Wednesday 6 July 2011

Things and yummy things

It's been an age since I've written in this blog - getting on close to a year. And quite a lot of things have changed in my life since then (mostly for the better, although one area of my life is less than ideal). But I don't think I'll go into any details now. That's a story (or two) another time. For today I have a comment on wool crafts and a recipe for you.

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For some reason the cold weather has prompted me to pick up wool crafts again. It's a little odd because I've hardly done anything for the past few years and suddenly I'm finishing off projects from years ago and starting new ones. Mostly crochet - I've mucked around with a few knitting items, but haven't started knitting anything in earnest. So far I've finished off a hat for my dad and a scarf I started years ago, and crocheted 4 granny squares for Sarah London's Crochet a Rainbow project (where she collect granny squares from people and sews them into blankets for victims of natural disasters). I'm also re-making the first crochet hat I made which I lost 2 years ago. Luckily I had enough wool left.

I took some photos of my dad's hat so I'll (hopefully) upload them later. I'm tossing with the idea of creating a craft blog or photo album, but probably won't get around to it.

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And finally a recipe!

My aunt gave me the recipe for her divine Thai Red Curry Salmon several years ago. I can't believe it took me until recently to actually make it myself. And now i've made it twice in the space of about a month. It is seriously heaven. And it's not even too hot - in fact if you do what I do and only use 2.5 tbsp of the curry paste, it has barely any heat at all - just this delicious full of flavour sauce.

Poached Tasmanian Salmon in a Red Thai Curry
 
Ingredients: -

350gm                 Tasmanian salmon (cut into 2cm cubes)
2 medium             Brown Onions (halved and sliced)
3                          Cloves of garlic (crushed/finely chopped)
1 piece                 Ginger (chopped small or large, depending if you want to be able to pick out the pieces later or eat them)
4 tablespoons       Red Thai Curry paste*
400ml                   Coconut cream
4 tablespoons       Fish Sauce
2-3 tablespoon     Palm sugar
1 Bunch               Thai basil (or normal basil)
1                          Lime


Method:

Heat the wok and sauté the sliced onion, garlic and ginger. 
Add the red curry paste and fry until fragrant. 
Add the coconut cream, lime juice, palm sugar and fish sauce, (also throw in the lime skins) and simmer for 1 minute. 
Adjust the seasoning to suit your own taste. 
Just before serving place the salmon into the curry and poach gently for 5 minutes only. 
Finish by adding the torn Thai basil leaves and some roughly chopped coriander if you want.

The important thing is to make sure that you don't poach the salmon for too long as otherwise it will fall apart. The aim is to get the right balance between the sweet (sugar), sour (lime) and salty (fish sauce) flavours. It is the quickest and easiest dish to prepare. You can prepare the sauce in advance and throw in the fish and herbs at the last minute to avoid reheating. If you are unable to get Thai Basil, then ordinary basil will do.

*My aunt says she uses Valcom red curry paste but I couldn't find that the day I bought the ingredients so I've been using Spencers red curry paste instead.

Yum!