Thai Green Monk Fish Curry

Monk fish is an ideal fish for most types of curry as its tougher than most supermarket bought fish. In many cases it can just be substituted for chicken to varying success. The fish itself does not have an overbearing flavour so it tends to absorb the taste from the dish.

Ingredients:
1 Monkfish skinned and cubed
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
100g mange tout (halved)
2 tbsp thai green curry paste
1 can of coconut milk
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 small chilli (chopped) (optional)
bunch of coriander (roughly chopped)
1-2 tbsp olive oil

1) Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan until hot. Add in the chopped chilli and fry for a minute. Then add in the rest of the vegetables and fry for a further 3-5 mins until they have softened.

2) Add in all the thai green curry paste, stir thoroughly. Then add the coconut milk, bay leaf and fish sauce. Bring the sauce to the boil.

3) When it reaches boiling point add in the monk fish turn down the heat and simmer for ten minutes or until the fish is cooked. Remove the bay leaf and serve with rice or noodles (or as in our case both).

Cumin Minced Lamb in Pitta

This dish takes about 10 minutes to cook after preparation and will serve four, although we gobbled this lot between us. It is one of Shanshan's favourite street foods in China.


Ingredients:
500g minced lamb
4 sticks of celery (sliced into 0.5cm slices)
4 pitta breads
pinch of szechuan pepper corn (use normal pepper corns if you don't have these)
2 tbsp of olive oil
2 tsp of cumin powder
1 tsp of hot chilli oil or hot chilli powder
salt (to taste)
1 tbps light soy sauce

1) Heat half the olive oil in a large frying pan or wok. When hot fry all the minced lamb until browned. Then drain the excessive liquid and set aside (placing the lamb on kitchen paper on a plate will do the job)

2) Heat the other half of the olive oil in the same pan and add the sechuan pepper corns, fry for 10 seconds then add the celery and fry until softened. Then add the minced lamb you set aside earlier, mix well then add the cumin powder, soy sauce chilli oil (or powder) and salt and continue to mix. Add water if the dish is too dry.

3) Toast the pittas for a minute each, slice in half and open up. In the pocket of the pittas fill stuff with the dish. Serve.