Yesterday was one of those mornings I woke up and realized I had eaten out way too much in the last few days and needed some nutrients ASAP. Plus my Costco card has arrived from my mother so I need to clean out my freezer a bit so I have room for more stuff! Its time for some super improv in the kitchen.
Lets see what do we have: frozen chicken thighs, oh there is that lemongrass I bought that I never knew what to do with, a few stalks of celery, 1 sweet potato, an onion, some lentils and some barley. (Just so you know the process of how this all starts I just begin pulling things out and setting them on the counter and see if I can visualize a way for them to “go together” I have no plan at this point, it’s totally winging it, which means once again you are not going to get a recipe here)
Lemongrass is the wild card here. I looked it up a couple of weeks ago and it says you can chop it in big chunks and add for flavoring during cooking and then take out when its’ ready or slices it super dooper thin and leave it in there. As I’m very unfamiliar with the lemon-tensity I am going to approach with caution.
I have some curry paste in the fridge and I figure that’s probably going to be the best compliment to the lemongrass. So I pull out the slow cooker and start piling stuff in. Chunked up the onion, garlic, celery and sweet potato. I dissolved 1 chicken bullion cube (I was out of boxed stock) in 6 cups water mixing in the curry paste- 3 heaping tablespoons maybe? Finally I nestled in the frozen chicken thighs (bone in, I would take the skin off next time though) and dumped in some lentils and barley and crossed my fingers.
6 hours later
At first glance it appeared a little thin and greasy (hence removing the skin next time). I fished through and pulled out all the lemongrass and it smelled very lemony. I shredded the thighs off the bone and removed all the skin and started stirring it up. The sweet potatoes were so done that they instantly thickened the stew and I had maybe a 1/2 cup sour cream in the fridge so I plopped that in for a creamier factor. A big pinch of salt and a healthy splash of balsamic to brighten it up were the finishing touches.
I will say yesterday the stew was good- not over lemoned or curried but a little blah. I let it sit overnight and tasted again this morning and it was much better. The flavors really had time to meld together. I think upon reheating I’ll add some peas for a fresh touch.
