When Mum Gets Even Lazier...

Of late lunch boxes seem to becoming an 'in' thing. A trend worth catching up with for all the goodness that comes along, healthy and easy on the pocket.  Noticed quite a few recipe books featuring dishes for lunch boxes in the bookstore too.  I love browsing through these recipes, simply because they are normally simple, fast and catch all (if not as much as it can) nutritional needs.  Just the type for lazy me :)

I came across a dish with green beans, pumpkin and chicken while browsing through one of these books.   I looked at it and thought it was quite simple, no problem remembering it (instead of buying the book)...so I thought.  So, that weekend, I bought some pumpkin.  It was also my first experience with pumpkins.  I never quite like the taste but I was captivated by the photo of the dish that I saw in the  bookstore.  Then, came the challenge, I couldn't quite remember the ingredients used!  So, when in doubt, one googles!

There are not that many dishes that comes with this combination.  I used this as reference. Surprisingly, it turned out very well despite an interesting combination of  eastern and western ingredients, butter, sherry  vinegar with fish sauce and soy sauce?? Clashes or complimenting, give it a try to find out...:)

Ingredients

• 500g pumpkin
• 1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 30g butter
• 500g chicken
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 3/4 tbsp ginger
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 onion
• 300g green beans
• 1 1/2 tbsp rice wine
• 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp thick soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Cut pumpkin into 1’’ chunks. Toss with oil, salt, and pepper.
3. Place on a baking pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, until the pumpkin is tender.
4. When there are about 10 minutes left on the baking of the pumpkin, heat up the wok.
5. Add in butter and let it melt.
6. When the butter begins to bubble and lightly brown, add in the chicken and brown it.
7. Add in garlic, onion and ginger followed by fish sauce.
8. Add in green beans, rice wine and soy sauce.
9. Squeeze in the juice from lemon once beans are cooked.
10. Remove pumpkin from oven.
11. Add pumpkin to the beans and chicken.
12. Dish up and serve with rice.

Notes: 

1. I didn't use as much butter as the amount called for in the original recipe.  The recipe added butter in 2 steps.
2. Recipe stated soy sauce, not sure if just normal or thick.  I added 1/2 tbsp thick soy sauce, didn't like the pale look.
3. I used homemade rice wine instead of sherry vinegar or rice wine vinegar.
4. Instead of sprinkling raw onions (I don't like raw ones), I cooked it together with the garlic.
5. Obmitted basil leave because I had none!