Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Thai Chicken and Rice


Sometimes I stray from the recipes as written in my cookbooks.  I often times will use the recipe as inspiration only, and make changes according to what I have on hand, or add and subtract ingredients according to my (or my family's) tastes. 

I haven't always been this way.  I used to always make a recipe strictly as written once, and then adjust after I'd tasted it the way the author/creator/cook/etc had intended.  This is something that would occasionally irritate my husband.  He's pretty good cook himself, and has his hand in most of the recipes on here - whether its cutting vegetables for the prep work (his favorite job, I think), doing the dishes (his 2nd favorite job, I think), helping to come up with ideas, or some other task; we generally work as a team.  He would see a recipe and want to change it right away, because well...you never know how long it will be before we get to making that particular recipe again.  Over time, I've realized that he was right.  (I'm secure in myself, and my relationship...I have no problem admitting that he was right.  Heck, it had to happen sometime.)

Problem is: it doesn't always work out as planned/hoped.  This Thai Chicken was good.  But not great.  Definately not geat. It was lacking in...well, flavor. I have ideas though; ideas that will make it better.

First off, I used chicken, because that was what we had, when the recipe called for beef.  I'll use beef next time.  Then, I think I'd kick every spice up by about 1/2, at least.  And swap out the little bit of cayenne pepper with a hearty scoop of chili paste.  I might add some lemon juice to add a little bit of tartness. 

Now I'm anxious to try this recipe again, and this time to get it right.

I'm not posting a recipe here.  I don't want you to make this.  Not until I try again and make it better.  But I do want this blog to be honest.  And honestly, not everything is great and perfect.  But, I'll keep trying, and keep getting better.

No comments:

Post a Comment