Some days tiredness sticks to my bones and I can’t shake it. Gone are the days of solid night sleeps. Even when my precious darling doesn’t wake up, I still do, I gently place my hand on his little heaving chest and drift back to nowhere land. Today we dozed off together, a little hand resting upon my clavicle, and I felt still, as if we were one. Lack of sleep doesn’t always manifest in tiredness, there are also times when I feel boundless energy and profound inspiration. The ebb and flow of life doesn’t bet its basis on sleep. While I thought before babe that I would be a zombie for the next years, most of the time I am more fuelled to live fully than ever before. Interesting to note that our ancestors, before the invention of electricity, had a tendency to awaken in the night for an hour called biphasic sleep before entering into a second sleep. The sleep break was used to reflect, meditate, read, ruminate on life’s happenings. A lot of “insomniacs” might be happy to know their mid night wakefulness is really completely normal.
Sleepy days mean sleepy meals, the kind that are just simple and comforting. This dish is just that, plain lovely and a pinch to put together. Use whatever vegetables you have vegging around. You could add some curry paste or extra chilis if you want some more zing, personally I love to savour the simple flavours which shine through without all the extras. We had some cauliflower so I buzzed that up in the food processor, toasted some coconut in a skillet, and danced them together for about 10 minutes with some himalayan salt. J thinks cauliflower rice is the best thing since sliced bread, my brother on the other hand mocks its caloric lack and insists that brown rice is healthier than white. I digress, but really this is the perfect dish for those sleepy days when we just want some lovin warmth.
Ingredients
- 1 lb. boneless chicken thighs
- 1 shallot or 1/4 cup minced red onion
- 3 kaffir lime leaves or a squeeze of lime juice
- 1 Tbs apple cider vinegar
- 1 Tbs fish sauce
- 1 Tbs lemongrass paste, or minced fresh lemongrass
- 2 thai bird chills, finely chopped
- 1/2 a can of full fat coconut milk
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- handful of oyster mushrooms, sliced
- 1 yellow pepper, chopped
- 1 daikon radish, sliced diagonally
Instructions
- Marinate chicken for as long as you can stand in apple cider vinegar, fish sauce, chills, onion and lemongrass.
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Mix in coconut milk, kaffir lime, salt, and vegetables.
- Cook for 40 minutes et voila!
