Tempeh with Thai-Coconut Sauce

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Ok, so my fancy schmancy camera is broken and I'm a little bit devastated. As, I'm sure, are you now that you have to be satisfied with Instagram photos of my delicious creations instead of the incredibly high-level photographs you've come to expect. *cough*.

Although, having said that, I must tell you I didn't create this, I simply saw this recipe and adapted it exponentially to the taste sensation it turned out to be. Man, I love Thai-inspired food.

I don't even remember the first time I tried something with coconut milk in it, all I know is I've been saving recipes that have it for years because it became a firm favourite.

This is reasonably simple, and calls for all the things that make Thai dishes so good - chilli, garlic, coriander, coconut milk, lime... oh boy.

This will probably feed two, with leftovers. Feel free to double or otherwise tweak to your liking - as I recommend with all recipes!

Ingredients:
1 block tempeh, cut either into strips or diced
1/2 cup vegetable stock
2-3 tablespoons of soy sauce (I used light soy, so needed more)
1-inch piece grated ginger
chopped chillies according to your heat preference
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 400ml can good-quality coconut milk
chopped veggies - I used carrot, mushroom, broccoli and zucchini
2 sliced green onions
pinch salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
juice of 1 lime
coriander and extra sliced chilli, to serve

Directions

1. Marinate the tempeh cubes in stock, soy, ginger, garlic and chilli for as long as you like.

2. Scoop out tempeh and set aside. Scoop out ginger, garlic and chilli from the marinade and fry gently with green onion until flavours are released.

3. Turn up the heat a little and add tempeh, cooking about 5 minutes until golden.

4. Turn heat down to low, and add coconut milk, salt and sugar. You can also add a little extra stock here for flavour if you like. Add veggies.

5. Just before serving, after the sauce has heated through, squeeze in the juice of lime. Top each serving with coriander and chilli

Thai Barbecue Eggplant

This really is more Thai than Barbecue, but if we can combine the two well then, hell... everybody wins.

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 large eggplant

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 clove garlic

1 small chili

100g palm sugar

1 tablespoon light soy sauce (fish sauce for all you non-veggie/Thai enthusiasts)

1 tablespoon fried onion (I omitted... too much work)

Fresh coriander/cilantro to serve


Method

1. Peel skin off the eggplant and cut lengthways into quarters.and then lengthways again until you make strips.

2. Heat barbecue plate or frying pan and add a few drops of olive oil. Cook eggplant until golden brown, turning fairly regularly.

Sauce

1. In a small bowl, heat the soy/fish sauce and palm sugar for 20 seconds in the microwave until dissolved.

2. Finely chop the chili and garlic and add to the bowl. Stir in the lemon juice last.

3. Taste sauce and ensure it has a good blend of salty, sweet and sour.


I served it with jasmine rice and it was awesome.

Recipe adapted from Yum Eggplant that appeared in The Courier-Mail. The recipe was originally from Mons Thai Ranaharn in Windsor.

Chilli Thai Stir Fry

Don't you love it when you go to make a dinner and you're missing a vital ingredient?

Some of my most memorable meals come from me making do after finding my pantry lacking in necessary items.

Hence, instead of making a honey-soy sauce for my stir fry last night, I ended up making some kind of chilli Thai concoction... and it was glorious.

Observe:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Ketjap Manis (sweet soy sauce)
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
pinch salt
1 teaspoon cornflour mixed with 1 teaspoon water
1 chilli, finely sliced
juice of one lime
handful coriander, chopped

Mix all in a bowl.

Easy peasy! You can add garlic, but I stir fried my vegetables in it and that was enough... in fact, I recommend that, it adds such a depth of flavour to the veggies. Delicious :)

Spicy Coconut Soup

garlic, ginger, coriander, oh my!



Yesterday I felt ill and couldn’t think of a single thing to eat that wouldn’t immediately make me want to crawl under a rock and die.



Then I realised this is magic soup that would make the birds sing and stars sparkle and nausea recede to whence it came.



I got the idea from a severe obsession with Thai Tom Kha soup. I threw in what I figured it would have, and voila! super soup.

Ingredients

1/2 onion, sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into paper-thin slices, then into strips
4-5 coriander stems, chopped
1 stick lemongrass, sliced. I also pound it with the bottom of a heavy knife to break the strands inside so it’s not so tough.
1 red chili, sliced. I left the seeds in for a little heat.
1 litre/4 cups vegetable stock
400ml coconut milk
1 tablespoon brown sugar
juice of two limes
1 tomato, chopped or 6-7 cherry tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes look nicer.
2 mushrooms, sliced or halved, depending on size
3 bok choy stems, sliced

Method
1. put stock, garlic, ginger, coriander stem, lemongrass, chili and onion in a pot and cover with stock. bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer.

2. Add coconut milk, sugar and lime juice.

3. Five minutes before you want to serve it, add tomato, mushroom and bok choy.

You can also add whatever veggies you like - carrot and beans would be good!