Keep Calm and Curry On!

     Here in Vegas, there is a very renowned restaurant called “Lotus of Siam.” It’s not in the greatest part of town, it’s in the middle of a shopping center, and you wouldn’t take a second look at it if someone hadn’t passed along their secret. Inside that tiny restaurant, they make an amazing curry. Technically, multiple amazing curries, as well as lots of other delicious dishes. A woman and her daughter run the restaurant, and your order is served in a covered dish where you scoop hot rice from a rice cooker onto your plate and then pour your curry over it at the table. The walls are lined with signed celebrity photos of all the stars that have made a trip to their restaurant.

     I have made the trip there with friends and co-workers several times, and without fail, I spend the next month or so obsessed with ingredients that will get me those Thai flavors. This dish is so comforting and so delicious. It can be made with beef, chicken or shrimp and the sauce has that perfect balance of red curry and coconut milk. That sweet and salty balance is perfect over rice, and the addition of veggies and salted cashews pushes this over the edge. I think I could eat it every day.

     Before sharing the recipe, I must stress that curry powder cannot be substituted for Thai red curry paste. Curry powder is used in Indian curry, while red curry paste is a Thai curry. Indian curry has a sweet, slightly cinnamon-y flavor, while Thai curry has a salty-nutty flavor. It is my favorite curry by far. Now that we have cleared that up:

Ingredients:

1 lb. thinly sliced sirloin (or chicken or shrimp)

2 tbsp. canola oil

14 oz. can coconut milk

1 tbsp. red curry paste

2 tbsp. brown sugar

2 tbsp. soy sauce

8 cups chopped bok choy

1 sliced red bell pepper

½ cup salted cashews

½ cup chopped cilantro

Cooked rice

Steps:

1.     In skillet, sauté beef in 1 tbsp. oil until browned. Set aside.

2.     Spoon ½ cup cream from top of coconut milk and place in pan. Add remaining oil and bring to a boil. Add curry paste; cook and stir 5 minutes or until oil separates.

3.     Stir in brown sugar, soy sauce, and remaining coconut milk. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer for 5 minutes until thickened. Add bok choy and red pepper. Cook and stir 2-3 minutes until vegetables are tender. Stir in cashews, cilantro and beef. Heat through and serve over rice.

If You Can't Stand the Heat....

             The word “smothered” can sometimes be a very off-putting descriptor. “Smothered” by a herd of stampeding elephants, for instance, can inspire a horrifying visual. On a personal note, the word “smothered” reminds me of a chilly, windy camping trip from my childhood when my mom broke into my tent and cocooned me in a ridiculous amount of blankets in the middle of the night…However, when describing food, the word “smothered” is usually code for “ooey”, or “gooey”, or “this-is-so-good-I-could-kiss-you-on-the-mouth”! I love my sundaes smothered in hot fudge, I love my pb and j sandwiches smothered in jelly until it oozes out of the sides, and I love this Southwest Smothered Chicken. I will warn you, if you are a giant pansy when it comes to spicy food, this could be a jolt to your delicate taste buds. I will include some variations to lessen the heat, but I encourage you to man up and try the original version. For this photo, I served the chicken with sides of refried beans and Mexi-rice. (Dump some salsa and cheddar cheese over leftover rice and heat). Feel free to substitute your favorite Mexican sides. 

Here’s what you do:

1.     Flatten 4 chicken breast halves to ½ inch thickness. Sprinkle sides with ½ tsp each of cumin and cayenne. In a large skillet, cook chicken in 1 tbsp. oil over medium for 4 to 5 minutes on each side. It should be golden before continuing.

2.     Combine 1 cup frozen corn and 1 cup your favorite medium (mild if you like) salsa and spoon over chicken. Top each chicken breast with 1 slice of pepper jack cheese (or Monterey jack for less spice) and 2 slices of pickled jalapeno. (Pick ‘em off if they scare you)! Cover your pan and cook for 3-5 minutes until heated through and cheese is melted. Top each with sour cream or plain Greek yogurt.

What's Shakin' Bacon?!

      When I first set out to make this dish, I was not excited to try it. I thought, what is so exciting about some pasta with veggies and bacon?  Mind you, bacon and I have an excellent relationship, and I love pasta and fresh veggies, but just mentioning them does not do this dish justice. Something completely magical happens when you toss this Summer Carbonara together. Say it with me, folks, “car-bon-AH-rah.”A carbonara usually consists of spaghetti noodles and bacon, tossed with eggs and parmesan cheese. This variation adds all those yummy vegetables that are so perfect this time of year. Zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, basil…yum! Perfection! For a vegetarian version, you could omit the bacon, but let's face it, that would just be silly! Here’s how to do it:

1.     Cook 16 oz. spaghetti noodles in boiling, salted water. At the same time, place 12 slices bacon on a lightly-greased cookie sheet and bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Both the noodles and the bacon should be ready at about the same time.

2.     While you wait, chop up one large sweet onion, 2 small zucchini (I cut it into fourths lengthwise and then slice the pieces), 1 medium yellow squash, ¼ cup basil leaves, and 4 tomatoes.

3.     In a large sauté pan, pour 2 tbsp. olive oil and toss in the onion, zucchini, squash, and 2 tsp. minced garlic. Cook over medium until veggies are soft and onion looks opaque.

4.     Dump the cooked veggies into your serving bowl and cover to keep warm.

In the same pan, with the heat off, crack in two eggs and whisk them until well-blended. Turn the heat on low, and stir the eggs until they look frothy and yellow, but not yet scrambled. The egg should coat the back of a spoon. **Don't even THINK about omitting the eggs in this dish. That is where the magic happens! I promise, you will not regret it.

5. Drain your noodles and crumble your bacon. Dump the noodles into the same serving bowl with your veggies. Pour eggs over noodles and toss to coat. Stir in 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, ½ tsp. oregano, ¼ cup chopped fresh basil and your bacon. Don’t feel tempted to add much, if any, salt. The bacon and Parmesan add plenty on their own. Toss well and serve!

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum!

            I must say that 99% of my favorite desserts include extreme amounts of chocolate. On a dessert tray, my eyes don’t even register the apple tarts, New York cheesecakes, or crème brulees. Chocolate or bust, I say! So, this recipe is quite a departure from my usual desserts. There can only be one reason why I love this cake so much: RUM.  Rum and I go way back. I can’t pass a See’s candy counter without buying a piece (or three) of rum-chocolate nougat.  I look forward to Haagen-Dazs rum raisin ice cream in the summer, and on my 21^st birthday, my uncle’s gift to me was a big bottle of Bacardi. (My mom asked me to give it back to him, which I did, only to discover later that he had hidden it in my bedroom…so, of course, I kept it squirreled away in a boot in my bedroom closet…I still have that bottle of rum in our pantry). Anyway, rum is delightful, and so is this cake. Better still, it’s low-fat! What more can you ask for in a dessert? Low in fat, soaked in rummy goodness?! Yes, please!

Ingredients:

1 yellow cake mix

½ cup chopped toasted pecans

½ cup milk

¼ cup dark rum

¼ cup canola oil

¼ cup applesauce

2 eggs

Glaze: Combine ½ cup sugar, ¼ cup butter, 2 tbsp. water, 2 tbsp. rum. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook 5 minutes until thickened.

For cake:

Steps:

1.     Grease bundt pan. Add pecans to bottom of pan. In a large bowl, mix cake mix, milk, rum, oil, applesauce and eggs. Pour into pan, and bake at 325 for 45 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in pan.

2.     Drizzle prepared glaze over cooled cake. Use it all! It will soak into the cake and give the bottom ½ inch a syrupy rum flavor.

A Walk on the Healthy Side

Contrary to my previous posts, I generally cook quite healthy, especially since I don’t just cook for myself. I also feed my husband, Shawn, and his health is important to me. Once a week, I try to cook some kind of fish. Usually, I switch between salmon, tuna, and tilapia. If I just can’t get in the mood for fish, I try to do a vegetarian meal instead. (Vegetarian recipes coming soon)! My husband would probably eat spaghetti, pizza, and lasagna every day of his life and be completely happy, but that is a lot of red meat. So, I came across this fish recipe in Cosmopolitan magazine of all places. (seriously, if you ignore all the smutty articles and full-page lipstick ads, the recipes are darn good). Best of all, on a weeknight, you can make this lovely fish AND the sides in under 20 minutes.

Here’s what you need to do:

1.     Put a pot with 1 inch of water and 3 cups of broccoli florets on the stove. Cover the pot and allow broccoli to steam until bright green and tender. (Should be ready in 12 or so minutes).

2.     Meanwhile, peel 2 lbs. sweet potatoes and cut into chunks. Place in a microwave-safe bowl with a tbsp or two of water and microwave until tender, about ten minutes. Mash the potato chunks with ¼ cup butter and ¼ cup honey. Cover to keep warm.

3.     In a small bowl, mix together 1 ½ tsp. paprika, ½ tsp each salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Coat 4 tilapia fillets in spice mixture on both sides.

4.     Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in a sauté pan and place fillets in pan. Tilapia cooks very quickly! Once it has lost its pinkish-gray color and appears golden, it’s ready. 2-3 minutes per side.

5.     Drain broccoli and season with lemon-pepper.

**Note: In this photo, I used a mixture of broccoli and cauliflower and made a quick cheese sauce. However, I usually serve this with plain steamed broccoli. I just needed to get rid of a pesky head of cauliflower for this shot.