Break the monotony!

Monotony in the kitchen is a terrible thing, especially when your food becomes more of a habit than a way of enjoyment to you. Most of the people, at some point in their lives, experience this phenomenon that whatever they eat, tastes more or less the same.

I am sure, nobody likes boredom with food. What I usually do to relieve this is that I completely shuffle my flavours around, try different and unsual recipes and thus try to change my food choices. Believe me, change can be a good thing! Also in the kitchen! You will either like your new selection or itll make you convince of your old eating habits once again:) Whatever food choice you end up with, important is that you also enjoy it and that you are open to try new things.

Coconut Peanut Butter Chicken with Parsley Orange Rice
 
 
Ingredients:

8 chicken pieces, deboned and cut into strips (you can ask your butcher to do that for you)
1 tsp garlic paste
150 ml chicken broth
3 tbs coconut powder
1/2 cup fresh cream
1 tbs oil
4 tbs peanut butter
zest and juice of a lemon
salt , white pepper and cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cups string beans (phaliyan) blanched in boiling water with 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp lemon juice
2 spring onions
cashews (optional)
 

Blanch the string beans.

Heat oil in a pan, add the chicken pieces and the garlic paste. Fry until the chicken starts changing its colour, add salt. Also add coconut and the blanched string beans. (In the picture, you can see cayenne pepper as well, I would recommend mixing it in the cream later as adding it at this stage makes it really hot).

In a bowl take the broth. Mix with cream, coconut, peanut butter, zest and juice of the lemon and white pepper. 

Into the chicken, add spring onions (cut in rings) and the liquid mixture. Mix well and add cayenne pepper as well. 

Pepare the rice by:

boiling rice in salted water till almost done. Strain and toss in 2 tbs oil, 1/2 cup parsley, 1/2 tsp garlic paste (optional), crushed white pepper and orange zest. Cover with a tight lid and place on very low heat for 5 minutes. Serve hot....

I know, I know...you are expecting me to share the secret of this hand mould as well as the butterfly garnish. Its very simple. Ive used my son´s sand toy (obviously new) for serving rice this way. And here is a photo of the orange butterfly:

 
Thinly slice the orange. Cut out two portions (opposite to each other), giving it a butterfly look. To make antennae, use two strips of orange peel. You can also make these butterflies using lemon/lime.