caramel

satisfied with the lemongrass pork but craving more south-east asian flavors, i turned to a couple recipes that i've always enjoyed in the past. first up, chicken simmered in a caramel sauce. this is traditionally cooked in a clay pot, but works reasonably well in regular cookware. you start by making caramel sauce, a staple ingredient in vietnamese cooking. nothing crazy here, just sugar, water, and a watchful eye. you start with a cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of water, stirred for the first two minutes over medium low heat, and then left to cook for 20-30 minutes (depending on what you consider medium low). you're looking for your caramel to go from opaque to gold, orange, red and eventually a coffee/molasses color. at this point the caramel will be smoking a bit and you want to stop the cooking by lowering the pot into a sink full of water.

Once you've cooled your pot in water, add another 1/2 cup of water and reheat to disolve the caramel over a medium flame. the caramel will darken a bit more until you have a rather dark, slightly bitter (but not burnt!) flavor. poor into a container once cooled and use as necessary! 

so... with caramel in hand, chicken simmered in caramel sauce is very easy. take about a pound of cut up boneless chicken thighs, and mix with a two inch knob of ginger, sliced thinly and bruised up with the back of the knife, one clove of garlic, two tablespoon of fish sauce and a tablespoon of water. Cook the whole thing in a covered pot for 10 minutes over a medium flame, take the lid off and cook for anther 5 minutes. let it rest a bit and serve! see easy :) 

I also put together a little green mango salad. the green mango - available at your local asian market - can be cut up with a simple cheese grater or with a knife and veggie peeler. the dressing includes fish sauce (1.5 tbls), juice of lime (1), chili (1 serano), garlic (1 clove), agave syrup (1.5tbls) and small dried shrimp (1 tbls). add in some cherry tomatoes, couple green beans, and top off with some peanuts (the last two omitted today unfortunately) and you've got a pretty traditional thai green mango salad. yum!