I find that I have more time on my hands in Dubai vs Aberdeen. Hopefully that will change. Until then, what's a girl to do? Why test out some pinterest projects, of course!
One of my favorite foods is Thai but I've always been intimidated to cook Thai food. It just seems SO complicated. When I came across this pin for chicken basil stir fry, I decided to try it. It's one of my fav Thai dishes and if I screwed it up, no biggie, I had the pizza delivery guy on speed dial.
The bonus was that I learned a new technique in the process called velveting. Velveting is a common technique used in Chinese and Thai food to keep the meat moist (and prevent overcooking) during stir-frying. There are several ways to do this, but my recipe only called for one ingredient: corn starch. So basically you just toss your chicken in some corn starch before cooking it and your family will swear you ordered take out:)
The only ingredient I couldn't find here was Rice Vinegar. But I was determined to make the dish without it. Afterall, how much can 2 tsp of the stuff affect the entire dish? (I don't think it had a huge impact on taste). The only thing we wanted was for it to be spicier, so next time I'll be sure to grab some Thai red chillis. Oh and I'll pair it with another Thai favorite, green papaya salad. Mmm.
On my pinterest high, I also decided to make Almond Butter. I've seen countless pins lately on how to make homemade peanut butter and almond butter. When I recalled reading the pin, it only had 1 step (or so I thought). So I bought a bag of plain shelled almonds and threw them in my food processor. After a few minutes, it turned into almond meal:
After another 10 minutes, nothing was happening. It was not turning into buttah. I was disappointed. I decided to give it a few more minutes on pulse to see if it would magically change. Finally I opened up pinterest, and it turns out I left a crucial step out: roast the almonds. Ah well. Next time, I'm hoping for this:
One of my favorite foods is Thai but I've always been intimidated to cook Thai food. It just seems SO complicated. When I came across this pin for chicken basil stir fry, I decided to try it. It's one of my fav Thai dishes and if I screwed it up, no biggie, I had the pizza delivery guy on speed dial.
The bonus was that I learned a new technique in the process called velveting. Velveting is a common technique used in Chinese and Thai food to keep the meat moist (and prevent overcooking) during stir-frying. There are several ways to do this, but my recipe only called for one ingredient: corn starch. So basically you just toss your chicken in some corn starch before cooking it and your family will swear you ordered take out:)
The only ingredient I couldn't find here was Rice Vinegar. But I was determined to make the dish without it. Afterall, how much can 2 tsp of the stuff affect the entire dish? (I don't think it had a huge impact on taste). The only thing we wanted was for it to be spicier, so next time I'll be sure to grab some Thai red chillis. Oh and I'll pair it with another Thai favorite, green papaya salad. Mmm.
On my pinterest high, I also decided to make Almond Butter. I've seen countless pins lately on how to make homemade peanut butter and almond butter. When I recalled reading the pin, it only had 1 step (or so I thought). So I bought a bag of plain shelled almonds and threw them in my food processor. After a few minutes, it turned into almond meal:
After another 10 minutes, nothing was happening. It was not turning into buttah. I was disappointed. I decided to give it a few more minutes on pulse to see if it would magically change. Finally I opened up pinterest, and it turns out I left a crucial step out: roast the almonds. Ah well. Next time, I'm hoping for this:
Stir fry looks awewome! I have to steal that recipe. And, how does roasted almonds turn into butter?? Now you can make macarons with the almond meal:)
ReplyDeleteTrue, I can make make macaroons now!
DeleteAgree with Nary, I dont understand how the roasting part changes it into butter? Oh well, what were you planning to do with the almond butter??
ReplyDeleteI have no clue how roasting them will make it turn into butter! I just wanted to use it as a substitute for PB:)
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