Jim on Food: Thai Chicken & Kiwi Curry

INGREDIENTS (in order of appearance):

Olive Oil

Crackling Whole Spices: Black Peppercorns, Cumin Seeds, Cardamom Pods, Star Anise

Soya Beans

Celery

Kiwi Fruit

Courgette

Mushrooms

Green Bell Pepper

Powdered Spices: Chilli, Curry, Garam Masala, Coriander

Kale

Skimmed Milk

Cooked Chicken

Result: Positive

These recipes will be very casual, without exact measurements or anything, as I’m really doing this for my own amusement and am certainly no professional cook or dietitian. As mentioned in my introductory post, I’m just a diabetic loser trying to cut down on his carbohydrate intake, with this series of posts attempting to carve some fun and creativity out of these dire circumstances.

I thought I’d go relatively-simple to start off with. I’m no stranger to curries or a stir-fry, with this being a little bit of both. I’ve given it the prefix: “Thai”, as its eventual-wateriness reminded me of a Red/Green Curry that you’d find in any reputable, erm, Chinese restaurant.

Close enough, I guess.

My fear with this recipe was that it’d end up a formless, tasteless mush, which it certainly did not. In fact, there were a few surprises along the way.

I can’t state this clearly enough: I do not like celery or courgette. The former creeping me out with its fibrous flesh and peppery tang, and the latter usually encountered as pathetic blobs in mother’s terrible stews growing up. However, as an onion substitute, the celery mercifully softened up and vanished, whilst the courgette miraculously kept its form, even serving as a credible alternative to potato.

After crackling the whole spices, the soya beans kinda had to go in next, due to my supermarket only having the frozen variety. The kiwi fruit, which I only know as an ice cream garnish, was easy to peal and chop. It’s a resilient little fruit, which was another surprise, as I genuinely expected it to disintegrate completely. But, no, it was a unique addition and made up for my deciding to cut garlic out of my life.

I’m not sure I needed the mushrooms, but I really was worried the dish wouldn’t have any body to it. They did their job admirably. As did the green bell pepper, which provided crunch. I’m not a red pepper person, I’m afraid. It’s nothing personal against the reds, I just prefer the bitterness of the greens. 

The milk was skimmed moo-cow milk, but I will be swapping over to soya and almond milk in the future. I just needed to finish the carton off first. Changing your diet involves a lot of fridge/cupboard emptying. I would usually allow the milk to sit longer in the pan, so as to burn off some of its moisture, but I wanted the vegetables to retain their body as much as possible. I often add porridge oats to curries should they be a little watery, but leaving it Thai-style-watery was just fine.

I don’t know what to think about kale. Perhaps no-one does. It didn’t wilt like spinach though, even adding extra bite to the dish. I’ll be adding it to most dishes, to be honest, so I better start liking it quick.

You’ll notice I didn’t include fresh chillies, but there was a practical reason for this. Simply put, I needed all the free space I could int he fridge to try out all these new foodstuffs. I’m a big fan of fresh chillies, usually adding them to meals by the handful, but there simply wasn’t the room for any this week.

I used pre-cooked sandwich chicken instead of fresh stuff, as a) I wasn’t sure I was even going to add meat and b) I just didn’t want to complicate matters by worrying about the dangers of handling fresh meat. I do have some diced chicken in the freezer though, so I’ll be using that soon enough. I also need to research whether I need to drop meat altogether, but hey-ho.

 

While I no longer can, I would obviously recommend serving this with rice. Saying that, I have something I want to try out as a substitute, so more on that in a later post!

So, there you have it, my first attempt at a low-carb dinner. I’ve made stuff like this before, mind you, but this time the motivation came from a different place. It was difficult breaking my habit of reaching for the garlic and soy/fish sauce, but what can you do. This is my life now, unless one of you wishes to run out and cure diabetes for me.

Get on that, before I lose what little will I have left.

Do stay in touch, darlings.

Toodles!