger (minced)
– 1 teaspoon chopped chillis (reduce or increase the amount according to your taste)
– Chopped peanuts
– Sesame oil
– Fish sauce
Method
1. In a large bowl or container, combine all the above ingredients (except the peanuts) to the chicken breasts and marinade for 4 hours or overnight.

2. Heat oven to 180 degrees celcius and just before placing in the oven, coat the chicken breasts with the chopped peanuts.

3. Leave this to roast for 45 mins or until chicken is thoroughly cooked and the peanuts are golden brown.
In the meantime, prep the vegetables and boil the egg noodles for the warm salad. Here’s what I used…
– Zucchini
– Sweet red and green Italian peppers
– Oyster mushrooms
– Sugar snap peas
– Onions
(Cut all the above vegetables into long strips)
– Garlic (minced)
– Ready fried tofu (because I had leftovers…so this is optional 😊)

REMEMBER TO CHECK ON THE CHICKEN
4. In a hot wok, sauté the onions and garlic in a tablespoon of sunflower oil and a tablespoon of sesame oil for 5 minutes.
5. Add into the wok, the oyster mushrooms and tofu. Sauté for another 2 minutes before adding the egg noodles.
6. Add a few dashes of the fish sauce and make sure the noodles are evenly covered with the mixture.
7. Add the remaining vegetables, mix them around and take it off the heat.
8. Take the chicken out of the oven, leave it to rest for 5 minutes before slicing them.

9. Place the noodle salad on a big serving plate and arrange the sliced chicken on the side. Garnish with lots of cilantro.

This is a great dish for gatherings or to have on those cosy nights in.

Spicy, simple & tasty!

Between my husband and I, we got 4 meals out of it!! Plenty leftovers for my “I don’t cook on Saturdays” theory! I hope you will enjoy it too! 😊