#deep fried

Faveeee

Hey Folks,

It’s been a long time, over a month since I was last on here, I’m now getting caught up with work, jobs to do, got over the holiday jet lag etc. What a great trip- New England really is such as beautiful and diverse part of the USA, almost everyday there was a change of scenery- historic Boston, stunning wild Cape Cod with it’s beautiful houses and gardens, sweeping river valleys, lush green mountains in the Adirondacks, laid back Portland and a rather quirky Salem. The sea and seafood in general was a major player in our diets- we had some amazing lobster at a place called Thurston’s Lobster Pound on Mt Desert Island, Maine. As ever, I would kill to be able to get such fresh, tasty and affordable seafood here in the UK. I could almost imagine all the Thai recipes I could have used it in.

Not to worry, the one thing I always miss when travelling in either Europe or the US is the lack of spice. Last time we were travelling in the USA, we were in the far south east, being so near to Cuba and also lots of Mexican influences meant we weren’t short of flavours and spices so on this trip we did make one or two excursions in order to get our taste buds going.

Thai however was not on the menu (per se) as at no point did we come across any Thai restaurants I would say that felt authentic and not the usual identical westernised versions.

We did however spend several hours in Chinatown in Boston; right as the day was getting going and just as Saturday evening was ramping up (and the city’s Gay Pride event was winding down- what a fantastic atmosphere there was).

We ended up, at the recommendation of a Time Out article giving ‘The Dumpling Cafe’ (www.dumplingcafe.com) a whirl where their 'juicy pork dumplings’ are particularly recommended.

We chased our juicy dumplings; which are bitten, slurped then topped with ginger with some pan fried dumplings (very much like Japanese gyoza) and some very garlicky stir fried morning glory.

Service was cool, brisk and the food was a little on the greasy side but the flavours were strong, punchy and the food was fresh and tasty.

A few days later we had travelled to Cape Cod where we spent our first full day in the beautiful Provincetown in the 'toe’ of the peninsula. Of all the places on our trip that we visited, this was my favourite spot.

We did a bit of research and heard very good things about a place called 'The Canteen’ (www.thecanteenptown.com) a busy, slightly hipster-ish place which served an eclectic mix of food and local craft beers. My eye was immediately draw to the Vietnamese cod banh mi sandwich and greedy thing that I am, to their intriguing house speciality; deep fried Brussels sprouts in fish sauce.

The cod banh mi was excellent and just what I was looking for but let me tell you something, those ugly looking crisped up sprouts were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! wow, so simple but I couldn’t stop eating them- I wanted more! As far as I can tell, the crispy fried sprouts are simply tossed in a nam jim seafood sauce (fish sauce, lime juice, chilli, coriander and perhaps a pinch of sugar). with the local beer, the food went down a treat; do try them if you’re visiting Cape Cod.

And so, normal life resumes once again, and as usual, I’m already thinking of where my next travels will take me….

It’s very rare these days that we would ever buy a takeaway, I’ve just had way too many identical oil drenched, msg ridden, jam-like, tummy ache laden meals to ever optionally order one then pay through the nose for the privileged. however that’s not to say I eat healthy all the time. Like most, I occasionally like deep fried food, I just like my salt, sugar and fat in reasonable amounts and I think takeaway places (by and large) rely on pre made cheap fixes.

Ranting over, when I do want something takeaway like, I’d much rather make it myself, lets face it, as long as you have the ingredients in, you can be eating this quicker than it would take for a takeaway to be delivered. I guarantee this crunchy, spicy, sticky stir fry will satisfy all your takeaway urges!! It differs quite substantially from all the other English written versions of gai tod nam prik pao, this is taken directly from a Thai recipe and is the real thing!

As an added bonus, it’s a 2 in 1 dish. If you just want the chicken as a starter/snack, use wings and forgo the vegetables. If it’s a whole meal, keep the veggies in and serve with rice.

For the stir fry version for two people use all the ingredients:For the chicken wing snack version use just the ingredients with a * next to them

• 4 large chicken thigh fillets, skinned and cut into large cubes or 10 wings, jointed*
• 1 large onion, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 2 spring onions, kept in large chunks
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• a small handful of dried red chillies
• a heaped dessert spoon of roasted chilli paste (nam prik pao)*
• a big splash of light soy sauce*
• a big splash of oyster sauce*
• a big pinch of brown or palm sugar*
• rice flour for dredging the chicken (plain flour is ok too, just not as light and crispy as rice)*
• salt and pepper*
• oil for deep frying and splash for stir frying*

Season the chicken with salt and pepper, then dredge it through the rice flour, shake off the excess.Heat a deep fat fryer to 190 degree Celsius or use a heavy pan and watch it carefully.Pop in the chicken pieces and cook until deep golden and crispy (3-5 mins). Drain on kitchen paper.

Heat a small splash of oil in a wok until hot then throw in the onions and stir fry on a high heat to get some colour. Throw in the dried chillies and garlic and stir fry for a few minutes. Throw in the spring onions and the drained fried chicken.

Add in the roasted chilli paste, coating the chicken well, then the remaining sauces and sugar. Everything should be nice and sticky.

* If you make the wings snack version make the sauce in a wok- heat a small splash of oil before adding the roasted chilli paste, sugar oyster sauce and soy sauce, blend well and put the fried chicken wings in, stirring well so everything is coated.

Ahh, poor bonito; fish never look quite so pretty when they’ve been deep fried whole- I’m not one for removing heads though, I’d much rather keep them whole- plus you’d miss out on the cheeks!

Saturday just gone I did one of my favourite things to do in my free time, wandering round food markets, picking up random things to take home and make things with. I went to Bolton market; I’ve been there once before and remembered it was a great place to pick up every kind of fish, cut of meat, exotic vegetables and great for local northern produce. It also has a great fresh Thai fruit and vegetable stall, easily on par with any of my usual favourites in Leeds, Manchester and Birkenhead- very reasonable prices too.

Along with my bonito fish (£5 for a huge fish), some acacia (cha om), fresh green peppercorns (just because I struggle to get them) I also picked up some bitter gourds for a recipe which will follow soon.

There is nothing fancy about the fish- I wanted to cook it in a way that would do it justice, quickly and simply and served it with nam prik seafood (seafood sauce) and some rice. We ate it as you see it here, sharing it between us.

For two people use:

• a large meaty fish, gutted, scaled and deep slashes cut into both sides
• several knobbly pieces of fresh turmeric, chopped
• half a bulb of garlic, peeled and chopped
• a lot of vegetable oil for deep frying

and if you fancy making the ‘sauce seafood’ to go with it- here’s the link within another of my earlier recipes…

Heat a large, deep wok full of vegetable oil until hot. Very, VERY carefully slowly slide the fish in and allow it to develop a deep golden crispiness- it will need to be carefully turned over half way through the cooking. It will depend on size but mine took about 10 minutes.

Gently lift out, use two spatulas (an extra pair of hands helps) and drain on kitchen paper.

Still in the hot oil, drop in all the chopped turmeric and garlic and deep fry for around 2 minutes- stirring regularly until you can see the garlic is a light golden brown and everything is slightly crispy. Scoop out with a sifter and sprinkle over the fish.

So I deep-fried a pic of Charles O’Hara from The Patriot that @bantarleton took and it is without a doubt the single most cursed thing I have ever made.