Stir-fry Noodles with Coconut Cream Sauce

I first came across this recipe when my friend Bruce cooked it for us on our Lake District vacation. It is a very unique recipe as the coconut sauce elevates the flavours and to be honest, the ginger, garlic and Thai Red Curry paste in a coconut base are pure music. In Bruce’s own words he likes to ‘hear the garlic, ginger and others spices in oil to release the flavours’. The first picture here is from when Bruce cooked it, with chicken, broccoli and carrots. The next pic is today when I tried to replicate it with peppers and carrots :-). Thank you Bruce for the detailed explanation and tips 🙂

Ingredients:

• 1 Chicken Breast (cut into small chunks)
• 1 Green Bell Pepper (sliced thinly)
• 3 Picarella Peppers (sliced thinly – I like to have these in my fridge as they are small sweet peppers and come in red, yellow and orange colours and instantly add colour to any stir fry, you can substitute this with red/yellow bell peppers)
• 1 carrot (sliced thinly)
• I celery stick (chopped)
• 1 tbsp Ginger paste (you can also use chopped ginger)
• 1 tbsp Garlic paste (you can also use chopped garlic)
• 1 tbsp Thai Red Curry Paste (you can also use Green Curry paste)
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 160 ml Coconut Cream or Coconut Milk
• 1 packet ready cooked egg noodles (about 250 gms.)

Method:

If using Chicken then fry the chicken in a little oil. Remove and keep aside.

Place all the chopped vegetables (except celery) in a bowl and microwave it on high for 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

While the vegetables are cooking in the microwave, heat a pan and add 1 tbsp sesame oil.

Ensure that you are cooking on low medium flame, when the oil it hot add the noodles and fry for about 2 minutes. Remove and keep aside.

Next in the same pan add another tbsp of sesame oil and add the ginger and garlic paste. Cook it for about one minute.

Add the Thai Red curry paste and cook till aromatic about a minute.

Then add the celery and fry for another minute.

Next add the noodles, chicken, vegetables and coconut cream and mix well.

Cook it for a further five minutes till everything is nice and piping hot.

I added a garnish of coriander leaves ( I like coriander leaves a lot, but feel free to skip this step).

Note: I didn’t have coconut cream, so I substituted it with coconut milk. Usually when you open a can of coconut milk, you will notice two layers – a thicker coconut milk layer floating on top of water. I just used this top layer and discarded the rest. I know criminal waste of food, but I feel even guiltier when I reserve stuff in the fridge for later use and and the next time I look at it there is a whole ecosystem growing in the bowl. So my resolution this year is to use the food and discard stuff that I know I will not be using anytime soon.