As I was getting the chicken for tonight's festivities in the meat department of the local Wal-Mart, I broke into the 'Chicken Tonight' dance and song. It was a flash back, I can't remember the last time I saw a jar of the stuff let alone one of those annoying commercials. Then again, not watching much TV, maybe I would miss the commercials anyway.
Em's face registered a horror like nothing I've ever seen. If I'd pulled down my pants and taken a dump on the floor, she wouldn't have been more mortified.
I don't know if she's entirely over the pain. I asked her how come she asks me to do silly walks a la Monty Python on the way into Wal-Mart but flapping my arms and jerking my head like a chicken was more humiliation than a kid can bear. She told me nobody would understand why I was dancing like a chicken, in the apparent misapprehension that the Chicken Tonight dance is incredibly obscure and the Ministry of Silly Walks is universally familiar.
Even when I disabused her of this notion, she sulked. When I asked why she was so aggravated, she snarled, 'Because I have you for a father.'
I made fried chicken, mashed potatoes and peas for the girls. I knew they wouldn't go Thai with me. And actually, this dish was a maiden voyage for me, and the first time I used a couple of these ingredients. The preserved radishes, not that big a question since I only used 1/3 cup in the dish, which was enormous. The fresh Thai basil, though, I've never had that before and after chewing on couple leaves of it, I wasn't sure how I'd like it in the dish.
The dish was inspired by this one. My friend Julie sent me this one awhile ago and I've been meaning to make it.
But I took some liberties, both with quantities and ingredients. Less chicken, and I added mushrooms, the preserved radishes, eggs, a whole chopped onion for the beginning and whatnot.
I also used brown basmati rice, not having any jasmine rice on hand. And poha. This wasn't on purpose. I cooked the rice with a ratio of 5 cups water to two cups brown rice, steamed it for fifty minutes and it had liquid sitting on top. I canted the lid and cooked it another fifteen minutes but it was still sticky and wet.
I needed it cool and dry for the stir fry. So I stirred in two cups of poha, a flattened/rolled rice that cooks lightning fast. I let the poha suck up the excess moisture and put the rice, spread thinly, in a dish outside to cool.
Thai Basil Chicken Stir Fry / Khao Pad Kra Prao Gai
1/4 cup peanut oil
1 red onion, chopped finely
8 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped*
4 Thai chili peppers chopped finely
1 chicken breast, diced
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1 tablespoon palm sugar
4 cups cooked brown basmati rice
2 cups poha
1/3 cup preserved sweetened Thai radish bits
8 oz. sliced baby portobellos
3 eggs
About two julienned bell peppers**
2 cups fresh Thai basil leaves
1 cup green onion tops, chopped
cucumber, lemon, cilantro broccoli, and alfalfa sprouts to garnish
Heat the oil and add the onion, stirring continuously until it is browned and translucent. Add smashed/chopped garlic & peppers, then the chicken. Keep things moving, until the chicken is mostly cooked, about three minutes (this is in my electric wok on 400ºF, so very high heat). Add fish sauce, oyster sauce and palm sugar, incorporate, then add the rice/poha mixtureand stir until the rice has broken up and absorbed the sauce. Add radish bits and mushrooms, stir until incorporated, add three eggs. Stir until eggs are no longer identifiable as individual ingredients, adding a splash of fish sauce if necessary to keep a trace of moisture at the bottom of the wok. Incorporate bell peppers and basil leaves, turn off heat. Serve topped with cilantro and alfalfa sprouts with cucumber, broccoli and a half lemon or lime on the side.
The cucumber and alfalfa sprouts are particularly important. This dish packs a touch of heat and the cool of a bite of cucumber does a lot to cleanse the palate. And the sprouts mixed with a bite of the rice and whatnot is really a nice contrast.
I love the Thai basil, I'll be cooking with it again, and making this dish again, for sure. Those Thai chillies are potent, I worried that four would be too much but everything was in balance. I had used a couple of these to garnish my Pad Thai the other day, and I bit off half of one out of curiosity. I'm a friend of the peppers, but oh-my-gawd that was intense. Well, of course it was, they were the only source of heat in this dish and just four little peppers gave a noticeable capsicum heat.
I'm sure the leftovers won't be quite as good because in the reheating process, you'll necessarily wilt the basil. But I still bet these are going to be some kick-ass lunches.
As far as the fried chicken dinner part for the girls, I just dredged boneless, skinless breasts in flour seasoned with salt, pepper and a bit of Hungarian paprika. The latter is mainly a color ingredient, there's not enough of it to taste in the final result. Fried in peanut oil.
The mashed potatoes were just golden potatoes, boiled with the skin on (minus untasty looking things I cut out), mashed with a splash of milk and part of a stick of the real butter I had left over from Mo's birthday cake frosting.I left them slightly lumpy, which Em objected to. I like them to have a little texture, she likes them to be a potato pudding.
Oh, and the taters had a bit of salt & pepper in them, and I do mean a bit. No, they weren't gray and they weren't packing heat. Something like fifteen years ago me and the artist formerly known as Frau Lobster hosted our first Xmas dinner, and I accidentally dumped a bunch of black pepper in the mashed potatoes. I figured in five pounds of potatoes, it wouldn't be that noticeable.
It was. But I hadn't even tasted them myself when my brother asked, 'Can I have some pepper for my mashed potatoes?' And as I started to hunt for the pepper mill, everyone else just fell out.
I'll never live it down... Em even asked me, as she came to the table, 'The cap didn't fall off the pepper, did it?'
*Ideally, a mortar and pestle are used to make a pulp of the garlic and peppers. I don't have one, so I did my best with a knife.
**I had red, orange and yellow because there was a sale that made them as cheap as the green ones; the dish won't be quite as colorful with the green ones, but I don't recommend spending extra money just for colors
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