When I looked at that meatballs in spicy peanut sauce recipe, it reminded me of a stir fry I used to make: Indonesian stir fry.  My original recipe for that particular dish included lots of garlic and two tablespoons of peanut butter. I searched the web for something to refresh my memory, but no luck. So my recipe on Tuesday went something like this.

• 4 Scallions (large green onions)
• 1 Red pepper
• 1 Yellow pepper
• 1 Orange pepper
• Handful of green beans. If you cup your hands together to make an “O”–about that many.
• About an egg-size piece of ginger (peeled)
• 2 or 3 cloves of garlic
• Sesame oil
• Soya sauce
• Turkey breast
• Peanut butter
• Chili pepper (I bought a small bottle of chili pepper sauce because I couldn’t find the chili peppers.)
• 250 ml of warm chicken broth. I use Knorr cubes. (I have a story about Knorr I’ll have to write.) Add a teaspoon of soya sauce, a teaspoon of chili pepper sauce, and about two  tbsps of peanut butter. Mix it all up.

Slice the turkey breast into stir-fry strips.  Put in a bowl and season with a round or two of sesame oil and soya sauce. When I say a round or two, I mean once around the bowl. Or twice. However much you think you need.

Add a spoonful or so of chili pepper sauce. To taste. Not too much, but enough so the turkey breast is marinating in something palatably spicy.

Set the marinating turkey strips aside.

Slice the scallions into about 3 cm lengths. Then quarter the lengths.

Slice the peppers in the same fashion-about 3 cm lengths by 1 cm or less.

Same with the green beans.

I chopped up the ginger and the garlic with my chopper. Like the slap chop. Except it’s not a slap chop. It’s just a regular chopper. It might have a Swiss accent, but it essentially works the same.

Heat up a wok and go once around with some oil–just enough to coat the bottom. Toss in the turkey strips.  Stir-fry until the strips are lightly browned. Remove from the pan. If you have help in the kitchen, make sure they have a glass of wine in one hand and discuss, in general, what you think the desired outcome should be. Just so everybody is on the same page. Discuss the general order of cooking. And listen to the person who suggests a figure-eight stirring motion — I think it was the key to our success.

Add another round of oil. Add the veges including the garlic and ginger. Stir for a minute or two to cook. Add the 250 ml of the chicken broth mixture.

Stir. Cook. Stir. Cook.

Add the turkey back into the wok.

Stir. Cook. Stir. Cook.

Pay attention and don’t over cook the veges. It’s nice when they are just the right amount of crunchy.

We opened a bottle of Ludo’s Chateau Neuf de Papes and sat down to eat this concoction over a wild rice mixture. I think it turned out really good. So good, that I didn’t even get a picture–and I should have. I would won a lot of points for colour.

Last night, a friend came to dinner. I thought I’d try to make something simple. I’d seen a recipe in the Fine Cooking magazine last week that I wanted to try out: Meatballs in spicy curry peanut sauce.

This spicy meatball recipe called for ground beef. I couldn’t find ground beef in my grocery store. I usually shop at the small(ish) MIGROS in the bottom of the building. The meat department  full of individually-packaged cuts of meat–so I bought some turkey breasts instead. I cut them into one-inch cubes. I think they worked fine.  Here is the recipe (modified by me).

• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• two or three deboned turkey breasts cut into one-inch cubes
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp of oil, more if needed. The original recipe called for vegetable oil. I used olive oil. I don’t know the difference. Olive oil worked for me.
• 4 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped (Redd, I used my chopper ).
• 1 tbsp red curry paste, more to taste. (I used more).
• 1 cup canned coconut milk (refridgerate the can, don’t shake it. Use the cream from the top). I just used the whole thing.
• 2 tbsp chunky peanut butter. I used some peanut butter that I found at the MIGROS. However, I am now on a mission to find a brand of peanut butter here in Switzerland with just peanuts. Just peanuts in my peanut butter please. And maybe some salt. But that’s all. When it comes to peanut butter, less is definitely more.
• Some freshly-chopped basil for garnish.

Salt and pepper the cubed turkey breast.

Toss lightly in flour. Enough to lightly coat the cubes.

Heat some oil in a wok or fry pan. Just coat the bottom of the pan.

Fry the garlic for about one minute–until it is lightly brown. I used the stopwatch on my iPhone. I seem to use my iPhone for everything. It worked just fine. It got a bit gucky from the kitchen, but I just cleaned it later.  Remove the browned garlic from the pan and set aside.

Fry the coated, cubed turkey breast for about 5 minutes until they are lightly browned and just nicely done- that is, the meat isn’t dry.  I fried my cubes in two batches. When the first batch was done, I removed them to drain on a paper towel. Then repeated everything with the second batch.

When you’ve finished with the turkey cubes, if there is no oil left in the pan, add a wee bit more. Add the curry paste and cook that for a bit in the pan. Stir it to prevent sticking.

Add the garlic that you’d set aside earlier. Keep stirring.

Add the coconut milk. Stir.

Add the peanut butter. Stir some more.

Keep stirring and cooking until you the sauce is uniformly consistent.

Add more curry paste to taste. Stir it in.

Return the cooked, cubed turkey breast to the pan and simmer over low heat until everything is warmed up.

Transfer everything to a serving dish and garnish with the chopped, fresh basil.

WARNING: Don’t let things simmer too long. The sauce will curdle. SO PAY ATTENTION. When the sauce is smooth and consistent and uniform, TAKE IT OFF the burner and put it in a serving dish.

We opened a bottle of Ermitage from Caprice du Temps (shameless plug) and ate this dish as an appetizer.