Thursday, March 4, 2010

An (Office Lunch) Affair to Remember

Cooking for my workmates is not an entirely new undertaking for me. As a member of the (now defunct) office "lunch club" I cooked regularly for at least three of them.


So, when asked to make lunch for the office I agreed without much hesitation. Late last week invitations were sent out to our entire floor for a Thai Green Curry lunch to be prepared by me. I was hoping a dozen or so would say yes of which 90% would actually turn up. Little did I know...? What have I gotten myself into? Lunch for 30+ of my colleagues? I must be out of my mind!
It both excited and terrified me to take on this challenge. I didn't sleep well the night before thinking about...no, make that worrying about it. My quiet confidence earlier on was slowly transforming into terror as the time drew near. But I'm not one to back down on a (cooking) challenge.
It was an office lunch affair to remember indeed (for me anyway, and for the right reasons).
Everyone seemed pleased as they tucked into their lunch boxes of curry and rice. My apologies to those who had to hang around waiting for the rice to cook - we'll plan better next time.
Thanks largely to

Vicki

Julie

and

Tramy
who made sure yesterday's event (almost) went without a hitch. It certainly was no mean feat for us to have pulled it off. Thanks also to my good friends Patrick and Pilar for lending me their wok.

Next up, an Italian feast to be hosted by Giulio! Watch this space!
Thai Green Curry Chicken
A bit of oil
2 chicken breast sliced
2 tablespoons green curry paste (reduce to just one if you want it milder)
3-4 Kaffir lime leaves cut into very fine strips
1 can coconut milk (use coconut cream if you want a richer sauce)
Red capsicum sliced finely
1 zucchini cut in large wedges
Basil leaves (as much as you like)
Fish sauce to taste
Palm sugar to taste
1. Heat up a bit of oil in a pan.
2. Stir fry the green curry paste for about a minute.
3. Add the Kaffir lime leaves.
4. Add the chicken and stir fry until all the pieces turn white.
5. Add the coconut milk and simmer until the chicken is done.
6. Season with fish sauce and palm sugar.
7. Add the zucchini and the capsicum and cook until done to your liking.
8. Add the basil leaves and take off the heat.
9. Serve with steaming hot jasmine rice.

12 comments:

LCAAAa said...

under pressure or not we love your cooking and always satisfied after eating it.

it's raining here in sydney and your hearty soup would come in handy.

cusinera said...

good on you!!!! diba there's a saying nga "when there's a will, there's a way"...wow, bilib ako sa iyo =)

The Beancounter said...

miss C.. thanks for dropping by... all cooking was done at my workplace...limited space and utensils but thank God wala pang reklamo...

it's been raining here too...wonder what soup would be good... we had bulalo a few days ago...

The Beancounter said...

Salamat cusinera...daming limitations but i somehow found "a way"...

Unknown said...

i never knew that cooking makes you so terrified, kala ko kay kumander lang!

congrats bro!

The Beancounter said...

hello joh! It was a paid gig that's why i got nervous...may bayad...

David said...

Hey, nice effort. I too recently did some cooking for groups at work - probably about 30 people as well.

I went the easy route of pre-preparing some baked items at home, and then just baked them on the day.

I think the first one was a moussaka, and the other one was a spanakopita.

Keep it up.

Dave.

The Beancounter said...

Thanks Dave!

Next time i'll be wiser like you... you'll have to give me your spanakopita recipe...

David said...

Our spanakopita recipe is the one from SBS's Food Safari. The link is here: http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipe/35/Spanakopta/search/true

Our variations are that sometimes we use silverbeet instead of spinach, and we usually use butter puff pastry instead of filo because it's easier to work with.

The Beancounter said...

Much appreciated Dave! i'll give that recipe a go...

Jim said...

wow bro! galing... elib talaga ako... congrats! :D

The Beancounter said...

my passion bro...i had a great time cooking for them!