On Thu, 22 Sep 2005, Judith Umbria
I see. The burning wouldn't necessarily be a failure; the essence of much of cooking is carefully controlled burning.
Anyway, after all that, there was only one thing for it - i tried it for supper this evening. I mixed roughly equal volumes of butter and peanut butter, plus minced garlic, tamarind paste, a little salt, and plenty of black pepper and smoked paprika, plastered it all over a couple of chicken breasts in which i'd slashed fairly deep incisions, and fried it. When it was done, i took out the meat, then deglazed the pan with coconut milk to make a sauce (which felt quite weird - using European techniques with oriental ingredients!), and ate it all with rice.
Oh, *sausagesAbsolutely. You've obviously seen our two. They always seemed impervious to the sort of bugs which would give us the runs if nothing worse. I did, however, accidently...
It was alright. The peanut butter did indeed burn, extensively but not quite to charcoal - it had a rather interesting and quite nice flavour, although it would be decidedly better if less charred. The meat was just right; crisp on the outside, moist on the inside. I have no idea if the paste had anything to do with the crispiness; it's possible the sugar contributed to the caramelisation or something. I managed to screw the rice up somehow, but the result was that it turned into sticky rice, which was actually rather fitting. The spices didn't come through very strongly, and the garlic not at all, which was a shame. The coconut-and-charred-peanut sauce was great, though.
Changes i'd make if i did it again:
Oh, *sausages*! Mailcopiesto: neverNot much to tell, at least not with humour -- it wasn't funny at the time! Basically, traditional ranges such as the solid fuel Rayburn in the house when we bought it...
- use a butter-peanut butter mix than leans more towards the dairy - fry cooler and slower to reduce charring - either leave out the tamarind or add it right at the end - add more spices
Blessed are the Cheesemakers 269Nor have I, actually never eaten it(knowingly). However I have made Queso Blanco. Rennet-free, made by curdling the milk with vinegar. And one of my Cheese...
I could just make a butter-spice mix, fry the chicken in that, then add the peanut butter at the end (adding the coconut milk when it starts to char). That'd be cheating, though.
Also, i was reminded how good coconut milk is. I must try and find some things to cook with it. I don't have an ice cream machine, sadly, else it would all go into that - i've made fantastic coconut ice cream in my dad's machine many times.
Anyway, my profound apologies to the Indonesian nation, and vive la chimie!
tom
-- skin thinking
