Hey y'all. My favorite food in the world to eat is Thai. If it's pad kee mow extra spicy or panang curry tofu or a lemongrass soup: I love it all. Unfortunately, I have almost no experience cooking Thai food. I have decided to remedy this and I plan to learn how to make some Thai. I can have it anytime I want and I'll learn to make it a little more healthy than restaurants. I made this last night and it came out quite nicely.
Thai Chicken Red Curry
ingredients:
2 large chicken breasts
1 14 oz. can coconut milk
1 white onion
1 bell pepper (orange, red, or green)
3 cloves garlic
1.5" piece of ginger
Zest of 1 lime
juice of 1/2 lime
2 tsp soy sauce or fish sauce
1 TBL Vegetable oil
1 tsp tumeric
2-3 TBL red curry paste
1 tsp red pepper flakes (none for a mild curry, I used about 4 tsp because I like it spicy)
Cooked basmati rice
Cube the chicken into about 1" pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Heat a skillet until it's really hot and add oil. We want the skillet to be hot enough to brown the outside of the chicken without cooking it all of the way through. The chicken will finish cooking in the sauce right before serving. Brown the chicken pieces in the oil and remove from pan and reserve on a plate. Reduce heat in the pan to medium
Thinly slice the onions into uniform slices. Put the onions into the pan over medium heat with a little oil if necessary, salt, pepper and tumeric. Tumeric is the spice that makes ballpark mustard really yellow and it's a necessity in curries. It just so happens to also taste amazing with sauteed onions. You can put these onions on burgers, in omelets, in tacos, etc. Cook the onions for about 10 minutes until they start to break down. Add bell pepper and crushed red pepper. Cook for 5-7 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, lime zest, lime juice, and soy sauce or fish sauce. Cook for 1 minute. (Lately I've been preparing my garlic, ginger, and zest all with a microplane. This tool is a godsend if you do a lot of cooking.)
Add the coconut milk and curry paste to the aromatics. You can add more or less curry paste depending on several factors. (1) the strength of your curry paste (2) how spicy you like it (3) how much you want it to taste like curry. Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes then taste and add more curry paste or red pepper flakes depending on how you want it to taste. Overall, the sauce should simmer for about 20 minutes then add the chicken and simmer for about 5 more minutes. The coconut milk does thicken as it cooks so keep that in mind.
Serve over basmati rice.
This dish came out as good as a lot of curries I've had in Thai restaurants. If you are trying to limit your starchy carbs, you can replace the rice with pureed cauliflower (add a little milk and tumeric to steamed cauliflower then puree in a food processor or with an immersion blender).
I'll definitely have to blog next time I have a successful adventure in Thai cooking.
xo,
Levi
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Pizza
Last night I had a couple friends over so we could eat dinner and watch Beyonce wear 3d glasses while she watched Usher sing a Michael Jackson song. Needless to say, we had fun and it was really tight.
I remember when I was a kid, we would have pizza on french bread all the time. Largely because us kids really liked it and it was really easy to prepare. I like it right now because I am kind of convinced that I'm incapable of making delicious pizza crust from scratch. The sauce is really what makes this pizza anyway.
French Bread Pizza:
ingredients -
1 Loaf French bread
3 links italian hot sausage
3/4 lb ground beef
1 large onion
1 large bulb fennel
5 cloves garlic
1 28 oz can tomatoes
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp sun dried tomato paste
2 tsp fennel seeds
1 red bell pepper
Fontina cheese
Quattro Formaggi cheese blend
Fresh basil leaves
Heat up a big skillet or pot on the stove. Remove sausage from casings and brown with the beef. Take meat out of the pan leaving the fat behind. You want 1 TBL of fat so pour it out if there's too much or add olive oil if there isn't enough.
Add diced onion and fennel and cook for 5-6 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. At this point use an immersion blender or food processor to blend the vegetables because I don't like chunks of veggies in pizza sauce. Add the veggies back to the pan with the tomatoes, sun dried tomato paste, fennel seeds, and oregano. Cook for 15-25 minutes. Add meat back to sauce and cook for 5 minutes.
Split the french bread loaf. I tore out some of the inside because I wanted it to be less heavy on the bread. Spread the sauce evenly on the bread. top with sliced red bell peppers, fontina, and quattro formaggi.
Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Top with basil chiffonade.
I love this pizza because I think tomato sauce with italian sausage is just begging for a lot of fennel, basil, and bell pepper flavor.
xo,
Levi
I remember when I was a kid, we would have pizza on french bread all the time. Largely because us kids really liked it and it was really easy to prepare. I like it right now because I am kind of convinced that I'm incapable of making delicious pizza crust from scratch. The sauce is really what makes this pizza anyway.
French Bread Pizza:
ingredients -
1 Loaf French bread
3 links italian hot sausage
3/4 lb ground beef
1 large onion
1 large bulb fennel
5 cloves garlic
1 28 oz can tomatoes
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp sun dried tomato paste
2 tsp fennel seeds
1 red bell pepper
Fontina cheese
Quattro Formaggi cheese blend
Fresh basil leaves
Heat up a big skillet or pot on the stove. Remove sausage from casings and brown with the beef. Take meat out of the pan leaving the fat behind. You want 1 TBL of fat so pour it out if there's too much or add olive oil if there isn't enough.
Add diced onion and fennel and cook for 5-6 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. At this point use an immersion blender or food processor to blend the vegetables because I don't like chunks of veggies in pizza sauce. Add the veggies back to the pan with the tomatoes, sun dried tomato paste, fennel seeds, and oregano. Cook for 15-25 minutes. Add meat back to sauce and cook for 5 minutes.
Split the french bread loaf. I tore out some of the inside because I wanted it to be less heavy on the bread. Spread the sauce evenly on the bread. top with sliced red bell peppers, fontina, and quattro formaggi.
Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Top with basil chiffonade.
I love this pizza because I think tomato sauce with italian sausage is just begging for a lot of fennel, basil, and bell pepper flavor.
xo,
Levi
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