The first post of this year is a new cuisine! How did it all start? Well, a few months back I saw someone at the grocery store pick up some lemongrass…and Thai cooking came to mind. I want to try using lemongrass too!
At first glance, I couldn’t find lemongrass at my local Asian grocery store. Looked again and high above the other greens, was lemongrass selling at $1 for 3 stalks. Nice..so I made lemongrass chicken. For sides, I made mango salad (it’s not Thai without mango!) and for the Western twist..mashed potatoes
Lemongrass chicken
1 stalk lemongrass
4 chicken breasts
3 garlic cloves (to your liking), minced
1 thumb size piece of ginger, minced
1 green onion, minced
1 cup yogurt (normally calls for coconut milk but yogurt is the low fat choice..)
2 tsp soy sauce
How do you prepare lemongrass? Check it out here. It’s interesting how the stalk is quite long but you really only use a small part of it!
Combine all ingredients in a blender and then marinate the chicken for up to 3 hours. When it’s ready, place chicken in a baking dish along with the marinade. Cover loosely with foil and bake at 350F for 20-30 minutes depending on the thickness of the chicken.
Lesson learned: Since the base of the marinade was yogurt, the sauce turned a bit clumpy after being baked. Stick to something in more liquid form..coconut milk, low fat milk with coconut shavings or coconut extract. I even heard of some people using unsweetened soy milk as a coconut milk substitute. What can I say? Trial and error..
Mango salad
1 mango sliced thinly
2 carrots sliced thinly
1/3 cup peanuts, crumbled on top
onion, raw or cooked (I used it as garnish only, but can be a salad ingredient)
green onion, raw or cooked (same as above)
juice of 1/2 a lime
This one is simple…combine the mango and carrots, toss in lime juice, put on the garnish!
Mashed potatoes
5 small potatoes (best type for baking is Russet)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, minced
1/2 cup milk
Bake the potatoes at 350F for approximately 1 hour or until you can poke through them easily. Remember to puncture them in several areas to allow them to breathe while being in the oven (I read that if you don’t do this, they can explode right in the oven. Not sure if this is true..and don’t plan on proving it 
)
Alternatively, you can cut the potatoes into small wedges, drizzle in olive oil, and roast them at 350F for approximately 45 minutes until they are softened. Halfway through, you can add in the garlic and onion. I chose this method because I had some spuds in my potatoes, so I couldn’t bake them whole.
When your potatoes are done, take out the potato masher (or a fork) and mash!! This will look a bit dry. The solution is adding milk. Not only does this help with the mashing, but it also makes the potatoes come together into a more smooth and creamy texture.
Next time I’m going to bake them and let’s see how the mashed potatoes turn out!
Here is the chicken with the mashed potatoes layered underneath
Lemongrass chicken recipe was adapted from About
My husband and I use lemongrass a lot for thai food, but I’ve never tried it with chicken like this. I am going to have to try this out with our leftover lemongrass!