Thai Chicken Red Curry with Coconut Soup

Behold - Thai Chicken Red Curry

First attempt at Thai Coconut Soup

Have you ever thought about what cuisine you would eat if you had to choose just one?  Broadly speaking, choices would be Italian, Asian, American (think hamburgers, steak, and potatoes), Mexican, Greek, French, etc.  Perhaps you have even engaged a friend or significant other to ponder this very important question.  Seems just as productive an exercise as the "if you were on death row what would your last meal be" conversation, right? Well let's say I really had to choose, I would have to say Asian.  It could be my DNA talking - I am 1/4 Japanese after all.  My Japanese American Grandmother cooked some Japanese food for us all throughout my life, but mostly fried rice, and I'm not sure the bacon she added was all that authentic.  She'd cook other things for my parents that she didn't think my brother and I would like too.  I've also prepared her favorite sushi recipe with her a few times (see a previous post A Little Family Heritage for the recipe and pictures).  But all in all, I'd have to say I'd pick Asian because it is so darn tasty (Greek is a very close 2nd...).  We have some excellent Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Chinese restaurants here in Prattville and Montgomery (shout out to Green Papaya, Tokyo, Osaka, La'Taste, and Mr. Chens). 

Speaking of Thai - my favorite dish to order when at a Thai restaurant is Red Curry.  Green Papaya, located in Montgomery, AL, is my favorite Thai restaurant, which is really Thai - Lao cuisine.  There are a lot of curries, and a lot of dishes with basil on the menu (the Spicy Fried Rice is AMAZING).  I am not into crazy spicy food, but if it has a little bit of a bite I'm good with it.  Recently after an Alabama football game, Zac and I went to a Thai restaurant in Tuscaloosa called Ruan Thai, located on the Strip.  I ordered Red Curry - delicious!   This got me thinking that I should really try and make it since I love it so much.   Cooking Asian food is completely intimidating to me though.  I've made some Thai dishes before, but they are usually peanut centered vs coconut centered, if that makes sense.  I make a Thai shrimp dish that is pretty darn good.  There are a few other Asian dishes we make, but generally they are on the simple side.  The ingredients can be hard to find.   I can also order it out so easily (remember my list of awesome Asian places? All have perfected the To Go order!) 

Most of the time when I'm thinking of a new dish to try, I want it to be a challenge.  That's assuming I'm not in any hurry of course, which means the weekend (I don't see how anyone has much time to cook on a work night, seriously).   I knew this weekend I wanted to do something new, and thinking back on my Red Curry fascination thought it was time to try it.  I also went back to Ruan Thai again recently, and had their coconut soup for the first time, and thought that would go perfectly with Red Curry (and I order the two together often from my local joint).  So, off I went researching recipes and see what ingredients I could find locally. 

Thankfully I was able to find everything between a local Asian market (Mr Chens market, adjacent to the Chinese restaurant of the same name in Montgomery), and Whole Foods.  I bought the lemongrass stalks and shiitake mushrooms at Mr Chens, the keffir lime leaves, ginger, and everything else at Whole Foods.  

lemongrass

This was my first time ever using lemongrass.  So I Googled it of course, and found some great tips on cooking with it.  It's like cooking with a leek really, you end up not using most of it.  Cut off the dark green part, peel off the outer leaves until what is left is mostly yellow.  From there, you can do it different ways, but the intent is to infuse the flavor into the liquid in the recipe I made.  So I scored it with a knife and crushed it a bit so there was a lot of contact with the stock.  Same principal as smashing a garlic clove to infuse oil.    Now onto the recipes! 

Both of these recipes said they would take roughly 30 mins, and when cooking them simultaneously it took me about an hour and a half, but that includes cleaning.  I'm one of those people that prefers to have everything prepped before I start cooking anything.  This is through much learning. If I'm across the kitchen chopping or whatever, and something is cooking that I'm supposed to be half watching, well let's just say that does not work out well.  This is not too different than most cooking shows where most things are magically measured out and already washed and chopped, so the chef can focus on actual cooking.  Then, while I'm cooking if there is some waiting around for things to boil or simmer or whatever, I clean.  My kitchen is not that big, so generally I need that space for something else soon anyway, like plating, or my sink is simply overflowing so I must clean something.  So, that being said, I took me an hour and a half to make all this, and in the end my kitchen was clean except for the two pots the food was in.  Two thumbs up to me. 

Tips - For both of these recipes, use full fat coconut milk.  Worth it.  For the sugar, I use coconut sugar anyway in place of regular white sugar.  You can read about coconut sugar online, but basically your body breaks it down differently than regular sugar, in a good way. It's better for diabetics because of that.  We are not diabetic, but have family members who are, so have just gotten in the habit of using it.   However, most recipes I saw for Thai cuisine called for Palm or Coconut sugar.  

Thai Coconut Soup

Ingredients

• 4 cups chicken stock or broth
• 3 kaffir lime leaves, torn into large pieces
• 1 small Thai chili, halved
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
• 3-inch piece ginger, peeled and cut into 4 large chunks
• 1 stalk lemongrass, scored and cracked open
• 1 can coconut milk, full fat (13.5 oz)
• 2 Tbsp fish sauce
• 1-1/2 tsp coconut sugar
• Juice of 2 limes
• 4 oz shiitake mushrooms, sliced and cooked.
• salt and pepper
• 2 Tbsp cilantro leaves, chopped

Directions

Bring the stock or broth to a boil over medium heat in a soup pot. Add the lime leaves, chile, garlic, ginger and lemongrass. Lower the heat to medium-low; cover the pot and gently simmer to let the spices infuse the broth, about 10 minutes.

Uncover the pot, and remove the lime leaves, ginger, chile, garlic and lemongrass with a slotted spoon, and discard.  Stir in the coconut milk, mushrooms, fish sauce, sugar and lime juice. Simmer about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into a individual serving bowls. Garnish with the cilantro. 

The Red Curry ended up WAY easier than I thought it would be!  While the soup took a bit of prep, I can see making Red Curry when I may not have a ton of time.  Chopping up the chicken took the most time of anything.  This would also be great with shrimp or tofu! 

Thai Chicken Red Curry

Ingredients

• 1.5 lb chicken, cut into cubes (I prefer thighs, they are more flavorful than breasts)
• 2 medium red bell peppers, sliced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp red curry paste
• 1 can coconut milk, full fat, 13.5 oz
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp coconut sugar
• 5-6 kaffir lime leaves, julienne
• 2 cups cooked jasmine rice

I like to get everything prepped and ready to go next to my stovetop

You can server over rice, or with rice on the side

all done!

So my first try at both Thai Red Curry and Coconut Soup were a success! I'm thinking both will be even better as leftovers.....  

Pancakes and Paella Re-Launch & Greek Yogurt Parfaits

Welcome to Pancakes and Paella! I’m considering this is a re-launch of my blog, since I’ve largely neglected it for 2 years, and even then, wasn’t all that active for a while.  Why the name? Well, I like pancakes, ALOT; it’s really the ultimate comfort food for me.  Paella? – example of my experimenting nature and desire to cook and eat new and interesting things.

Before we get to the parfait.....a little bit about me.  Know that I am not a writer; I’m an engineer.  So apologies in advance for my overuse of the exclamation point and rambling that may occur.  This is basically stream of consciousness.   Ok, now on to food -  My food philosophy is this – I believe wholeheartedly as Hippocrates said that Food is Medicine.  We are what we eat.   Michael Pollan is my food idol, and these three food rules of his sum up my eating philosophy perfectly:

I’ve been trying to eat food free of chemicals, preservatives, and processed food for close to 5 years now. Some call this “clean eating”, I didn’t know that term at the time, maybe it wasn’t around, but that’s what I call it now.  I’m not going to tell you it’s easy, because it’s not, but it’s a lot easier now then when I started.  Grocery stores near us have A LOT more options now (the Publix Greenwise line is awesome).  I still eat out, especially when I’m traveling, but am more picky about it.  I also do eat frozen meals, I just pick the kind that have ingredients that I can pronounce and generally are organic.  Am I all organic in what I eat? No. It’s seriously too hard.  We don’t have access to a wide range of organic things here in our local town, and I'm not driving 30 mins to Whole Foods every time I need something.  BUT, if you can do that from a convenience standpoint, I’m all for it.   I also realize and am very passionate about economic disparity as it relates to food and health.  I am lucky that I can even choose to eat this way, because I can afford it.  Many don't have this choice, and eat processed cheap food and fast food because it’s all they can afford.  There is no deciding if the organic strawberries are worth the extra $2.  The entire subsidy of the food industry is totally out of whack.  It's no mystery why the most economically disadvantaged also have some of the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, and other preventable health issues.  Doctors can prescribe pills, but not fruits and vegetables.  Our society needs to fix this folks.  

Back on topic - My weakness is sweets. I have a MAJOR sweet tooth.  Always have.  When I do have sweets, I do try and eat the “healthiest” sweets I can, meaning nothing processed or full of chemicals, additives, etc.  Still not healthy, but no poisonous either.  Also, I’m not perfect by any means when I talk about how I eat.  Generally, I feel like I do a pretty good job most of the time, so if I eat horribly some of the time it’s not the end of the world.   My weaknesses are Sonic hot fudge sundaes, donuts (NOT cake-y donuts, yuck), and any chocolate cake.   I will eat those things when tempted, which means if I see it with my eyeballs.   So yes, you will see pics of donuts and cakes and crazy sweet and delicious things on this blog as well as kale, quinoa, tofu, and kefir. 

Chocolate Ganache cake I made for my father in law's birthday this year

I’m a pretty adventurous eater thanks to my husband Zac.  Not that I was super picky before, but since we met he has really helped me to try just about anything (I'll try most everything at least once), and I’ve found a lot of things I now love that I used to think I hated (like stuffed mushrooms).   We love to eat, and you’ll see a lot of what I post here is of our food adventures outside of our kitchen.  I’m also lucky to be married to a guy that also loves to cook, so we have fun doing it together!  Zac is often our sous chef, doing the chopping and prepping, while I’m cooking.

Us.

 

Our dog. 

So, with this blog relaunch, my goal is to play a bit of catch up and post about what we’ve been up to lately, or at least the highlights.  Also current stuff of course.  Likely all mismatched chronologically.  Here’s a preview…..

First totally from scratch cinnamon rolls

We have a Whole Foods now! Well, 30 mins away, but still excellent news.
Love the free cheese, especially the cave aged variety. (I've never actually heard
of cave aged...)

Miami!

Dessert in Key West at a place actually called Better Than Sex

Homemade Ribs.  UA football game on TV.  Good day. 

My first Wisconsin cheese curd

Fresh Alabama farm raised shrimp! Said shrimp cooked in the Quinoa dish below...

Shrimp and Artichoke Quinoa

My first "Sheet Pan" Dinner.  Genius idea whoever came up with it. 

Now on to a recipe! We have both been eating this for a couple of years, nearly every day.  It’s our breakfast – Greek Yogurt Parfait. I make a variance of this a lot as overnight oats with largely the same ingredients.   When we first started eating plain Greek yogurt, neither of us thought it tasted “good”.  I thought it was honestly pretty intolerable.  I was used to sugar laden single cups full of healthy sounding things, but at the end of the day had just as much sugar as a donut, which no one thinks is healthy, yet I thought the yogurt cups were healthy.   Most of the pre-flavored kind are full of not-good fillers and additives too (you need to read the labels).  So, plain Greek yogurt it is, and we flavor and add things to it that we know are good for us, and are filling.  Most of these ingredients are said to boost metabolism too, so that’s a plus.

Recipe:

Greek Yogurt Parfait Breakfast

Ingredients and Directions:

Refrigerated portion – put the following in a small container, cover, and refrigerate.

3/4 cup Greek yogurt – plain

¼ cup plain Kefir (good for your gut health!)

½ cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

1 tbsp ground flax seed

Non-refrigerated dry goods – put the following in another small container and cover.

¼ cup plain granola.  Read the ingredients and get as plain Jane as you can. 

1 tbsp chia seeds

¼ cup pepitas

1 tbsp almonds, shape of your choice, we like them sliced

Dash of cinnamon.

This recipe is for a Zac portion size.  I make mine with just a little less of everything, I don’t have exact measurements, just a little less.  You can play around with the exact amount that makes you full and keeps you full.  Greek yogurt has a ton of protein, a good reason to use that vs non-Greek varieties.

Some hints:  Grind your own flax seed with a coffee grinder (don’t use it for coffee and this though). It’s much cheaper and is better for you.  Keep flax seed (whole or ground) in the refrigerator as it goes bad quickly. Frozen blueberries can sometimes be better as when they thaw, they release juices which end up flavoring the yogurt once you mix it all up.  Score.  Also, the reason to package these separately is so the dry good don’t get mushy.  Mushy is not tasty. Each Sunday we generally make enough servings for the entire week, stack up the yogurt/blueberry containers in the fridge, and stack up the dry goods on the counter.  Easy grab and go each morning before work!

Also feel free to sub in walnuts or any other nut in place of the almonds too.  Almonds have more of a metabolism boosting effect than some other nuts, which is why we chose them.   I’m still waiting for a grass-fed Greek plain yogurt to be available here, that would be the ultimate!

I’ll post my overnight oat variation soon!  Overnight oats are awesome.  I despise regular hot oatmeal (consistency is just awful, right?) but love overnight oats!

Other posts on the horizon soon (hopefully), in no particular order:

• Shrimp dishes.   Lot of shrimp dishes – (backstory, I recently bought a lot of very tasty fresh locally raised Alabama shrimp, details to follow).  
• Hot and Hot Fish Club  
• Emeril! 
• That time we went to Miami and the Fl Keys  
• Thai coconut-y things 
• Gumbo

  

Me with my very fresh alive-the-day-before super jumbo shrimp!

Weekend Getaway - Charleston SC

The weekend before Thanksgiving Zac and I spent Thursday - Sunday on a long weekend trip to Charleston SC and Savannah, Georgia.  I detailed our amazing meal at Husk in Charleston here, check it out.  Friday began with work, but by midday we were ready to conquer historic Charleston. We started off with lunch at Slightly North of Broad, or S.N.O.B.  

We started with a couple of appetizers, the Butternut Squash Bisque with pecan crumble, creme fraîche, and Steamed Local Clams parsley, roasted garlic cream, grilled baguette. 

For an entree, Zac ordered the Shrimp and Grits with house sausage, country ham, tomatoes, green onions, Geechie Boy grits.

I had one of the specials, which was sauteed shrimp with vegetables and avocado salad. All the food was good, shrimp and grits was probably my favorite!  Bisque had the perfect consistency, it was surprisingly light and airy.

After lunch we set about exploring the peninsula of historic Charleston on our own self paced walking tour.  Charleston is a beautiful city, and I particularly enjoyed the area south of Broad on Meeting Street. Below is the Calhoun mansion, so pretty! 

We walked down to the tip of the peninsula to Battery street and park.  The blue skies, blue water, and trees (and perfect upper 50s low 60s temps) made the park a perfect place to take a break and enjoy the scenery!

Ft Sumter in the distance

Along the bay on E Battery

Zac in front of the cobblestone Vendue Range, cute street!

For dinner we headed southwest of Charleston to the Folly Beach area to Bowens Island Restaurant. We passed the restaurant and went all the way to Folly Beach to catch a glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean, and got there just at sunset! 

Folly Beach

We watched the sun completely set over at Bowen's Island Restaurant, which is a few minutes inland from the Ocean.  What a show!  A small boat passing by made it that much better, it was beyond perfect.  One of the best sunsets ever.

Now down to business - dinner!  We knew we had to get the oysters, heard good things about them here, and decided to get a sampling of just about everything.  At Bowen's you order at a counter, find your table, and then listen up when your food is ready. Pretty casual place.  For the oysters, they give you a ticket and instruct you to go downstairs to the "Oyster room" where your batch is steamed fresh just for you.  I handled getting the oysters.  We ordered a tray, not really knowing what that meant.  It literally was a tray, like at a cafeteria, full of oysters.

One tray of oysters

Large sampler platter

Frog-more Stew aka Low Country Boil

All of the food was delicious and exactly what we were hoping for! So let me tell you about the oysters.....I wish we had a better photo, or better yet a video of what shucking those oysters was like. It's not shucking AN oyster but taking this huge chunk of what looked like ocean floor, which could have 5-10 oysters of varying sizes on each chunk.  Also, we had not actually shucked any oysters ever, much less thus mass of ocean floor like substance I'm describing.  But we are brave and adventurous, right? Right, we don't even hesitate.  

I dive right in.  Not to brag, but I'm a natural.  Zac said I looked like an otter or some other marine mammal analyzing it's prey, and immediately figured it out as if my life depended on it and shucked away. I cracked the code.  Anyway, it was a LOT of fun.  I shucked and shucked to the point one of the waitresses must have taken notice and brought ANOTHER HALF TRAY that another nearby couple had given up on.  They did not crack the code.   I could have used the towel more effectively to hold them, lesson learned.   Another tip - you can't be afraid to get your hands completely covered with seafood plunder.

Very glad we went to Bowen's Island Restaurant! If back in that area could see us going back there again.  It was pretty affordable too, particularly the oysters (I guess since they make you do half the work!)  Fun casual place with great fresh seafood!

Later that night, we ventured out again to experience Charleston at night and hunt out some tasty sweet treats.  We first stopped at Belgian Gelato on Vendue Range.  I have never thought to put ice cream on a hot waffle.  Given my love of waffles, I don't see how I've never seen or had this before! We ordered one of the waffles with cappuccino gelato, chocolate, and coffee sauce.  It was SO GOOD.  Waffle + ice cream + hot fudge type sauce = heaven.

The night life picked up a bit near Market street, but we were actually a little surprised how quiet it was everywhere else. Since so much of historic Charleston is residential, I guess this shouldn't be so surprising after all.  We had Kaminsky's dessert bar the night before after Husk, and didn't have to wait at all (it was a Thursday night).  The line was now out the door and down the street! Tip - go to Kaminsky's on a night other than Friday at 9pm.

We kept walking, turned north on King Street, passed the College of Charleston area, until we got to Macintosh. Zac had heard good things, so we wanted to stop in just for a small bite (meaning a 2nd dessert, but it's a vacation, so it's ok).  Zac ordered the RC cola cake (with pop rocks on the inside!) which came with strawberry shortcake home made ice cream.  I got a coffee and the home made ice cream sampler.

Ok now we were officially full, but what a great ending to our time in Charleston!!  We Ubered back to the hotel, got a great night's sleep, and hit the road to Savannah Saturday morning.

So long Charleston, thanks for a tasty and fun couple of days!  

Next up - Savannah, GA!  Tune in, post coming soon.....