Coconut Lemongrass Cream Sauce Food

VIETNAMESE COCONUT LEMONGRASS CHICKEN

Steps:

• Melt the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the half the onion and all the garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until both begin to soften, about 7 minutes. Add the salt (if using), black pepper, sugar, chopped ginger and chicken. Cook over medium-high heat until the sugar melts and the onion mixture and chicken begin to brown, about 15 minutes.
• Add the remaining onion, the chili peppers, lemon grass, curry powder, soy sauce, fish sauce and coconut milk. Stir, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and cook until the chicken is no longer pink at the center, about 10 minutes. Remove the lid and simmer (adjusting the heat if necessary) until the sauce thickens and the chicken is tender, about 10 minutes more.
• Serve warm garnished with coconut shavings if desired. This dish tastes even better the next day!

COCONUT GREEN CURRY SAUCE

Steps:

• Peel gingerroot and finely chop. Discard outer leaf from lemongrass and trim root end. Thinly slice lower 8 inches of stalk and in a 2- to 3-quart saucepan combine with gingerroot and mirin. Boil mixture until mirin is reduced to about 3 tablespoons. Add white wine and boil until liquid is reduced to about 1/4 cup. Add coconut milk and cream and boil, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly. Pour sauce through a fine sieve into a bowl and stir in curry paste. Season sauce with salt and pepper. Sauce may be made 2 days ahead and chilled, covered. Reheat sauce before serving.

STEAMED SHRIMP WITH LEMONGRASS-COCONUT SAUCE

Steps:

• Trim the ends from the lemongrass, then bruise one of the stalks all over with the back of a knife. Cut it in half and put the halves in the bottom of a saucepan with the nam pla. Squeeze the juice of one of the limes into the pot, then throw the lime halves in there. Top with the shrimp, cover tightly, and turn the heat to medium-high. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the shrimp are pink and firm. Remove the shrimp and chill.
• Remove the hard outer layers from the remaining lemongrass stalk and mince the tender core; you won't get much more than a teaspoon or two. Combine this with the chile, coconut milk, sugar, and saffron in a small saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is a uniform yellow. Remove the chile and chill. Cut the remaining lime into wedges.
• Taste the sauce and add a little salt if necessary. Serve the cold shrimp topped with the cold sauce and accompanied by lime wedges.
• Coconut Milk
• Although canned coconut milk is perfectly convenient, making coconut milk at home is easy and will contain no preservatives: Combine 2 cups of water and 2 cups dried unsweetened shredded or grated coconut in a blender. Use a towel to hold the lid on tightly and turn the switch on and off a few times quickly to get the mixture going. Then blend for about 30 seconds. Let rest for 10 minutes. Pour the milk through a strainer. This will be fairly thick. If you need more milk, just pour additional water through the coconut, up to another cup or two. Press the coconut to extract as much liquid as possible. Use immediately or freeze indefinitely.
• Shrimp
• Almost all shrimp are frozen before sale. So unless you're in a hurry, you might as well buy them frozen and defrost them yourself; this will guarantee you that they are defrosted just before you cook them, therefore retaining peak quality.
• There are no universal standards for shrimp size; large and medium don't mean much. Therefore, it pays to learn to judge shrimp size by the number per pound, as retailers do. Shrimp labeled 16/20, for example, contain sixteen to twenty per pound; those labeled U-20 require fewer (under) twenty to make a pound. Shrimp from fifteen to about thirty per pound usually give the best combination of flavor, ease (peeling tiny shrimp is a nuisance), and value (really big shrimp usually cost more than $15 a pound).
• On deveining: I don't. You can, if you like, but it's a thankless task, and there isn't one person in a hundred who could blind-taste the difference between shrimp that have and have not been deveined.

COCONUT LEMONGRASS CHICKEN

Steps:

• Melt butter in a large skillet on medium heat.
• Add half the onion and all of the garlic and cook, until they both begin to soften, about 7 minutes, stirring frequently.
• Add salt, pepper, sugar, ginger and chicken.
• Cook until the sugar melts and chicken begins to brown, approximately 15 minutes.
• Add the rest of the onion, chile peppers, lemon grass, curry powder, soy sauce, fish sauce (or Worcestershire sauce), and the coconut milk.
• Stir, lower heat to medium-low and cover.
• Cook until the chicken is no longer pink in the middle, about 10 minutes.
• Remove lid and simmer until the sauce thickens and the chicken is tender, about 10 more minutes.
• Serve warm over a bed of rice noodles, or whatever plain starch you prefer.

CHICKEN WITH LEMONGRASS & COCONUT

Steps:

• Tip all the ingredients except the chicken, lime juice and herbs into a pan, bring to a gentle simmer and cook uncovered at a relaxed bubble for 5 minutes.
• Add the chicken, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, until the chicken is tender. Stir in the lime juice, then scatter over the herbs before serving with rice.