Thai mince part 3 – lab moo experiment

Serves 1

15-20 mins

Rating – Very damn hot

Ingredients

150g mince

½ lime

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 tsp palm sugar

2 birdseye chillies

Ginger  

Splash of soy sauce

Green beans 100g –ish

2-3 Celery sticks

Natural yoghurt

My recipe

This was a further experiment with the lab moo recipe which, please note I don’t think I have posted parts one and two yet so do not look for them.

I put a small lump of mince in the freezer for a snack size portion so I’m afraid I don’t know the exact amount but am guessing it’s about 150g.  I took a good picture of it so hopefully that will help. 

A nice dollop of natural yoghurt goes really well to ease the taste of the hot chilli and some healthy celery sticks to spoon it all up.

You will see on the picture I added some tomato but it just ended up totally evaporating.  

The Thais normally make this with minced pork.  Some basic ingredients like the chillies, ginger, lime, palm sugar and fish sauce make the tasty basis, other than that you can try adding whatever.  

If you search for lab moo on google you will find a couple of different Thai recipes.

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Chop all your ingredients.

Fry off the mince and then drain away the fat; this is important for this recipe as the end result is just the mince and flavours, there is no sauce.

I use ginger from the freezer and just grate some in.

Add the green beans, fish sauce, chilli, palm sugar and soy sauce.

It shouldn’t take very long; I’d say another 10 mins after the fat is drained.

At the end, squeeze in your lime then give it a taste. 

I always find this bit difficult as I am not a chef so I can never work out what it needs. 

Usually with this one, it’s either not hot enough, because with lab moo chillis are a massive part, I like it really bloody hot, hence the yoghurt. 

If it’s too hot add more sugar and lime. 

If it’s not hot enough and it’s too sweet, more chilli.

As I say all the time with chilli, best to add gradually because you can always add more but once they are in, they are in.  Not everyone enjoys a burnt mouth.  A good hot dish though means guzzling more wine J me likey.

When you are happy (hopefully) with how it tastes, decorate the plate with the celery and a nice dump of yoghurt.

Happy lab moo-ing.

Enjoy     

Spaghetti with spicy bacon

200g spaghetti

6 slices of bacon

1 onion finely chopped 

1 garlic clove (pestle and mortar)

150-200g mushrooms

1-2 birdseye chillis

Jar of pasta sauce

Handful coriander

Cheese to finish (cheddar or parmesan) 

Garlic bread optional

Grated carrot optional

Serves 3-4

Prep time 10 mins

Cooking time 25 mins

I saw this recipe somewhere years ago but I’ve added some bits of my own.  It’s just a quick, easy one I have always remembered how to cook. 

Prep everything and then get the pasta going.

Fry the onions in a large pan with oil.  Add the bacon, garlic and chilli and cook for 1 or 2 mins.

Add the mushrooms and sauce and cook for around 15-20 mins.

Check how long your garlic bread takes.

Drain the pasta and gradually add to the sauce pan.

Serve with a sprinkle of coriander and grated cheese (and the garlic bread if you’re hungry). 

These aren’t the best pics, I grated some carrot on this occasion and sprinkled around the plate. 

You could try adding a bit of chopped carrot into the mix if you prefer or try celery.   I make this dish a lot, so just a few ideas to make it different.

Another quick and easy one to do similar to this is sausage pasta.  Swap the spaghetti for shells and use either Mattessons horse shoe sausage or frankfurters and I’d probably swap the mushrooms to peppers.

Enjoy

Slow cooked spicy sausages

Ingredients

1 garlic clove 

1 onion

6 or 7 sausages

150g mushrooms

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 or 2 (hot) birdseye chillis

Handful parsley

Gather all your ingredients to the chopping board.

Slice the garlic or crush in a pestle and mortar if you prefer.

Slice the onions in semi circles or however you want them.

Chop and prep the other ingredients.

I chop the mushrooms up really small.

Get a decent sized oven dish and put the raw sausages in.

Cover with the tomatoes, chilli, garlic, onion, parsley and mushrooms; add salt and pepper.

Spread the ingredients around equally. 

Cover with foil and cook on a low heat (150 degrees) for 2 to 3 hours. 

I keep a check on it to see whether the oven needs turning up or down to make sure they are not cooking too fast as I have made this up so it is just guess work.  The idea is to get a really slow cooked effect so if you’ve a slow cooker try it in there. 

I love sausages when they are soft and the skin isn’t toughened.  Any sausages will do I just use the thick Richmond ones.      

To accompany the sausages try cooking new potatoes then tossing them in oil and finish them off in the oven about 180 degrees for 10 mins to crisp them up. 

Today I have made home cooked roast potatoes.

I peeled 5 large Maris Pipers and cut them in half and part boiled them for about 10 mins in salted water. 

After draining the water I poured them back into the pan and gave the pan a good shake fluffing up the potatoes.  You can do this by using a fork but this way is quicker. 

Using some cheap sunflower oil put quite a few glugs into a large roasting dish and heat for a min or 2 in the oven about 190.  Add the potatoes.  They will take around 45 mins but you need to get them out every 10-15 mins to make sure they don’t stick to the bottom and using a spoon gather the oil and spoon it over the potatoes.  Do this a couple of times throughout cooking. 

If you’re hungry some nice warm bread goes well with this dish and olives to start with.

I made this for the first time for my boyfriend’s family as a Spanish themed meal, it is my own creation. 

We had olives, hot bread with oli oli which is garlic mayo, extremely popular in Spain.

To make Oli Oli I just crushed a load of garlic as small as I could and mixed with normal 

Hellmans mayo, or for extra garlicy do this with a garlic mayo.  It might sound naff but try it on some nice bread its lovely. 

I also made Spanish lemon chicken but I will post this another time.    

I insist this be served with wine.

Enjoy 

Spicy Tuna with Tomato and Rice

Ingredients

2 tins of tuna (John West in Brine)

Tin of chopped tomatoes

1 onion chopped  

½ tin sweetcorn (small)

Ghost pepper sauce or birdseye chilli’s

1 cup rice

This is a really quick, cheap, tasty, simple recipe that my friend taught me how to cook about 10 years ago. 

After you have chopped the onion combine this with the tuna, tomatoes and sweetcorn.

Turn on the rice and the two should be ready about the same time. 

When it’s nearly ready I add a drop of ghost pepper sauce.   If you have never used ghost pepper sauce, I mean a drop - it’s very hot. 

If you prefer using fresh chilli add this at the beginning.

Of course do it without the sauce /chilli’s if you prefer it plain. 

Enjoy