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| Even the leftovers look good |
Last weekend I went out for Thai food with my girlfriend. I ordered the Thai yellow curry which turned out to be as delicious as expected. Midway through my meal though I had a vision of how to make my meal even more delicious. You may find it hard to believe that I eat meals that are unrelated to Asparagus or Shallots and unfortunately sometimes I do. This generally leads me to having a recurring epiphany. Each time it happens it strikes me with the same sensation of childlike wonder and amazement. "This is good," I'll typically say, "but what if..." I'm sure you get the picture. The only part of the scenario that isn't really easy to believe is each time I have this revelation it's met with openness and encouragement even from an understanding person in my life. She is subjected to a lot of asparagus.
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| Do you ever need to revitalize your asparagus? Try This! |
Ingredients:
4 chicken thighs
2 cups of chicken stock (homemade if at all possible)
2 shallots (diced)
1 medium onion (diced)
1/2 bunch of asparagus (cut into pieces)
1/2 red bell pepper (chopped)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons of curry powder
1 tablespoon of cumin
2 1/2 red potatoes (cubed)
1 1/2 cans of coconut milk
Salt/Pepper to taste
2 cups of jasmine-scented white rice
1 cup of water
Instructions:
Pour some olive oil into a stock pot that's being heated on your stove. Put your chicken thighs in skin down. I recommend using chicken thighs because I feel like they're the part of the chicken with the most flavor. Use salt and pepper generously. Brown both sides of your thighs. Remove the chicken and set them aside. You can add your spices to the pan to toast them. I forgot to do this and my dinner still turned out. Put about half the spices in the pan and save the other half for later. Add your diced up onion and half of your diced up shallots to saute them. Pour some of your chicken stock into the pan and deglaze. Scrape up all of the brown pieces of chicken that are sticking to the bottom of your pan. Add your diced onion and half of your diced shallots and saute them. When they're starting to look good and everything is smelling amazing, put your chicken back in and add your chicken stock. Your chicken is going to take a while to braise. I recommend not doing this at 10 pm on a Sunday night. While your chicken is braising you should get your coconut rice going. It's really easy, just put some jasmine-scented white rice in a sauce pan add some water and some coconut milk. If you don't feel like measuring things (which I often don't) then just cap off your rice with about 3/4 of an inch of liquid above the rice. If you want it to be sweeter, add more coconut milk. If you want it to be less sweet, add more water. As the chicken approaches the end of the braising step, drop in your potatoes. They're going to need more time to cook than the remainder of your vegetables. When the chicken is tender and falling off the bone it's time to add the rest of your shallots, your asparagus, your bell pepper, the rest of your spices and the coconut milk. When you do this you should remove the chicken and pick the meat off the bone. Or you can buy boneless chicken. I didn't do either and I thought it turned out fine. At this point it's not going to take long to get the asparagus nice and tender. Once everything is done to your satisfaction then serve with the rice and enjoy! |
| Topped with a little fresh cilantro from our garden and a lemon |
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