Apple chocolate chip muffins

I believe this is from Bake or Break website , recipe modified

added some fresh ground spices not listed of course !

ground spices added

my new grated i was gifted for Christmas

 

not exactly a light muffin, the apples have a lot of moisture , but I needed some chocolate and fruit for dessert.

 

 

 

OK …..i made dough also, bread and rolls BC you can live on muffins alone !

 

 

cooking with coconut milk (chicken)

One of the ingredients I’ve been slowly  incorporating into recipes is coconut milk. From Thai grilled shrimp to this,  it uses some similar elements for a different take on chicken. As the story goes there are probably more ways to cook chicken than anything else.

First step, thawing out and thin slicing some boneless chicken breast, many in the freezer at this time.

Thin cut chicken breast

chicken fillets with spice paste

Next using Thai spice paste, rub the chicken and stack the fillets, let stand for about an hour, I find that this is a quick acting spice paste so a meal can be prepared with a shorter lead time than an overnight marinate.

ground hot pepper, allspice,cloves, cassia bark star anise,celery seed, fenugreek, ginger and turmeric in center.

Free hand a spice pallet, here cinnamon, fenugreek, allspice, peppercorns, ground hot smoked pepper, whole peppercorns and the like. One of my attempts at assembling a combination. Researching some recipes revels that the ingredients are often dictated by what was locally grown and available at the time even depending on the weather and harvest conditions and may be influenced by religion. I opened the spice closet.

 

toasting or sputtering the whole spices

Heat a small amount of oil and flash or sputter the spices quickly, add the sliced onions ,sliced lemongrass and a bit of water to prevent burning.

quickly add the slice onion and lemongrass.

Cook the onion and spice mixture several minutes , add water along the way if necessary till translucent. remove to a plate.

pan fry quickly the chicken breast till just done

Yes the breast are huge!  This was slicing from only one piece.  When all are browned, return to the pan.

Add the coconut milk, grated turmeric and ginger and several tomatoes along with the previously cooked onions and lemon grass.

Mix slightly, cover and simmer till heated through. Taste and adjust spices. I was surprised ! The coconut milk evened out all the spices, taste was more than I expected even a bit of heat with the sweetness of the coconut milk.

plated it up with rice and cool cucumbers.

The chicken was fork tender, not overcooked. A pleasant alternative to conventional chicken gravy,  a lighter sweeter taste.

 

Roasted Chicken Thigh with Thai Salad

Time on the grille this weekend, soy sauce based several hour marinade* chicken thighs, slow roasted.

Parsnips, elephant garlic, cauliflower, not  shown, leeks which was the best with the crispy outer leaves and tender center.

*soy sauce, ginger, vinegar, sugar, 5 spice powder, oil etc.

 some of the grilled veggies from above were an appetizer..

a few grilled orange slices added

now a weeknight meal , some of the sliced chicken on bread, along with greens and salad.

The baking of bread continues of course.

The salad was made by one of my daughters, a lot of dicing involved.

from:

http://hostthetoast.com/thai-cashew-coconut-rice-ginger-peanut-sauce/

I made some additional peanut sauce with some substitutions and an addition, that is hot red pepper flakes !

It made it on the thick side and can be used as a dipping sauce.

It’s a change to incorporate nuts and coconut into my daily diet, IMO nuts, (peanuts, walnuts, etc. including peanut butter) is a super food.

 You can tell by the price of walnuts , cashews etc.

Other kitchen outtakes…

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Sort of a working night to get posting done , one of the freak occurrence of connection and device  problems, possibly modem, router, or cable problems intermittently. Plus another screen replacement for the mobile device, when these are cracked, almost impossible to use and a botched Imessage implementation. Thanks in advance for stopping by.