Results from meal number 3

Spicy Basil Chicken – Gkai Pad Gkaprow

When I was looking at the ingredients for this recipe, I was wondering how this could not be a hit.  And it was!!!!  I like chicken, I like basil, I like spicy food, and this recipe has all three.  While there is a lot of chopping, dicing, and slicing involved with this meal, it is well worth the time.

I followed the recipe fairly close.  The only changes that I made were (1) I used olive oil.  This is because I only use olive oil when I cook.  (2) I used chicken breast instead of thighs because that is what I had in my freezer.  (3) Because the frozen chicken was a three pound package, I tripled the amounts that I used.

I served this dish over rice.  The white chicken and the white rice made the dish look somewhat boring.  The only color the dish had come from the basil and from the peppers.  The next time I cook the meal I will use more basil so that it will have more color.  What was also missing was a cold beer.  Because I was on-call for the St. Joseph hospitals, I drank a diet coke with the meal.  It was okay, but a cold beer would have been better.

I will also say that this dish had a good amount of heat.  I used about 30 Thai chilies, and they gave the meal a good deal of spice.  The peppers did not make my nose run, my eyes cry, or simply sweat.  Still, I believe the dish would be too spicy for most people.

Again, I will be making this dish again, and the recipe can be found at: http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/recipes/basil-chicken-recipe.html.

Around the World in 80 Meals - meal number 3

For meal number three, we are going back to Asia.  This time we are going to Thailand.  I have always liked Thai food, but that is not why I picked this location.  I decided to go to Thailand so that I could use up the rest of my ingredients from Laos.  :-)

What I did know about Thailand is that it once was called Siam.  Now, the next time I watch the King and I, I now know where they are.  I also learned that Thailand is the world's 51st-largest country in terms of total area (little larger than Spain), and it is the 20th-most-populous country.

Our third meal is going to be Spicy Basil Chicken – Gkai Pad Gkaprow (or Gai Pad Kaprao), and you can find the recipe here: http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/recipes/basil-chicken-recipe.html.

Results from meal number 2

Boerenkool Stamppot (Kale Hash)

Well, all I am going to say is that meal number two  was not a hit and it was not a miss.  When I was reading up on stamppot, I came to the conclusion that when the people in Netherlands make soup, they do not use beef or chicken broth.  Instead, they use mash potatoes in place of broth.   The stamppot wasn’t bad, just bland.  After adding some salt and a lot of pepper, it wasn’t bad.

With the leftovers, I converted the stamppot into a crispy mashed potato pancakes by added eggs, milk, flour, pepper, abodo seasoning, and some chives.  While it didn’t look that good, it did taste better than it looked and better than the stamppot.

I did follow the recipe closely.  The only thing that I did different is that I used red potatoes so that I did not have to peel them.  I also just tossed the bag of kale into the mixture.  I didn’t take out the large stems, and let us say that gave a few bites a little extra crunch.

Overall, I will say that I will not make this recipe again.  I might try a different recipe for stamppot, one with more seasoning/ingredients so that it will have more of a flavor.

Around the World in 80 Meals meal number 2

Nicole and I are heading to the Netherlands for our second meal because Nicole wants to go to Amsterdam.   

Because I have not been to the Netherlands, I went to Wikipedia to read a little about the country.  I discovered that the Netherlands still have three special municipalities in the Caribbean.

The Netherlands is a geographically low-lying country, with about 20% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level, and 50% of its land lying less than three feet above sea level. This distinct feature contributes to the country's name: in Dutch (Nederland), English, and in many other European languages, its name literally means "(The) Low Countries" or "Low Country". Most of the areas below sea level are man-made, caused by centuries of extensive and poorly controlled peat extraction, lowering the surface by several feet.

Our second meal is going to be Boerenkool Stamppot, and you can find the recipe here: http://www.food.com/recipe/boerenkool-stamppot-kale-hash-33269.

Around the World in 80 Meals: Results from meal number 1

Laotian Grilled Pork Skewers with Papaya Salad and Sticky Rice

I was excited to try this meal because I have always wanted to visit Laos.  When I was doing the research for this meal, I discovered why I wanted to visit Laos.  The adjective that most often applied to visiting Laos is forgotten.  For me, my theology centers around ministering to "the forgotten."

Anyway, to the meal.  I was letting the meat thaw when the heavens opened and the rain fell.  Because I wanted to cook the meat, I decided to use my grill pan instead of an actual grill.  I like cooking on my grill pan because the food tastes just like it was cooked on an actual grill.  The problem that I have using it right now is the stove's exhaust fan in my apartment takes the smoke from the stove and blows it into my face instead of removing it from the kitchen.  It only took a couple of minutes for my apartment to fill will smoke, and the smoke detector went off a couple of times when I was cooking.

I really really really liked how the meatballs came out.  They were delicious.  I think they will go great in my spaghetti too.  The only thing that I will do differntly is thgat I will add a little more lime leaf the next time I cook them.

For the rice, I simply cooked the rice that I had.  Thus, nothing to report.

The papaya salad is a completely different story.  First, I could not find a "green unripe papaya."  Heck, I had to go to three different stores just to find a papaya.  I purchased the most unripe papaya that I could find, and it was very ripe.  The papaya turned into juice right away, and by the time I put all the ingredients together, the salad looked more like a soup.  I must have done something wrong in cleaning the papaya because the salad/soup was very very very very bitter with a good amount of heat.  The salad/soup was soooooo bad that the meat, rice, or the beer that I was drinking could kill the lingering taste that was in my mouth.  The salad went straight into the trash.  I would say that this was the second or third time that I tossed something into the trash right after I made it.

This was a fun experiment.  I now have a new way to make meatballs.  I now know how not to make a papaya salad. And I am wondering what to do next.  Hmmmm....