Sunday May 7, 1995

Chicken Mint Leave

OK, here is my excuse: The semester is close to the end and, yes, there are tests and finals and tests and finals and .... going on, and that kind of keeps me occupied.

But so that I am not completely forgotten, let me tell you what we had tonight. It all started when I dropped by the Thai market to get some dessert - did I tell already that I looove dessert - I guess I did - and I saw some good looking mint leaves. There are two kinds, bai ho ra pa, and bai kra prow, from which I prefer the latter, so I got them.

I still had some chicken, and garlic, hot chilli and fish sauce I never run out of, so I did not need to get anything else. Instead of the chicken I could have also used some beef or even ground beef but then this dish would not have become 'Chicken Mint Leave' would it?

When it became time to prepare dinner I crushed garlic and the hot pepper (did I mention that hot pepper can be hot, so be careful) and sauteed it in a pan with some oil.

After a while the fragrance started to fill the kitchen I added the sliced chicken and sauteed. When it was nearly done I did some taste adjustments with fish sauce. This time I opted to add a bit of a sweetener (brown sugar in this case). Occasionally I use some oyster sauce, but this time I decided to do without.

One last minute taste adjustment and then into the pan with the mint leaves. They are sauteed with the rest of the dish for just a minute. They don't really get cooked, to keep them nice and fresh. Now I turned off the heat and was nearly done.

This time, with this dish that I served over rice, we also had eggs, sunny side up, Thai style. That's pretty much the same as the American sibling only cooked longer until they are nice and brown.

These eggs were sitting on top of everything, just like a crown, a crown for a simple but delicious meal.

Bon Appetite.