Been Busy

with work, cooking, the apartment (IKEA is my second home), school (exams this week!!) and with the Dutchman. It was -18 degrees yesterday and my toes were falling off. I fell once, slipped 3 times and saw 11 people landing on their arses yesterday haha.

So, what's been cooking?

As mentioned, every once in a while, the Dutchman and I will feel guilty about the amount of 'patatje met' (fries with mayo) we consume so we try to eat fish once a week. I planned on making salmon with couscous but the supermarket had this large (I think it was 600g) chunk of salmon for only 8 euro. I served it with store-bought fresh parpadelle which I seasoned with 1-2 tablespoons of butter, salt, pepper and a teaspoon of capers. Those cute (but not very tasty) bunches of vegetables were on sale (50% off- something special for Christmas).

I am such a kaki-sale haha. I don't usually go to the Albert Heijn because it is expensive and it's a 5 minute walk from where I live. 1 very cheap supermarket and 1 normal supermarket are only 1-minute walk from my apartment so I generally shop there. Anyhow, I was at the AH yet again and chicken fillets were only 4.87 euro per kg. I had a craving for gai pad grapow (thai dish- chicken with sweet thai basil) which the Dutchman finds too spicy hahaha. I remember the first time we went for Thai together. He's a real 'broodje kaas' (cheese sandwich -in other words, very boring la) sort of person and is not adventurous when it comes to food at all. I ordered Tom Yam soup for us and he was all red, his lips were so swollen, his eyes were watery and he couldn't close his mouth hahahaha. I made black bean chicken for him.

The Gai Pad Grapow was amazing but it was extremely pedas (spicy).

What I used:

2 chicken fillets (about 300g)
4 shallots (coarsely chopped)
6 garlic cloves (coarsely chopped)
8 green and red thau chillis, sliced. Thai chilli (size-wised) is between the normal cili and cili padi.
about 80ml nam pla (thai fish sauce)
1 large handful of thai basil
1 tablespoon sugar
white pepper to taste
about 200g of French beans

i) Chop chicken fillets to small bite-sized bits (the smaller the better so that your chicken will be coated with the yummy sauce).

ii) Pound the shallots, garlic and chillis until a paste is formed.

iii) Fry the paste for about 1 minute. Add chicken and fry for about 2 minutes. Add beans.

iv) Add the fish sauce, white pepper and sugar.

v) When chicken is almost done, throw in the Thai basil.

** This is a very spicy dish. 4-6 chillis should be sufficient. **
** You can make this dish better by adding a teaspoon of canned Thai green pepercorns and some say with 1-2 daun limau perut**