Kristin's Cookbook Project

As there was a combined Asian and Middle-Eastern grocery store that has finally opened in the small coastal town where I live, it made it a lot easier for me finding some non-western cooking ingredients that the "regular" grocery stores and supermarkets don't have. One of those things being curry leaves, which meant I could finally make Acehnese Chicken with Curry Leaves from the cookbook named Coconut & Sambal by Lara Lee. While this was perhaps a slightly more complicated and time-consuming recipe, it was still fairly easy to make. Even with A LOT of chili in it, it didn't taste too overpowering spicy hot, but I do enjoy when the food has a kick to it. I can admit I'm more used to Thai, Chinese, and Indian food, so I do enjoy trying something a bit different from time to time, and I'll probably make this one again some time.

I do love a tasty chicken dish, so when I came across a recipe for chicken kebabs in Parwana: Recipes and Stories from an Afghan Kitchen by Durkhanai Ayubi, I wanted to try it. The recipe itself was fairly easy to follow and a rather quick dinner to make too. The sauce was really flavourful, which is always a good thing (can't go wrong with a tasty sauce). The only thing I really missed was perhaps some leafy green salad or something, but that's just me. If you've got picky eaters (kids) who don't like to eat veggies, there's some tomatoes in the sauce, pureed in a blender, so they probably won't notice there's veggies in the sauce. As a small stroke of luck, I found liba bread for £1 a four-pack at the local supermarket last week, which was rather fitting as I planned to make this dish sooner rather than later.

As it's autumn and thus soup season, I looked through my cookbooks and decided I wanted to make a Thai-inspired chicken soup I found in a Norwegian cookbook named "Matmisjon - Ekte mat fra ti matbloggere" edited by Hanne Stensvold. The recipe I used was one of those that's fairly easy to follow, and the only adjustment I needed to do was not using as much stock/water, as I didn't quite have enough room in the pot, but it produced several portions of soup anyway, so it wasn't a big deal really. The soup itself had some warmth and kick to it, as I used both red curry paste and a chopped chili in it, which is rather nice on a cold autumn day. A big bonus is that as it's made from scratch, rather than being one of those soup-mix things, is that it was a bit filling too (I feel that a lot of times, those soup mixes doesn't quite cut it). I dare say this is one of those recipes I'd love to make again.

As I was craving something with a little bit of a kick to it, I decided to make chicken enchiladas with tomato and chili salsa for dinner recently. I found the recipe in the Norwegian cookbook called Trines Mat by Trine Sandberg, and I think it was fairly easy to make. Okay, so we might need to focus a little bit once the tortillas are filled up and needed to be "transported" into the baking dish so it (the tortilla) doesn't fall apart, but that's not a big issue really. I did find the enchiladas both tasty and filling, which is a good thing, and I think the chicken enchiladas could easily be made for Taco Tuesday, or for that matter, the Norwegian "tradition" of Taco Friday.

I do love a good Chinese dish, and as I had some bao buns in the freezer that I wanted to use, I ended up making bao buns with crispy chicken and pickled carrots for dinner today. I found the recipe in a Norwegian cookbook called "Alt Asiatisk 2" by Elisabeth Le and I found it fairly easy, especially as I had both the bao buns and the sriracha mayo already, so I didn't need to make those things. Making the crispy chicken and pickled carrots were fairly easy in my opinion and the directions made it even more easy. Fair enough, I doubt I would last long working in a kitchen based on presentation and such, but the food was overall good I think. I also made use of some lettuce from my garden, just to have some more veggies.

Recently, I had some chicken I wanted to use, so I went through some of my cookbook and wanted to try Chicken Cilantro from The Kitchen Without Borders cookbook. It was a fairly easy recipe to follow with the added bonus of some veggies to make it a little bit more nutitious. I've been a bit wary of cilantro, as some feel it tastes like soap (if I remember correctly, it's a gene thing or something), but it turned out I actually liked cilantro once I tried it. Oh, by the way, the cookbook itself is worth checking out, as it has roughly 70 authentic recipes from immigrant and refugee chefs. I've tried a few recipes before starting this blog, including the Cake Baklava, and it's a fun cookbook.

As I've been a bit busy, I've totally forgotten to write a blog post, but last week I made a chicken stir-fry with green veggies and I used a recipe from a Norwegian cookbook called "Vidunderlig kinesisk" (roughly translated as Wonderful Chinese). I had to visit an Asian grocery store to get my hands on Chinese five spice for the recipe, as the regular grocery stores and supermarkets didn't have it, but then I had an excuse to actually visit an Asian grocery store, which is always a bit fun. The recipe was fairly easy to follow and the end result tasted really good in my opinion. I've also fallen a bit in love with Chinese five spice as a result and I'm now in search of more recipes containing that spice blend. I think it's one of those spice blends that gives a bit of warmth to a dish in a sense and I bet it tastes really good on a cold autumn day. It's also highly likely that I'll make this recipe again some time. One can't go wrong with...

Alright, it took a while before I got into gear and actually started writing more blog posts for this blog and I'm sorry about that. Anyway, earlier this week I ended up making Chicken Satay from scratch, thanks to a recipe I found in a Norwegian cookbook called Alt Asiatisk 2 - Enkelt, raskt og godt by Elisabeth Le. She also writes the food blog called  Alt Asiatisk , so if you understand Norwegian and enjoy various types of Asian cuisine, it's worth checking out. As I didn't have any skewers, I couldn't put the pieces of chicken on those, but it made making this dish a bit less of a hassle in one way. Personally, I found the recipe fairly easy overall and most, if not all, ingredients could be found at either a regular grocery store or at least a well stocked supermarket, which is always a bit neat. Regardless, the end result was really tasty and I'm sure I'll make it again some time. The only thing is that one need to plan a bit ahead, as the chicken needs to...