How to Freeze Lemongrass

How to freeze lemongrass, ready to use in soups, stir-fries and marinades. Recipe with step-by-step photos.

freezing lemongrass in pink ice-cube trays

Freezing Lemongrass

In my other posts, I have raved about using frozen garlic and frozen ginger as a way to save time when cooking on busy work nights. It only felt natural to continue this series and to also include a recipe on freezing lemongrass, another ingredient which I commonly use in stir-fries and marinades. In fact, if you cook a lot of Asian food, I highly recommend that you also start freezing lemongrass right away!



Read More

Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken with Vermicelli Noodle Salad

A healthy and delicious Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken with Vermicelli Noodle Salad (Bun Ga Nuong), full of fresh and bold flavours. The chicken is marinated in a classic Vietnamese marinade and served grilled over a bed of vermicelli noodles, salad, fresh herbs and a traditional Vietnamese dipping sauce (nuoc cham).

bowl with lemongrass chicken sliced with a noodle salad with a bowl of nuoc cham dipping sauce

Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken

If I could only eat one dish throughout the summer, it would have to be my mother’s Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken with Vermicelli Noodle Salad.

Growing up in Queensland, Australia, where the weather is pretty much warm and sunny all year round, salads featured prominently on the dinner menu in our home. And noodle salads in particular were popular because, as a child, the only thing you could count on me eating was noodles.



Read More

Grilled Thai Chicken

This Grilled Thai Chicken is bursting with flavour with lots of lemongrass, coriander (cilantro), ginger and chillies in the marinade. You can roast, grill or barbecue the chicken for crispy and golden skin. Great to make on a weeknight or for entertaining.

grilled thai chicken thighs in roasting pan with lemon wedges

I love marinated and grilled chicken and am always on the lookout for new recipes, though I think my mum makes the best version which I have tried endlessly to recreate and which comes close but, of course, it can’t quite compare.

Read More

Thai Green Curry with Chicken

Make this easy Thai green curry paste and turn it into a delicious Thai Green Curry with Chicken or make it vegetarian with your favourite vegetables and tofu. The choices are endless!

thai green chicken curry

There comes a time during the week when I find myself with lots of bits of vegetables in the fridge, none which can be used on their own to make any meaningful meal, but it would be a shame and a waste to otherwise throw them away. Oddly enough, this fridge raid often occurs on a Monday evening, the night when I try to empty the fridge in readiness for my weekly trip to the farmers’ markets on Tuesdays.

Read More

Pumpkin Laksa

Pumpkin-Laksa-1

I have long been a fan of Nigel Slater, his books having been instrumental in my initial forays into the kitchen, along with Nigella Lawson and, dare I say it, the Australian Women’s Weekly. One of my favourite cookbooks would have to be Appetite, a hefty book filled with amazingly delicious recipes but provided in a manner that encourages the cook to develop some intuition in the kitchen. Rather than call for, say, 100 g of tomatoes, Nigel Slater’s recipes would instead ask for 3-4 medium-sized tomatoes, not only making it a bit easier to shop but also allowing the cook some flexibility.

I have been distracted in recent years by cookbooks from other authors, but this year hopefully marks a revisit of some old favourites. I was only reminded of Nigel Slater recently when hubby and I were browsing in the bookshop and Nigel Slater’s Tender Volume 1 & 2 were being sold together in a limited edition boxed set. Having lusted after these books for some time but trying to sensibly refrain from hoarding too many cookbooks in one year, I couldn’t resist a boxed set. And upon realising that Volume 1 was all about vegetables, and Volume 2 was dedicated to fruit, hubby generously offered the books to me as a gift, on the condition that they supported his New Year’s resolutions to eat more vegetarian and healthy food. Of course, honey

With pumpkins in season, I was instantly taken by Nigel’s recipe for pumpkin laksa in Tender Volume 1. As a lover of all noodle soups, from the robust and herbal hit of a Vietnamese Pho to the equally comforting but milder-flavoured chicken noodle soup of the western palate, and not to mention the 2-minute noodles (or pot noodles) of my student days, I can rarely turn down a recipe for comfort in a bowl.

Read More

Vietnamese Chicken Curry Soup

A tasty Vietnamese Chicken Curry Soup with vermicelli noodles, sweet potatoes and lots of fresh herbs. A quick short-cut recipe which is perfect for mid-week meals.

vietnamese chicken curry soup in white bowl on blue table

One of my all-time favourite dishes is a Vietnamese Chicken Curry. My mum makes this dish using a whole chicken which is first marinated in a special mixture of Vietnamese curry powder and other seasoning, and then slowly simmered on the stove with an array of aromatics until the chicken is tender and almost falls from the bone.

Read More