I took my lovely girlfriend to Bahn Thai restaurant in Cullen Bay for Valentine’s Day. It was my first time and I was quite impressed. Lovely decor and ambience with soft traditional Thai music playing in the background. I quite enjoyed the food, a step up from the fare you get at the take-away Bahn Thai’s.

We ate:

• steamed dim sims
• steamed vegetables with peanut sauce
• fried chicken strips with cashew nuts and
• chu chee barramundi (fish)

My favourite was the chu chee, the sauce was absolutely divine and the barramundi was excellent; it’s my favourite eating fish by far and the chef did it justice.

The dim sims were very tender and yummy, the steamed vegetables could have been cooked a bit longer and the fried chicken got a bit on the tough side after a few helpings.

I’ll be back again for sure.

You can find Bahn Thai at:
62 Marina Boulevard
Cullen Bay, NT 0820
08 8941 5111

Just don’t confuse it with the take-aways at Hibiscus and Palmerston shopping centres.

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I picked up a cool Japanese yoshoku (Japanese food with a western twise) cookbook on special for $9.99 at the bookstore yesterday. Quite a score if you ask me. After reading it I discovered there weren’t a whole lot of recipes in it (compared to some of my other books anyway), however the photos are rather gorgeous which we all know makes the food at least 10 times more delicious.

First recipe I decided to try from the book was caramel chicken. It’s sweet with a hint of sourness and hotness from the chilli. That equals yummo in my book.

Preparation time: 3 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Makes four small servings

Ingredients

• 1tbs vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced lengthways
• 2 small red chillies, seeded and sliced thinly
• 4 x chicken thigh cutlets or 4 x 150g chicken breast fillets, skin on
• 60ml (1/4 cup) rice wine vinegar
• 60ml (1/4 cup) mirin
• 60ml (1/4 cup) water
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar (normal sugar seems to work nicely too)
• 1/8 teaspoon dashi powder
• 2 teaspoons soya sauce
• 4 shiso leaves, finely shredded (substitute with basil if you can’t find it, which is what I did. I reckon you could even leave out this bit all together)

Method

1. Heat the vegetable and sesame oils in a large frying pan over low heat. Add the garlic and chilli and stir fry until the garlic is evenly golden (about 2 - 3 minutes). Remove and set aside.
2. Increase the heat to medium high and place chicken, skin side down, in the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes. Turn over and cook for a further 3-4 minutes, or until just cooked through. Remove and set aside.
3. Combine the rice wine vinegar, mirin, sugar, dashi powder and soya sauce with 60ml water and slowly add to the pan. Stir to dissolve the sugar, then add the garlc and chilli. Bring to the boil and cook for 3-5 minutes or until the sauce thickens and has a nice glaze to it.
4. Return chicken to the pan and add the shredded shiso, coat the chicken well with the sauce. Place the chicken on a serving plate, drizzling with any sauce left over from the pan.

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Ooooooooh! What do we have here? Udon noodles in soy broth! Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of this dish as the soy broth is devine. I”m no expert on Japanese food having just started eating the stuff, but I’d say I did a pretty good job of this. Topped with my now perfected teriyaki chicken and you have a quick, tasty, filling, satisfying, healthy and cheap dinner. Have I missed any adjectives? No, I believe that will suffice for now.

This will definitely go on my regular recipies list from this point forth, as it should yours! Enough babbling - on with the recipe!!!

Preparation time: 1 minute
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4 light servings

Ingredients

• 1.5 litres dashi
• 3 spring onions, two cut into 4cm lenghts, 1slice thinly
• 60ml (1/4 cup) mirin
• 60ml (1/4 cup) Japanese soya sauce
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 400 udon noodles
• shichimi togarashi (seven spice mix), optional

Method

1. Bring dashi to a boil in a pot, reduce to a simmer and add the 4cm lengths of spring onion, mirin, soya sauce and sugar. Stir to combine and simmer for 5 minutes.
2. While the broth is simmering away, prepare the udon noodles according to the instructions on the packet. Divide among the four bowls.
3. Ladle the liquid into the bowl. Top the noodles with the sliced spring onions and some teriyaki chicken if you like (this man needs meat with his dinner). I added some pre-prepared dried shitake mushrooms because I really like my ’shrooms. Sprinkle a bit of shichimi togarashi over the top (optional).

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