Thai fish curry and easy mango ice cream (serves 4)

This meal will impress, but takes little effort.  The thai fish curry is basically a case of putting (quite a lot of) ingredients in a blender and wizzing them up to make a sauce, then cooking the vegetables and fish in it.  You could use any fish, but I used haddock.  You can taste the lovely thai flavours in the moderately spicy sauce.  The creamy, delicate, refreshing ice cream/sorbet (a cross between the two) involves putting everything in to a blender and then in a tub to freeze.  It’s the first time I’ve made ice cream and it was so simple!  I think it would have been even better served with some sliced mango and a couple of mint leaves on top, or perhaps some flaked coconut.  Make sure you stir the coconut milk before you add it as it tends to seperate in the can.  A link to the delectable looking thai cooking website that the recipes are from is at the end of this blog.   This meal is best accompanied by an icy beer.

Thai fish curry (15 mins prep/20 mins cooking)

Curry sauce

Large handful of coriander, chopped

1 can coconut milk

2 red onions, chopped

1 thumb-size piece ginger, grated

3 cloves garlic

2 tbsp fish sauce (available in Supermarkets)

1 tsp hot chilli powder

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp brown sugar (or more to taste)

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 small red chilli

Curry ingredients

3-4 fillets of fresh or frozen fish, any kind but haddock works well

8 mushrooms, chopped

1 red pepper, finely chopped

1 medium tomato, finely chopped

Handful of fresh coriander

Juice of 1 lime

Optional (but advised!): 2-3 kaffir lime leaves, left whole (available in Supermarkets)

Rice, any kind

Place all ‘thai curry sauce’ ingredients in a food processor or blender. Process well to form a smooth curry sauce.  Pour the sauce into a wok (or large frying pan) and place over a medium to high heat. If you have kaffir lime leaves, add them too. Bring to the boil.  Add the fish, mushrooms, and red pepper. Stir well. Reduce heat to medium-high, or until it is simmering nicely. Cook 6-8 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and gently stir in. Continue simmering for another 2-3 minutes.  Do a taste test for salt and sweetness, adding more fish sauce (instead of salt) until salty enough. If too sour for your taste, add a little more sugar.

Serve on top of the rice and sprinkle fresh coriander on top.

Easy mango ice cream (15 mins prep plus 8 + hours freezing)

2 fresh ripe mangos

90 grams of caster sugar

3 tbsp coconut milk

1 tsp lemon juice

1 small container whipping cream (about 1 cup)

Slice the mangos open and scoop out all of the fruit from the skins, including the fruit around the stone.  Place the fruit in a food processor or blender. Add the sugar and blitz for 1 minute, or until the sugar has dissolved and you are left with a delicious mango puree.  Add the coconut milk and lemon juice, and briefly blitz to combine for a few seconds.

Pour the mango puree into a bowl or container while you continue to use your processor/blender. Now pour the whipping cream into the processor/blender. Blitz until the cream forms stiff peaks, or is quite stiff (not runny) when dipped into with your finger.  Add the mango puree to the whipped cream and blitz 5-10 seconds, or until you get a good mango-cream consistency.

Pour into a large tub and place in the freezer. Allow to freeze at least 6 hours, preferably 8.  Serve the mango ice cream in bowls, or scoop into ice cream cones for kids. To make scooping easier, take the sorbet out of the freezer at least 20 minutes ahead of time.  Top with sliced mango and mint or flaked coconut if you wish!

Both recipes are from this great website:

http://thaifood.about.com/

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