French Fridays with Dorie - Coconut Lemongrass-Braised Chicken with Pink Fettuccine

There is hope in every heartbeat
Tiny as it seems
You're a beautiful seed

~ Beautiful Seed lyrics, Corrinne May

If you're a regular here on Fridays, you'll probably do a double-take on my new banner. Overnight, it looks as if I've turned into an anime version of myself. Wearing pearls and a pink apron as per real life, but 20lbs thinner. I really like it! The banner is actually a gift from my friend, Nic in Singapore. I can't say 'thank you' enough times, Nic. In case you're all wondering, yes, I do have a bunch of fabulous and selfless friends like him. I try to surround myself with the real deal, or maybe they come to me. I really can't say for sure. 

Anyway, back to the business at hand. There was no ducking out of this week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe without seeming a bit lame (after last week's absence). Coconut, lemongrass, turmeric, coriander, cardamom...I have them all; these ingredients form the hallmarks of my territory. In a twee twist, for there is always at least one, Dorie's Coconut Lemongrass-Braised Pork recipe was chicken-fied under my pork-less abode, but the rest of the ingredients remained. Oh, except for the turmeric, which Diva D threw out because she thought it had expired (I bought it just last year!). While writing this up, I did a quick research to see if turmeric in its powder form really does expire and came across this anecdote entitled Old Spice. You must click on the link and read it because it cracked me up...the things we women hoard in our kitchens!

The pink fettuccine pasta noodles was a spontaneous addition. My chicken stew, heavenly though it turned out to be, lacked the warm yellow color of turmeric. I'm sorry, but it's me, I'm a visual creature and I eat with my 'eyes' before my tongue even gets a go. So a pallid-looking dish didn't quite appeal to my eye-buds. In my former life, I must've been a man, quite possibly Andy Warhol... so the 'visual karma' has come back to bite me. And then it came to me like a Thomas Edison moment, except the lightbulb was inside my head, not outside it. My pale lemongrass chicken stew needed to rest on a bed of something sexy....something like fuschia pink fettuccine?

Now, I somehow think you've guessed where the pink hue of the pasta came from. I deliberately omitted mentioning it in the title (too much of a good thing can be an overkill, as you know) but it was red dragonfruit puree. Again. I suppose beetroot or blackberries could've served the same purpose, color-wise. Like I said, though, I prefer to use ingredients within my accessibility, which the dragonfruit is, while the other two are not.

 Making the fettuccine dough with dragonfruit puree and flour

So out came my trusty pasta machine and it was just like the good old days. I love making pasta at home and when it's as beautiful as this, it just makes me even happier. Since it was a hot day out, I decided to hang the noodles to dry under the sun. In about 30 minutes, they were ready to cook!

 Drying pasta under the tropical sun

 Dried dragonfruit pasta noodles
(and blackberry pasta behind it - a test run with frozen berries)

The end result of my coconut lemongrass chicken stew was just as Ms. Greenspan intended, full of the best flavors nature can offer and utterly splendid with the pink noodles. The kiddies at home surprisingly (to me) devoured the whole dish and asked if I could cook some more. Are you kidding me? Of course, YES!! When picky eaters love something you cook the first time off, you know the recipe's a keeper. If you're interested, you can find this dish in Around My French Table, Dorie Greenspan's latest cookbook. Hmm...I wonder what the other Doristas did with their stews?

It's Friday, the weekend's here and the air somehow feels full of hope and fun, with plenty of sunshine in between. Nowadays I like to end my posts with some music, since music is supposedly what feeling sounds like. Go bask in the sun and enjoy this song, Beautiful Seed, written and performed by LA-based artiste Corrinne May. She's from Singapore, if you didn't know.

Have a beautiful weekend, all!