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Until I got this recipe book, Thai Food by Davd Thompson, I thought the name of the dish was Pad Thai. Oh well.  My eldest A has requested this for her special birthday dinner.  I have never made it before but know plenty of people who have ordered it.  That is always a good start.

Ingredients

a good handful of dried thin rice noodles
1 tablespoon palm sugar
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 tablespoon tamarind water
2 tablespoon fish sauce
1 small bunch Chinese chives
1 teaspoon oil
2 red shallots, coarsely chopped with a pinch of salt
1 egg
100 grams shredded chicken
1 tablespoon shredded radish
pinch of roasted chilli powder
handful of bean sprouts
1 tablespoon crushed roasted peanuts
1 lime wedge
extra 1 teaspoon roasted chilli powder

Method

Soak noodles in water for 2 hours until soft.  Drain.  Simmer palm sugar and white sugar with tamarind water and fish sauce for 1-2 minutes, until dissolved.  Chop most of the chinese chives into 2cm lengths, reserving a few, chopped into 5cm lengths for garnish.

Heat oil in a wok over a medium heat and fry shallots until fragrant  and begining to colour.  Crack in an egg, turn downt he heat and stir.  Mix in the chicken, (prawns if using)  and radish, then add noodles.  Turn up the heat and stir-fry for about a minute, allowing the noodles to colour a little.  Add the prepared sauce and the pinch of chilli powder then simmer for another 30 seconds – 1 minute, adding a little more oil if necessary.  Finally, add most of the bean sprouts and the chinese chives and cook for another 30 seconds until wilted.  Check the seasoning.  The dish should be sweet, sour and salty.

Pile on a plate and top with reserved bean sprouts and Chinese chives.  Serve with crushed roasted peanuts, a lime wedge nd roasted chilli powder ont he side of the plate.

Chicken would have to be the most under-rated weapon in the arsenal of the Once A Month Cook.  And inside that chicken is the chicken frame which often gets tossed.  Shame I say to waste what is a natural and even national resource.

If you investigate food and in particular you look at chicken stock, you will see that there is very little chicken involved in the process.  It is chicken flavoured but a lot of the commercial stock, which I do occassionally end up using and they are adequate, are actually based on cereal.  That is how they make them fat free.

I was considering chicken the other day after a shopping experience and I will have to look into this further.  But I bought some good sized chicken breasts, all nicely laid out on a tray.  About $8 for the pair which considering the size and the amount of chicken was about what I expected to pay.  In the frozen section I bought 2 frozen chickens for $8.68 weighing about 1.6 kilo.  This was a much better buy because not only did I get a similar amount of breast meat but I will also get two drumsticks, two thighs and the chicken frame.  I also have a choice, either I butcher the chicken down, roast it whole, roast it in halfs, or roast and freeze cooked.  That will be another article about freezing whole rosated chicken.

If and when I get serious about the whole Once A Month Cooking process, one of the things I will do is look at buying and butchering half a dozen whole chickens and cost out the savings.  A big up front investment but also a big dollarwise return.  It should take maybe three or four minutes to butcher a chicken so maybe half an hours effort.

This article, however, is about the remains of that chicken and how to still wring some magic out of the wasted bones.  The frame is also suitable for freezing for another day until you are ready to make a big batch of stock.

I like to crunch the bones up with a big heavy knife.    Just crack the bones enough so that later on when you are boiling the frame the flavour of the marrow comes through as well as the natural gelatine.

On a heavy baking sheet, roast the bones at 180°C until brown and starting to smell delicious, then pull from the oven.  Add to a stockpot and cover with cold water.  Bring to the boil and then reduce to a medium simmer for around 20 minutes.  Remove from the heat and strain into a large bowl.  Cool, then store in the fridge for a couple of hours. The gelatine will lift the fat to the top which can be skimmed off and discarded.

You may notice in the above instructions that there is no onion, celery, carrots or anything else.  I am not convinced you always need it.  You can add these things if you wish but often you dont need to.  It depends on your application.  Sometimes for a really luxurious vegetable soup I will roast vegetables like the onion and the carrot and maybe some garlic along with the boils and boil them down.  Usually I dont find it necessary to do this.

Back to the stock.  At this point it is reasonably fat free and ready to go.  It will keep for a few days in the fridge or you can freeze it.  Another option is to dehydrate it a litle more, especially if you are short of freezer space.  The main component of the stock now is water and you can intensify the flavour and reduce the volume by gently simmering the stock down and down.  I might reduce the volume to a quarter of its original and willthen rechill and prepare it for freezing by bagging it into 1 cup measurements and writing on the bag, for 1 litre stocks add 3 cups water.

As a rule of thumb, one chicken should make about 1 to 1.5 litres of stock.  That is a great base for soups, and soups are a great way to increase vegetable intake in kids and they are super easy to make and last for a week in the fridge.

This is a wonderfully filling and pungent salad.  As a variation, try adding a squeeze of lime juice and mixing  the dressing ingredients.  Add to a zip-lock bag and add in a couple of chicken breasts.  Allow to marinate for 30 minutes then remove the breasts and place in a roasting dish.  Pour over the marinade and cook for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.  Serve with the salad as listed below.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon bran oil
250 grams scotch fillet
1 red onion thinly sliced
8 cherry tomatoes
mixed salad greens

Dressing
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander leaves
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoon chopped fresh chilli

Method

Heat oil and frying pan.  Fry the steak for 2 minutes each side.  Rest and when cool slice thinly.  Reserve.

To prepare the dressing:  Whisk all the ingredients for the dressing together.  Toss through meat, onions and tomatoes.

Arrange the slad greens on the plates, top with the beef mixture and serve with warm jasmine rice.