Served with White rice and Baby Pakchoi
me cutting onions, I still don’t know how to avoid crying while cutting them
explaining how I make papadums in a wok pan for the very first time
the jury seems to like it and so am I
When I was ask to be part of the ADE Cook Off in Amsterdam I immediately said YES.
Cooking can be a challenge, a adventure and I compare it with producing music. You combine ingredients, clean, prepare and cook them together with your creative imagination of art and to finish with seasoning.
I get inspired when I cook and see my friends enjoying it. Cooking takes my stress away.
I wasn’t sure which dish to cook. I love traditional things and food and like to improvise but for that there was not much time. It was my first time ever to cook in front of a jury.
It had to be me, it had to be easy, it had to be tasty, sophisticated and colorful.
Once I came back from a trip I didn’t have many ingredients at home for dinner. I looked around what was left in ‘The Kitchen of Nine’ started experimenting with the things I had and mixed flavors from different countries together and the “Mediteranian Thai Curry“ was born.
I arrived Wednesday, October 16th 2013 at the Kaizer Culinary location in Amsterdam and met my fellow campaigners Seth Troxler, DJ Sneak, Ali Tiefschwarz and Tom Trago. It was very interesting to hear what they all wanted to cook. I thought my dish would be too simple as I didn’t use fancy products and it can be made within 15minutes but nonetheless I was ready for the challenge.
We only had 1,5 hrs time for our dish to be ready.
I usually cook for 3-5 people and when I saw the kitchen accessories and the room with all the chairs for our guests I had to make sure to keep the balance and flavors for each ingredient.
Thai Red Coconut Ocean with Lemongrass flavoured Chicken
Served with White Rice and Baby Pakchoi
was on the menu for the ADE Cook Off.
After checking the grocery bag the main ingredient curry (curry paste) was missing and Cassava was nowhere to be found. Time to improve the dish
Luckily someone ran to the next supermarket and bought some curry spices and a replacement for Cassava.
Here is how it goes:
Clean and cut the veggies and chicken. Cook the whole chicken with a little bit of salt and lemon leaves in water.
Mix the coconut milk together with ginger, lemongrass, salt and spices. Bring it slowly to cook, add Pomodori Tomatoes. Remove the skin, pluck the chicken and mix with the coconut mixture. Cook the rice with lemongrass and 1-2 lemon leaves for the aroma, let rice rest in the oven for some minutes so that the rice is not sticky when you serve on a plate later. Mix chopped red and white onions, champignon, cherry tomatoes, lemon leaves, fresh chilli together with the coconut blend.
Taste and add extra flavors such as curry, spices… if needed. Be careful with the chilli because it will kick in after cooking it for a while. Roast the sesame seeds gold brown and let cool off. Put the Ghee and Pakchoi in a little frying pan and cook for 1-2 minutes. Pakchoi needs to be crunchy.
Usually I serve this dish in a bowl but since my fellow campaigners had reserved their tableware in the beginning of the ADE Cook Off I had to make quick decisions to look nice on the jury table.
My replacement for Cassava was Papadum. I never had prepared Papadum before. I used a wok with oil and tried to make a bowl out of it where I served the rice with the roasted sesame seeds on top.
Quite a hot smoking challenge with burning my hand and getting a free facial steam during this process. But all worked out at the end.
The judge was quite picky, wondering why my tableware was different. I thought that 1 plate would have been enough for the judge to eat from. But all four seemed to be very hungry. After the first bite judge no 1 liked it, judge no 2 loved the presentation, judge no 3 kept eating spoon after spoon, judge no 4 was a tall guy and asked for some more chilli.
I was prepared and had served a little portion of crushed chilli on a lemon leaf on the side of the plate.
He questioned me why I did not spice the whole dish. Well look around there are approximately 30 people who want to eat the same dish, once you spice to much you have to call the fire brigade to extinguish the fire
They loved the flavored rice, the combination with the Papadum and they almost slurped the curry from the plate.
It was a head to head race with Seth Troxler’s dish. I made it to second place and almost won if Mr. Seth Troxler’s wouldn’t have cheated with a dessert
In the end I was really happy since more than 70% of the guests in the room ate my dish. I was running out of rice, veggies and toppings. All my pots were empty and that has put a smile on my face.
Next time I’m prepared.
Enjoy my Mediteranian Curry recipe, tag and tell me how it was on my socials.
This is how it looks.
Here is my original shopping list for the ADE Cook Off.
