Digital Thinkbox

OK so I’m at it again. This is my second attempt at Swimming Rama…and this time I had the right ingredients. For this attempt I tried out this recipe. I’ll repeat it here as I changed it slightly.

Chicken
2lbs of Chicken Breast — Cut into strips or thin slabs. You could even do small cubes if you wanted. As long at it isn’t cut into big, thick pieces.
Spinach — The recipe steams a bunch of spinach. I don’t actually like cooked spinach so I used raw. Your choice.
1 fresh red chili pepper — diced or chopped.

1. Boil 6 cups of water
2. Add in the cut chicken
3. Immediatly take the boiling water from the heat and cover
4. Let stand until chicken is no longer pink. You can make the peanut sauce which this happens
5. When ready to combine with the peanut sauce, drain the chicken.

Peanut Sauce

2 tsp of olive oil or the vegetable oil of your choice
1/2 to 1 cup of finely chopped onion
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup of peanut butter, creamy or chunky your choice. I used fresh ground.
3 Tbsp of packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp paprika
1/4 teaspoon of ground red pepper ( I used red pepper flakes)
1 14oz can of unsweetened coconut milk
1 Tbsp corn starch
1 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice. I used the juice from 1 small lime

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook until tender.
2. Reduce the heat to medium or low. Add peanut butter, brown sugar, fish sauce, paprika and red pepper. Stir until smooth.
3. Slowly add the coconut milk until well blended.
4. Stir sauce over heat until bubbling. Reduce heat to low. Combine corn starch and water and stir into sauce. Cook until sauce starts to thicken.
5. Add in lime juice
6. You may now add the chicken into the sauce. Pour over spinach and garnish with some of the fresh red pepper or bell peppers

This was FAR superior to my previous attempt. Not too peanuty, and just the right amount of coconut flavor. Could have been spicier though. Didn’t have much kick. Even with the red chilies and chili flakes. Of course you might get a hot chili so taste the chili BEFORE you add it to the dish. In fact, taste the sauce as you cook it to make sure it is what you want.

This would definitely be good with a side of rice too, but I was hungry and didn’t want to wait for rice to cook. This dish will also be quite good the next day as the flavors have a chance to blend and mellow.

Apologies for the pictures…it is a camera phone. I need to get a digital camera one of these days.

Swimming Rama MKII 1

Swimming Rama MKII 2