4 fl coconut cream
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 garlic clove finely chopped
1 tbsp red curry paste
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
6 oz boneless chicken breasts
4 fl chicken stock
2 kaffir lime leaves,roughly chopped
4 oz bamboo shoots, cut into slivers
20 fresh holy basil leaves
Directions
METHOD: Gently heat the coconut cream in a small pan but do not let it
boil. In a wok or frying pan heat the oil and fry the garlic until
golden brown. Add the curry paste and stir well. Pour in the warmed
coconut cream and stir until it begins to reduce and thicken.
Add the fish sauce and sugar and stir. Add the chicken and cook,
stirring constantly, until the meat is opaque. Add the stock, stir
and cook for one to two min- utes or until the chicken is cooked
through.
Stir in the lime leaves, then add the bamboo shoots and basil leaves.
Stir, cook gently for a final minute and turn into a serving dish.
(Serves 4 as part of a meal) Source: Hugo Arnold, EVENING STANDARD
Friday 21st October 1994
Hugo Arnold's Commentary Follows.
THAI food seems to have erupted into British life over the past few
years, particularly in pubs, where many have ditched sausages and
chips for Nam Tok, Tom Yam Gung or Grat Doo Moo Nueng Dow Jeow - the
latter being Thai spare ribs. Alongside this explosion runs the
increasing availability of the ingredients necessary to produce these
dishes - lemon grass, kaffir lime, galangal and a few cookery books
to explain the process.
Vatcharin Bhumichitr wants us not only to cook Thai food, but to
understand it. His latest book, Vatch's Thai Cookbook (Pavilion
17.99), groups recipes and writings under different ingredient
headings. This approach, he hopes, will enable readers to appreciate
the subtleties and origins of this intrinsically delicate cuisine. Mr
Bhumichitr owns Chiang Mai, a Thai restaurant in Soho that serves up
the sort of food I remember eating in Bangkok - light, delicate,
spicy and well balanced an aspect frequently misunderstood, but well
explained in this title. His book is full of similar recipes. Most
are remarkably quick to cook, and ideal for that Thursday evening
when you don't really have time to cook a stew or casserole. Today's
recipe is from the bamboo shoots section of the book.
Servings: 4 servings
Chicken Curry With Bamboo Shoots Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Chicken; Poultry
The History of Recipes
We can read the history of written recipes way back into the far past, certainly as far back as the early Egyptians, and quite possibly further than that. In practice though, generally, these early cook books were just very simple hieroglyphic or cunieform recipes for food preparation.
In fact, the oldest recipe discovered, according to historians are a few ancient tablets in the Sumerian language describing the making of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made people feel blissful and exhilarated. Later on, in Roman times around 25BC a roman called Apicius assembled a collection of documents describing recipes cooked by wealthy roman citizens. In his publication, Apicius recounts how the meals were separated into hors d`oeuvre, entrees and dessert, a style of dining still practiced today. This early Roman chef recounts how the chefs of Roman times were skilled in the use of a wide range of aromatic flavours, including a few that will be familiar to modern cooks for example thyme, rue and dill. For the next few years, the upper-class families of Europe competed with each other to lay on the best banquets, and consequentially the best cooks and their recipes were much in demand. Notwithstanding that, it wasn`t until the 1800s that haute cuisine and recipe collections really came of age. The Famous Mrs Beeton in the UK, and Fannie Merritt Farmer in the US, devoted much of their lives to assembling, trying out, and publishing recipes common in their social group. By the advent of the twentieth century, cooking books are in high demand, due to better eduction, people having increased free time and having more money. The introduction of the TV brings us cooking programs and the spin-off recipe books. And that brings us to the present day and the internet revolution, allowing everyone to access massive numbers of recipes just like those on our site. |
We hope you enjoy this Chicken Curry With Bamboo Shoots recipe.
