Yellow Curry - Thai Style - Vegetarian (or not)

Some people love curry, some people hate curry.  Some love the spices like lemongrass, Some hate the spices.  Some love the heat, some hate the heat.  And it can be definitely not diet friendly (big bowl of rice and coconut milk?  Tastes great, but calorie wise, not good)

Well, with the Wife having abandoned us for the evening, leaving just Daughter #3 and myself at home, it was time for some curry.  We like the spice, and Marjorie likes some heat, so it was time for Yellow Curry, Thai Style.

I have no idea if this is true, but I find that store bought yellow curry pastes are milder than green and red curry pastes.  Now of course if you make your own you can control the heat, but lets face it, most of us 1) do not have the time, 2) don't have access to all the ingredients and 3) when we do, don't what to pay the price ($4 for lemongrass?  no thank you).  So do what most people do (including Asians , buy it already made, in the store.  I suggest going to a local Asian grocery, such as L'Oriental here in Eau Claire, but even the paste in most groceries is going to be ok.  The advantage of going to an Asian grocery is they will have many brands and you can ask the staff there about them.  I use Mae Ploy brand.  The stuff lasts forever in the fridge once opened.

The key for me to make Asian food more diet friendly is not to do away with ingredients like coconut milk and rice, but to fill the dish with other things so you don't use so much.  So the key filler ingredients in mine are white potatoes and sweet potatoes - they give you starch, but better starch than rice.

Ingredients
8 oz of Tofu, drained and pressed (or at least blotted) dried
1 can coconut milk
1 cup vegetarian stock
1 tbs fish sauce
1 red, yellow or orange pepper, sliced thin
1 bag frozen peas
8 oz white potato, pealed and diced
8 oz sweet potato, pealed and diced
1 cup fresh pineapple, diced
1-3 tbs Yellow Curry Paste, use to taste (start small, you can add more)
1 tbs Tamarind Paste (ok, you don't have to, but it also lasts forever)
8 oz Chicken thighs, diced, if not veg
1 cup rice
Cilantro, diced
Lime, quartered
1 Fresh Jalapeno, sliced thin (if you like some more heat)

Recipe
Add coconut milk, fish  sauce and veg stock to pot (le crueset works great here).  Bring to low boil
When heated, add Yellow Curry Paste and Tamarind.  Stir until mixed.  Tamarind may not fully disintegrate.
Add White and Sweet potatoes.  Cook until they are done to your taste.
Add Peas and Tofu, cook 4 minutes
Add sliced peppers, cook 1 minute
Serve

When you start the meal, start the rice separately and hold warm till the Curry is done.  I hate overcooked veg in my curry.
Serve Cilantro, Lime and Jalapeno on the side for people to add as desired

If you want meat, what I like to do is mix 1 tbs oil and 1 tbs yellow curry paste - mix together and let sit 15 minutes for the oil to pick up the flavors.  Then fry the chicken in the oil/curry paste (separately from the curry if you want to keep the main dish veg).  Hold and serve with the curry for those who want meat.

I like my curry wet - more like soup.  So I cook most of this with the top on the pan to prevent evaporation. If you like it dry, cook with the top off.

Spicy Peanut Noodles (not really plagiarized recipes)

Does anyone really buy cookbooks anymore?  Does anyone even use them?  I mean other than as eye candy for the living room table or to fill space on a bookshelf?  I certainly don't (at least very often).

Instead, it is the Internet.  Yes, thanks to Al Gore, we have the internet were all things live in a kind of matrix, waiting for us to explore.  Kind of crazy really.

Which brings us to today's recipe - Spicy Peanut Noodles.  Now the recipe below is not plagiarized  exactly.  Well sort of....borrow from one source it's plagiarism, borrow from two it is research, after all.....

Ok then.  I found this first at Pink-Parsley, via a link on Pulse and Food Republic.  Which of course gave the HT to Pinch of Yum, which collected it from FN Just Recipes, which got it off of Serious Eats  by an author who has her own blog at Once Upon a Chef, but cites no one.  Perhaps she is Al Gore...

So, this is really research, right?

Well, what it is is great.  Great made a number of ways, vegetarian or not.  It is easy to make vegetarian and them simply toss in cooked chicken or shrimp for those of us who miss it.  You can make it spicy, or not.  Also dirt simple to take to a pot luck - make it the night before in it's constituent pieces, bag them, refrigerate, then mix all together at the pot luck.  If you have different veggies  use them.  Pieces of spicy fried tofu would be a nice addition


Dressing Ingredients 
5 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs water
2 Tbs natural peanut butter (I like chunky)
2 Tbs sesame oil
1 Tbs rice wine vinegar
1 Tbs minced fresh ginger
1/2 Tbs honey
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp Siracha or Sambal - use more if you like heat, less if you don't
1 tbs Sate Seasoning from Penzey's if you do not have the ginger and garlic on hand
1/3 cup peanuts - I use unsalted dry roasted

Salad Ingredients 
1 cup julienne red and yellow pepper.  Heck, why not just one red and one yellow (or orange or green or whatever you have)
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup shredded zucchini, squeezed in a paper towel to remove excess moisture
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 cups chopped or shredded cooked chicken breast or 1 lb cooked shrimp (cook in the same sauce above if you like)
8 oz. cooked soba noodles or linguine or rice noodles
2-3 Tbs minced fresh basil - thai basil prefered
2-3 Tbs minced fresh cilantro
crushed red pepper flakes, to taste

Recipe
For the dressing, combine all the ingredients (except peanuts) in a food processor and puree until smooth.  Add the peanuts, and pulse a few times until coarsely chopped.  Season with salt or crushed red pepper flakes to taste.  If you just want to whisk it together, that works also.  It does not bother me if the peanuts are whole

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for the salad.  Pour the dressing over the top, and toss to combine.

Before serving, top with cilantro and basil, and sprinkle with additional red pepper flakes to taste.

Rice Palace - Not Ready for Prime Time

I love Thai food, and it is nice to have good Thai restaurants in both Eau Claire (Pad Thai) and Chippewa Falls (Mali Thai).  So I was looking forward to some great food at the newest Thai restaurant in Eau Claire - Rice Palace.  Unfortunately, I was very disappointed.

Setting was Friday evening, about 6pm.  Not very busy, but with a decent crowd with customers coming in and out.  The two of us ordered Tofu Pad Thai (mild) and Drunken Noodles with Pork (spicy).  Prices are very reasonable and the food was delivered to our table fast.  That was the only good thing about the meal.

Both items were very greasy - as in pooling oil on the plate greasy.

The Pad Thai had an overpower taste of anise - a common ingredient in Thai food, but not in Pad Thai, and it overpowered the dish.  It also appeared to be comprised largely of just noodles, tofu and sauce - no egg, no onion, no peanuts on the top, no cilantro, no bean sprouts.  I understand there are many ways to make this dish, but this was a bad way.

Drunken Noodles w/pork was good, if also pooling in oil.  Very spicy (which is how I ordered it, so points for getting that right)  I do suggest that you try medium first.

Noodles for both dishes were cooked appropriately, but Thai food should never be pooling in oil.  Never.

Rice Palace does have a limited beer selection

It was also one of the few times leftovers stayed on the plate and did not go home.


Link to Yelp Review

Curry - All Things Curry

Curry is one word that really should be about 30 words, because there are so many types, some similar, some not.  If you want the complete breakdown, the all mighty Wiki is as good of a place to start as anywhere, but it can be broken down in simpler terms.

In general terms, Curry has two main branches - Indian and Asian.  In addition, curry can be Wet or Dry.

The first thing to note is that Curry is really a grouping of spices, not a single spice.  

Indian Curry is generally dry ground spices, and either cooked dry or cooked in a sauce.  Popular spices include turmeric, chilly, ginger, coriander, cloves, cinnamon, peppercorns, cardamom, cumin seeds, garlic, saffron, mace, fenugreek, caraway seeds, and poppy seeds.  Onion, garlic, ginger and tomatoes are often then used to make the sauce (sometimes called gravy).

If your going to try Indian Curry recipies, I suggest you buy your curry from Penzey's.  Not only great spices, but they will give you a lesson on the different types of curry from India.  Note not all Indian curries are hot, although many are.

Thai Curry tends to be wet curry, often coming in a paste, and then often using coconut milk as the carrying agent,  more of a soup than just a seasoning.  The key ingredients in the majority of Thai curry pastes are mostly wet and fragrant: fresh chilies, lemon grass, galangal, garlic, shallot, kaffir lime,cilantro roots, and shrimp paste (kapee). That last bit is from TempleofThai.com.  Often you will see in the store it labeled red, yellow or green curry.  Generally you can buy decent Thai curry at the grocery store, but if you want to be adventurous, go to a local asian store.  Thai curry almost always spicy when you buy them pre-made, so be careful when adding them to your cooking

I love curry - but it tends to be spicy, so you need to pay attention when cooking.  In general terms I find it easier to buy mild Indian curry than Thai curry.