thai chicken with basil

Thai chicken with basil is one of our favorite Summer dinners. I use a small harvest of my garden grown patch of sweet basil; it's green and lush when the weather turns warm. I like to grow an Italian variety of sweet basil but I've also grown Greek and Thai basil. It's basically whatever I find at the nursery or farmer's market and it's early in the season so I will most likely add a few more herbs into the garden. I like to make this dish medium spicy so I use one jalapeño pepper for two people, which is what the following recipe serves. I also use steamed Basmati rice because it's our favorite and I make it in a small rice cooker, which makes it easy to hold if my timing is off when preparing the Thai chicken with basil.

Thai Chicken with Basil

2 cups fresh sweet basil leaves, plus a few extra sprigs for serving

1 Jalapeño pepper, stemmed and sliced

1 garlic clove, peeled and sliced thin

1 T Fish sauce

2 t Oyster sauce

2 t sugar

1 t white vinegar

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into small 2 inch pieces

2 shallots, sliced

1 T vegetable oil

Chopped fresh sweet basil and lime juice for serving

Steamed basmati rice, for serving

Place 2 cups of sweet basil, jalapeño, and garlic in a food processor, pulse until finely chopped, about 15 times, scrape down as needed. Transfer a Tablespoon of the sweet basil mixture to a small bowl and stir in the fish sauce, oyster sauce, sugar and vinegar, set aside. Transfer the remaining sweet basil mixture from the food processor to a 10 inch skillet.

Add the cut up chicken to the food processor, pulse chicken until meat is coarsely chopped, about 6-8 pulses, scrape down if needed. Place chicken in a small bowl and refrigerate about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile back at the skillet, add the shallots and veg oil to the basil mixture, heat on medium high and stir until shallots are cooked, about 5-8 minutes.

Stir in the chicken, cook and stir about 2-4 minutes, until slightly pink. Add the small bowl of reserved basil fish sauce and continue cooking and stirring until no longer pink.

Serve over served Basmati rice with fresh limes and chopped fresh sweet basil.

Comments

springtime chamomile tea cake with strawberry icing

Good grief, Easter is in the rear view mirror and we are deep into this new year. And once again it's tea time at my house. This chamomile tea cake is a beautiful sweet addition to any tea ritual, especially my favorite, chamomile tea, which I rediscovered in my hotel room in Carmel earlier this fast moving year. I highly recommend a slice of chamomile tea cake with strawberry 🍓 icing with a cup of chamomile tea to just take a moment and slow this year down. Baking with tea is both creative and fun. Earlier this year I made Earl Gray sugar cookies which are made using the same method of infusing the butter with loose tea. For my tea cake I also rubbed the lemon zest into the sugar -another way to lend a pop of citrus to your baking. The strawberry icing is made using freeze dried strawberries, I pulverize them in my spice mill and then they are pressed through a fine sieve into the confectioner's sugar. In addition to using lemon zest rubbed into the sugar for the cake

pear jam with saffron infused honey and cardamom

Pear Jam with Saffron Infused Honey and Cardamom The summer after high school I worked sorting Bartlett pears at the Scotts Valley Fruit Exchange in Lake County California. I thought I would never touch or eat another pear again in my life. But, here I am years years later making pear jam in my kitchen with pears, honey and saffron grown in Lake County. A few weeks ago My husband and I went to visit friends in Kelseyville at their finca, they generously supplied me with the pears from their orchard-Finca Castelero- for my jam. I will never forget getting up early in the morning and riding my bike across the valley from my cousin's house to work a long hot day sorting pears. I remember thinking whoever came up with the idea of creating a cooperative to sort, pack and send pears from family farms, including my cousin's family farm on what is now called Hendricks road, to markets all over the country really had a good idea! I never looked at pears in the grocery store the s

chocolate dipped toasted almond-coconut financiers

Easy peasy chocolate dipped French style cookies for a crowd made in a 24 cup mini muffin tin and I can't think of a better use for that pan....don't you just love the perfect pan for baking? I do. These wonderful chewy but soft and cake like cookies are perfect baked up for a party 🎉 I'm always looking for individual desserts to serve for a festive event and the more French like, the better. I used the toasted almond flour from King Arthurs Flour for this recipe but you may toast your own almond flour along with the sweetened shredded coconut used in the recipe. I also used Ghirardelli 60% Bittersweet Chocolate 🍫 for my dipping, which is my go to chocolate for baking. This recipe is best served on the day it's made. Ingredients and Recipe for Chocolate Dipped Toasted Almond-Coconut Financiers Makes 24 1 cup, 2 sticks- unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut 1 cup toasted almond flour, or plain almond flour 2/3 sugar 4 tabl

Tarragon and Chives

Search This Blog