Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Swimming Rama

The name of this recipe is Swimming Rama and comes from a Thai cookbook I recently picked up. I don't know what Swimming Rama means, but I will translate it to chicken in the most delicious peanut sauce EVER. This meal is a little bit more involved than others, so I made it over the weekend when I had plenty of time to cook. I made the full recipe of the peanut sauce but only 1 chicken breast.

















Get a sauce pan of water boiling and lets gather everything and get it prepped to cook!




You will need some spinach.




A chicken breast.




Chop it into nice bite sized pieces.




grab a bright red pepper




Chop some up into small pieces.




You need some shallot or onion, you know I will prefer shallot.




Chop it up nice and fine also.




Mince some garlic.




This Pampered Chef measuring cup is MADE for measuring out peanut butter. No scraping required!




You need some delicious brown sugar. As I have mentioned before, I keep mine in the freezer and it is always nice and soft after just a few minutes on the counter.




Some fish sauce.




You can use cayenne, sriracha, or any chopped red pepper flakes. You will also need some Paprika, which is hiding behind my cayenne.




You can be pretty sure that anything with coconut milk is probably going to be amazing.




you also need a little bit of water and corn starch. I think we have everyone assembled so lets start cooking!




This is the lazy steaming method I use when I don't feel like dragging out my steamer. Wire basket on top of the boiling water. It works! Once the spinach is done, toss in the chicken and pop on the lid. It will poach in the hot water.





Meanwhile, get another pan going with a little oil.




Add in the shallots and garlic.




Once the shallots and garlic are softened add in the other sauce ingredients except the coconut milk. Mix it up.




After it is combined, slowly stir in the coconut milk.




while the sauce cooks, get your spinach down on the plate.




Add in the corn starch mixture and some lime juice.




Stir in the poached chicken and get it all nice and covered in the sauce.




Plate the chicken on top of the spinach and garnish with the red peppers.




As you eat this, imagine swimming in rivers of this peanut sauce. It is so rich and peanutty and delicious I could have slapped it on pretty much anything and been happy. I am glad I made a full batch!

So here is a question for my readers, do you have any idea why this is called Swimming Rama??

17 comments:

  1. oh my god! we have the same thai cookbook! i've only made the masaman curry from it but it was so good. Mmmmm. any other recommendations from it?

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  2. This dish reminds me of Satay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satay) which is grilled meat dipped with peanut sauce. However, the peanut sauce is a bit more crunchy (and less creamy as compared to yours). It's really yummy! :)
    Luckie's Mom

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  3. That's a lick the plate clean my kind of meal!

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  4. It's Rama because it's Swimming In Peanut Sauce Ramalamadingdonggood! Or so it appears. I made a peanut sauce from a mix the other night and it was good but doesn't look like it was as good as the from-scratch stuff you have there. YUM INDEED! And I have to go look to see how much that Pampered Chef thing is now.

    Some Satay is pretty creamy depending on how you make it -- I will have to try to make some more sometime.

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  5. Yum I love peanut sauce. This dish looks delish but I have no idea as to why it's called swimming rama lol. I like making peanut sauce from scratch.

    Denise

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  6. Thanks for the great recipe! The last time I looked up how to make peanut sauce it had like 40 ingredients and this looks so simple! I am making this dish tomorrow for sure

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  7. Get out of my kitchen! That's my cookbook, wire basket, and two of my bowls. I don't know when you got in, but stop stealing my stuff! *attempts karate move*

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  8. thank you so much! I could've saved a lot of time if I would've found your page sooner. I've been searching all day for a good peanut sauce and I wanted to make the swimming rama. My favorite Thai dish. I'm cooking for 17 people. Wish me luck.

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  9. Yum. That was good even without the fish sauce. That's what happens when you decide to research a recipe when the ingredients are on the cutting board.

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  10. Could you post the name of the cookbook?

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  11. Hello! I'm wondering what the name of this cookbook is.

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  12. Here's a good explanation about the name Swimming Rama:
    http://www.nattylive.com/2010/09/swimming-rama-phraram-long-song.html

    I was sure that Swimming Rama was some madeup name for a Thai dish. Looks like I was wrong! Phraram Long Song is the original name. Pharam or Rama is the name of the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism and he's supposed to be green. Long-Song means swimming. So I guess you could Americanize it just a it more & say Swimming Spinach. :)

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  13. I simply love this recipe. My friend found it on the internet and I have a copy of her notes and they are the same. Best.rama.ever!

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  14. This was excellent!!! Thank you!!! Only changes -we like it HOT, so added about 3 TBS of crushed red pepper flakes. We also put in sliced mushrooms and served with brown rice... soooo good!!!!

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  15. Oh yum! I love a good peanut sauce. This dish looks fantastic, Rhonda.

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  16. i use fresh spinach and just dump the hot sauce over it.

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