Recipe: chicken curry noodles

 This is from the Wagamama - Ways With Noodles book. It's not a Slimming World-friendly recipe (due to the coconut milk) but I did it for Dad on Father's Day and it was supremely delicious. 

chicken curry noodles

serves 2

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
150g boneless, skinless chicken breast, diced
1 courgette, diced
1/2 small aubergine, diced
2 spring onions, cut into 1 cm pieces
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
3cm piece of ginger root, peeled and finely chopped
1 tablespoon green curry paste
250ml chicken stock
175ml coconut milk
1 tablespoon fish sauce (nam pla)
100g medium egg noodles
juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons roughly chopped coriander
2 tablespoons unsalted peanuts

Heat 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil in a hot wok over a medium heat and stir fry the chicken for 3-4 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove and set aside. 

Add the remaining oil to the work and stir fry the courgette and aubergine for 4 minutes, or until golden brown. The aubergine tends to soak up the oil at first and then release it. 

Add the spring onions, stir fry for  minute and then add the garlic and ginger. Cook for 1 minute and then stir in the curry paste. 

Pour in the chicken stock, coconut milk and fish sauce, bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the noodles and reserved chicken and cook for about 4 minutes or until the noodles are tender. Add the lime juice and check the seasoning. 

Serve sprinkled with the coriander and peanuts. 

NB - this book also has a recipe for making the green curry paste from scratch - I used shop-bought paste but here's the recipe if you can be bothered (I will get round to it eventually):

green curry paste

makes about 150g

6 green chillies, roughly chopped
1 lemongrass stalk, outer leaves removed, thinly sliced
3 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
1cm piece of ginger root, peeled and grated
bunch of coriander stems, finely chopped (leaves can be reserved for another dish)
1 tablespoon cumin seeds, roasted in a hot, dry frying pan
2 garlice cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot
1 teaspoon shrimp paste
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Blitz all the ingredients in a processor or pound in a pestle or mortar to a fine paste. 

This will keep indefinitely in the fridge. 

The Bridge series 1/The Killing series 2 (spoilers)

Bron/Broen

( The Bridge )

Forbrydelsen II

( The Killing )

Pastworld review

The more I think about this book, the more disappointing it gets. Not because it was bad or boring, but because there’s only one sodding book and it’s YA so it’s far too bloody short.

--

Interlude: a handy tip

If you see a book in a library that has a) a brightly-coloured sticker on the spine (in this case, fluorescent orange with a black Z) and b) is pretty short, and then c) when you read it the main characters are all teenagers, you’ve probably picked up a YA novel.

--

So, the premise of this book: London is now Pastworld, a giant Victorian theme park, staffed with permanent residents (some of whom live their whole lives in Pastworld with varying degrees of awareness of the artificial nature of their home) and more temporary employees. They’re watched over with a very modern security system, and everything about their environment can be controlled – the residents don’t even get to see the sky).

The story focuses on two people (I say people because I also didn’t realise one of them was supposed to be a teenager until fairly late on – basically the book is not the only one at fault here) with mysterious pasts and futures (as well as a large cast of mostly male supporting characters). Their stories don’t play out entirely satisfactorily, but I think this is mostly down to the amount of time given to them – I really do think this book had plenty of scope to be longer.

The characters in the book are, as I mentioned, mostly male (which makes sense given the faux-Victorian setting and the jobs of the modern characters) and fairly broadly drawn. The star of the show, to be honest, is the world building (which suits me just fine). Somehow, the idea that London has been bought up and turned into a giant theme park seems plausible in this book.

The book is set in the run up to an anniversary party (can’t remember which one now) which will be marked with the destruction of the last remaining modern building in Pastworld. Oddly enough, this is Tower 42 (NatWest tower). This is probably going too far off into territory that only interests me, but I’m not sure why Tower 42 was the last one standing? I presume it was mostly to do with practicalities – it provides a space for scenes from the book that you couldn’t have done at something like the Gherkin, even if that would have been more familiar to a YA audience.

The book ends slightly disappointingly (for me) but with the possibility of a sequel – I really hope there is one. I would happily read a whole book of short stories just following residents and visitors in Pastworld. I think there’s plenty of ways the author could return to the premise. I’d like to see something similar as a full-length novel as well, but to be honest I’d read it if it was just world building so maybe I’m not the most representative audience...

Still, I would recommend it for YA readers, or readers who like London as a setting and like it even more when something creative is done with that setting.

http://www.past-world.com/ 

A quick rl note

There are going to be posts here later (when I can be bothered to go and find the usb), but before all that I thought I should mention that I've recently restarted at Slimming World.

I'm not going to be posting too many details about what I'm eating etc because I think too much about food as it is (also it's not even that interesting to me), but it does mean I'll probably be posting more recipes. Hopefully this will be a good thing (and they won't all be SW stuff - I have so many cookbooks that I do a lot of adapting) but feel free to scroll on past when they come up...