Thursday, June 25, 2009

Surin of Homewood

The Mrs. and I are big Thai food fans. Our first date was actually at Surin West almost five years ago. I’ve been itching to use the Coconut Milk that’s been sitting in our pantry for an embarrassingly too long amount of time (it had two months until expiration!!) and last week I did a bit of experimenting to create my first Thai Peanut Chicken Stir Fry. Here’s what I used:

Chicken breast
Green Pepper, Zucchini, Onion, Mushrooms
Coconut Milk
Peanut Butter
Soy Sauce
Sesame Oil
Rice Vinegar
Honey
Salt/Pepper

In one skillet I heated about a tablespoon of sesame oil over medium high heat and cooked the chicken for a minute or two, before adding half a can of Coconut Milk and the Mushrooms. I didn’t want to have COMPLETELY raw chicken cooking in the coconut milk, but it may not have been necessary. I covered and cooked that on medium heat for maybe 10 minutes or so.

I decided to stir fry the other vegetables in a separate skillet before adding to the chicken and mushrooms (I wanted a little crunch left and didn’t want to “boil” them). While the peppers, zucchini and onions were cooking, I combined maybe a tablespoon each of Peanut Butter, Soy Sauce, and Rice Vinegar in a bowl and micro-waved for 30 seconds. Stir it around and it looks like this:

After the chicken looked good and cooked, I stirred in the peanut mixture and let it simmer for a few more minutes before adding the vegetables. At this point, I tasted it and realized it needed salt and something sweet (maybe a tablespoon of honey).

All in all, it was a pretty tasty dish, but I definitely could have used some extra ingredients to “tie” it up (get it??? Tie/Thai).

Things I would have liked to Add:
Lime
Mint
Ginger
Bean Sprouts
Jalapenos
Curry Powder
Garlic (duh, I totally should have added Garlic Powder)

Any blog stalkers out there have any suggestions for Thai Cooking at Home??

4 comments:

Sarah Green said...

OMG. I must have Surin right this minute. I'm mad now. I would have added the ginger, but I'm no "foodie" or anything. Looks delish though.

jccvi said...

Secret Thai ingredients:

tamarind
shrimp paste
palm sugar
keffir lime leaves

We used to have a Thai grocery store near our house by the U of M where you could get all this stuff. A Vietnamese grocery would likely have all of them. None of these items are very expensive at an ethnic grocery store.

Whitney said...

Yum, Alex. I'm really impressed...that dish looks fantastic! I hope you are doing well. See you soon!

The Hardens said...

There is a curry paste made by the same peeps who do the coconut milk. It comes in a very small container and goes a very long way! Oh gosh I am wanting some Jasmine's right now! I think I will make green curry chicken tommorrow and maybe some satay with peanut sauce! You have inspired!