I love coconut and ginger and combining the two makes them more delicious.
Now that organic, canned, light coconut milk is readily available in supermarkets, it is so easy to add it to your cooking.
My family loves when I combine western and eastern flavors in one meal.
The Vietnamese Coconut Chicken and Pork is easy to prepare and you probably have most of the ingredients already in your kitchen, a plus for the busy chef.
Making rice in a rice cooker completely eliminates all the guesswork out of making perfect rice.
Before I purchased my Zojurushi Ricemaker, making rice was a gamble. It often came out too hard, too sticky, too clumped.
Now it comes our perfectly every time.
If you love rice and don’t have a rice cooker, buy one now.
You will be amazed at how often and how easy you will be making rice.
Round out your meal with organic ripe tomatoes from the farmer’s market and you have an easy to make and delicious meal that crosses the continents.
Menu
Serves 4
Vietnamese Coconut
Chicken & Pork
Basmati Rice from a Rice Cooker
Tomatoes with Balsamic Drizzle
Vietnamese Coconut Chicken & Pork
Spray oil
3 scallions, cut into 1” pieces
1 large onion, halved and sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 1/2 tblsp. minced fresh ginger
2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tblsp. sugar
2 – 3 oz. boneless pork loin
2 – 3 oz. boneless chicken breast, sliced
1 cup chicken stock
1 tblsp. curry powder
1 tblsp. soy sauce
1 tblsp. fish sauce
4 oz. unsweetened coconut milk
1 carrot, julienned
3 scallions
1 tsp. Wondra
1. In a medium skillet, over medium heat, spray oil. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook, stirring frequently, until ingredients begin to soften.
2. In a container with a lid, combine pepper, sugar, curry powder, soy sauce, fish sauce and Wondra. Add unsweetened coconut milk. Cover and shake to combine.
3. Add the pork and chicken and saute until lightly cooked. Deglaze pan with chicken stock.
4. Add scallions and carrots. Then add coconut mixture and cook over medium heat until sauce thickens.
5. Serve over rice.
Basmati Rice from a Rice Cooker
1 cup Basmati Rice, washed
1 cup homemade chicken stock
Water to cover to proper level
1. Place rice in an electric rice cooker. Add chicken stock and fill with remaining water to the proper level.
2. Cook according to rice maker’s instructions. (On mine, I just press one button and, voila, perfectly cooked rice every time.)
Tomatoes with Balsamic Drizzle
2 ripe organic beef steak tomatoes, cored and sliced in 1/4” slices
Balsamic Drizzle – I like Fini or Roland, available at North Shore Farms
1. Arrange tomato slices on a plate
2. Gently squeeze Balsamic Drizzle on tomatoes. Serve and enjoy.
Alexandra Troy is owner of Culinary Architect Catering, a 33-year old Greenvale-based company, specializing in private, corporate and promotional parties. For more photos and presentation follow Culinary Architect Catering on Facebook.
