Oriental Food Shop

Ingredients

1kg pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled and diced

2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste

1 can of coconut milk

Handful of coriander leaves, coarsely chopped

Method

Fry the squash with the red curry paste for 2 minutes. Add the coconut milk and enough water to cover the squash. Bring to the boil and simmer until the squash is tender.

Mash or puree the soup - a food processor or hand blender makes this easy.

Balance the seasoning (you should not need to add salt, the curry paste contains enough). Sprinkle with coriander leaves and serve.

Ingredients

2 cups jasmine rice, rinsed

1 can coconut milk

1½ cups cold water

Juice of 2 limes (optional)

Method

Place the washed rice into a saucepan. Mix the coconut milk and water together and add to the rice. Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. Cover with saucepan lid, and simmer the rice for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat, leaving the lid on, and rest for 10 minutes.

Gently stir through the lime juice.

You can also use a rice cooker to prepare the rice; mix coconut milk and water together, add to rice and cook in the usual way.

If you have cooked with fresh chillies, you will be familiar with problem of chilli juice remaining on your hands even if you wash repeatedly with soap and water. This substance which gives chillies their heat is called "capsaicin" and if you accidentally touch your face, eyes or other sensitive parts with chilli on your hands, it can be most painful!

There is a simple solution though; pour half a tablespoon of olive oil onto dry hands, and massage well into your palms and fingers. Then simply wash away the oil with soap and warm water.

This works because capsaicin dissolves readily in olive oil, which washes away with the soap and water.

Problem solved!

If you have recipe ideas, tips, suggestions or questions we would love to hear from you: please send us an email or use the Contact Us form.

Although we sell Sweet and Sauce ready-made, we are sometimes asked for an authentic recipe. You need to remember the formula 2-2-1-1:

Ingredients

2 parts sugar (sweet)

2 parts rice vinegar (sour)

1 part light soy sauce (flavour)

1 part tomato ketchup (colour, flavour)

and some water (or pineapple juice)

So for example you could use either tablespoons or cups to measure the above, depending upon how much sauce you want to make.

Method

Combine the ingredients together in a saucepan and bring to the boil, simmer for 2 minutes. You may need to add a little bit more of water to adjust the thickness. If you want a thicker sauce, then mix a teaspoon of cornflour or potato flour with cold water and add to the sauce, and simmer for another 2 minutes.

To make Cantonese style sweet and sour chicken, first cut 500g of chicken breast into 2cm pieces and fry in a little oil until brown. Add a chopped red or green bell pepper and stir fry until the chicken is cooked through. Remove from the pan, and make up the sweet and sour souce as above in the same pan. Add a small tin of drained pineapple chunks, and return the chicken & peppers to the pan to heat through. Serve.