First Balcony Dinner

Finally having our balcony kitchen ready, I could not wait to try my hand at some ideas that had been taking shape over the past few months of traveling. The recipe books from the Thai and Lao cooking courses we did would finally be put to good use, but for our first home cooked meal in the new apartment it had to be something original.

In Siem Reap we ate stir-fried pumpkin at a couple of Khmer restaurants. The dish was an instant hit with us and Alexander suggested this as the first one to be prepared in the new kitchen.

I decided not to search for a recipe but just let my senses guide me in experimenting with a new dish. The basics seemed pretty simple; pumpkin, perhaps some chicken, egg and flavoring.

At Tesco down the road, there is unfortunately no Trader Joe’s in Bangkok, we picked up a quartered piece of green pumpkin, one de-boned chicken breast, 2 long green chili peppers (I believe it may have been banana chilies, also known as Hungarian wax chilies), a handful of shiitake mushrooms, eggs and mushroom sauce.

I was a bit nervous about how the dish would turn out, but there was nothing to be worried about. It was a scrumptious success and a hearty first meal.

Preparing this dish turned out to be surprisingly simple. Here’s what you do; clean and slice up the mushrooms, cut up the chicken breast, half the piece of pumpkin, peel and cube it, and slice up the two peppers.

When all is sliced and cubed you can start cooking. Heat about a tablespoon full of sunflower oil over medium to high heat (vegetable oil or any other oil that is not too fragrant would also work) in a wok, when the oil is hot add the pumpkin and cook until it begins too soften a little. Add the chicken and the green chilies at the same time and mix it through with the pumpkin. When the chicken begins to turn light brown, add the mushrooms and keep on stirring it all around. Move everything to the side of the wok so there is a little space in the center for breaking one egg. Gently break up the egg in the pan so it can cook a little and then mix this through with the rest of the ingredients as well. Add about a tablespoon and a half for mushroom sauce when everything is cooked, give it a good stir around and your stir-fried pumpkin is ready to be served!

Suggestions for making stir-fried pumpkin:
- one usually stir-fries over a higher heat, make sure you keep on moving the ingredients in the wok so it does not burn.
- the chili peppers I used turned out to be a bit mild, add a small red or green chili, unseeded, for more spice.
- mushroom sauce adds a lovely flavor to your cooking but do not use too much as it could make the dish too salty, you’ll be able to find it at Asian grocers or the Asian section of a good grocery store.
- you could probably use tofu instead of chicken or even pork, but I doubt if beef would go well with this dish.
- the egg is optional, but I find that it adds some texture to certain dishes and somehow ‘binds’ all the ingredients.