Bird in A Nest (Chickened Panang with vermicelli rice noodles)

There is a recipe for Panang curry on my blog here (the link) that one is simply served the curry with steamed rice and for this one I want the same curry have a different look in a nice style and also the texture is different too because of noodles.

The process is pretty easy even people who don’t know how to cook Thai food or think that cooking Thai food is so complicated, and also I have a video to show you how to make this dish (please see the video link below). Hope that also help to see a whole process.

Ingredients

4                  Large chicken breasts, cut into chunks

1 can            Thick coconut milk (560ml.)

3 cloves       Garlic, finely chopped

1tsp             Sugar

1 tbsp          Vegetable oil

1 tsp            Soy sauce

1                 Cucumber, cut into small pieces (see video)

10                Kaffir lime leaves, cut into very thin and narrow strips

320-375g.    Vermicelli rice noodles

1 – 1 ¼ tbsp Salt

3 litre           Water

Instructions from video 

Instructions

1. Cut a chicken breast lengthwise into three pieces and from each piece cut diagonally into ½ inch thick, and continue until finish all. Add chicken with chopped garlic, soy sauce and sugar, and mix well.
2. Heat a pot on a little bit more than medium high heat, and add oil and curry paste. Stir and cook curry paste until you smell the aroma from curry paste, and add chicken. Stir and mix chicken well with curry paste, add coconut milk. Cook until the mixture is boiled and bubbling, and turn the heat down to medium and simmer for (about) 20 minutes or until chicken is tender. Remove from heat.

* Use the pot is just big enough to contain the amount of chicken and coconut milk and cook on the small stove top. A large pot on the large stove top with the heat mentioned above, the liquid in the curry will be dry out before the chicken becomes tender. If this happened you can simply add some water into the curry. 

3. Bring water to a rapid boil, and add salt. Add vermicelli rice noodles and cook for 2-3 minutes or until tender. Drain well. Roll noodles into a bundle with a fork for the size of a serving, until finish all about 35 – 40 bundles.
4. Garnish noodles with lemongrass and Kaffir lime leaves.
5. To serve, place a bundle of noodles on your own plate pour on chickened Panang curry and serve with cucumber cubes as a side dish.

Chu Chee Salmon

Chu Chee or Choo Chee is the sound of sizzling in Thai, and because of the amount of curry is small comparing to other kinds of curry so the sound is loud.  The curry paste for this dish has the same ingredients as red curry paste, except it is not as hot as red curry because there are no fresh Thai chillies or Prik Kee Noo in Chu Chee curry paste, but there are only dried big chillies which are mild. If you’d like your Chu Chee dish spicy, you can always add some Prik Kee Noo in your curry paste.

Chu Chee Curry is commonly with fish, but you may find some restaurants’ Chu Chee menu with shrimp as well. The curry sauce is supposed to be thicker, saltier and sweeter than ordinary curry as the fish is plain so you need the sauce to give some favours to the fish.

Chu Chee dish is pretty common and popular dish in Thailand as you can find this dish from street vendors to luxury restaurants.

For 2 - 3 servings  Spiciness: mild

Ingredients

1  lb.            Salmon Steak, slice into 2 pieces or 2 Salmon Fillets

3 tbsp          Curry paste (the recipe below)

2 tsp            Palm sugar or sugar

4 leaves       Kaffir Lime leaves, cut into very thin stripe

7                 Thai basil or sweet basil

¾ cup          Thick Coconut milk from a can

1-1  ½ tbsp   Fish sauce

1 tbsp          Vegetable oil

¹⁄₃ cup          Water

Curry Paste

Ingredients – for about ½ cup of curry paste

7                  Dried big chillies, remove seeds and soak in water until soft and chop into small pieces

1-2               Fresh Thai Red chillies, chopped (optional)

2 tbsp           Lemongrass, chopped fine

2                  Shallots, chopped

2 tbsp           Garlic, chopped

2 tsp             Galangal, chopped fine

1                   Kaffir Lime, skin only about 2tsp, chopped fine

½ tsp            Ground pepper

2 - 3 roots     Coriander, chopped

 ³⁄₄tsp            Shrimp paste, roasted

¼ tsp            Salt

Instruction

1. To make the curry paste, wrap shrimp paste in foil and roast two sides on the stove element until fragrant.
2. Paste dried chillies, lemongrass, shallots, garlic, galangal, kaffir lime peel, ground pepper, coriander roots, shrimp paste and salt in mortar and pestle, and pound until smooth.
3. Grill 2 sides of salmon on frying pan on medium heat until golden brown but not cooked. Remove salmon from the frying pan.
4. To make the curry sauce, the same frying pan on medium heat, add vegetable oil until hot and add curry paste, stir-frying until fragrant. Add coconut milk, palm sugar, fish sauce and water, mix well and cook until bubbling and becomes a thick curry sauce.
5. Add salmon into the curry sauce and let salmon sit for a few bubble each side until salmon absorbs the favour of the curry sauce. Remove from the pen to a plate and garnish with kaffir lime leaves and basil. Serve hot with Jasmine rice.