Thai Curry In A Hurry

Thai Curry with Tomato Chutney 

Chicken off the grill

Garnishes

Ah, Thailand.  Friendly people, great food, excellent prices, which reminds me of a trip to Krabi, on the southern coast, by an azure sea, with a beautiful beach, and fragrant coconut oil spread deliciously over…ah,but that’s another story.   I will say this.  There were vast amounts of Singha Beer involved and my recollection is as fuzzy as a cotton picker’s navel. 

Ok, curry.  Thai curry.  How is that different from Indian curry?  Are you nuts?  Taken leave of your senses?  Everyone knows that Indian curry comes from London and Thai curry comes from a really cute chick wearing a sarong.

This time, let’s forego the distant travel (biting tongue, holding back tears) and bring Thai curry to our own kitchen.  But, before we get started, let’s get one thing straight.  There are as many different Thai curries as there are Thai cooks.  So mine isn’t the Thai curry you remember from the drunken weekend in Bangkok? Dry up, quit whining, and pass me an icy bottle of Singha. 

A recipe for Tomato Chutney follows the curry recipe.

The Curry Recipe:

5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, trimmed

5 cloves garlic, minced

2-3 Tablespoons peanut, or other vegetable oil (30-45 grams)

1 yellow onion, peeled and sliced thinly (onion about the size of your fist)

2 14 oz cans coconut milk (.8 Liters) Open them one at a time.  You’ll see why in a minute.

3 Tablespoons curry powder (or to taste) I use a mixture of hot and mild.

1-2 Tablespoons garam masala.   I know this is an Indian mixture, but I like it.  Don’t have any?  Just season as necessary with more curry powder.

            2 Tablespoons fish sauce

            1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

            Black pepper for the chicken

Garnish: lemon wedges, fresh cilantro leaves, dried coconut, peanuts, cayenne pepper

1.     Salt and pepper the chicken pieces, and grill them.  When they’re done, cut into one-inch cubes.  For my European friends, an inch is about 2.5 mm

2.     As the chicken is grilling, heat the oil in a pan, add the garlic and stir.  Add the sliced onion and cook until wilted.

3.     Add the chicken, the first can of coconut milk, all the spices, and the fish sauce, and cook until all the spice is blended and the sauce begins to thicken.  If you don’t have enough sauce, add all or part of the second can of coconut milk.  Taste and add more salt, or spice as necessary.

4.     Serve over rice and garnish individually.

Tomato Chutney

I like to serve tomato chutney with my curry, even though it is definitely not Thai.

Easy to make.  Difficult to forget.

            1 Tablespoon oil

            1 Tablespoon red pepper flakes

            1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

            1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds

2 cans diced tomatoes, undrained

            1/2 lemon

            1/3 cup raisins

            1/2 cup sugar

            1/2 teaspoon salt

            Heat the oil in a pan and add the spices.  When the seeds start to jump, add the tomatoes.  Thin slice the lemon half and place the slices over the tomato mixture.  Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until the sauce has thickened.  Stir in the raisins, sugar, and salt.  Stir until all sugar is melted and the sauce is consistent.

            Taste a scrumptious bite of the curry.  Takes you back, doesn’t it.  Makes you wish you were single, I mean you had more than a single serving.  Several questions about my Thai curry are constantly thrown my way.  Will Thai curry cause your heart to flutter and your eyes roll back?  No, but it will make you forget Budweiser, fill your nostrils with a strong scent of coconut oil, and leave you yearning for the beach.  Will Thai curry increase your sexual awareness to the point that your dog whines, while your wife, and many of the neighbors pretend to be asleep?  Likely, but no personal experience.  Wink, wink.

Magazine Monday #82: Pumpkin Coconut Pound Cake

In addition to having a lot of frozen rhubarb on hand to use up before I move at the end of September when I move to the coast, I also have a ton of pumpkin in the freezer I really don't want to go to waste, either. I have a lot of pumkin recipes kicking around, and this one I have had in my binder for a few years; it's from Cooking Pleasures Magazine, which I used to get with my membership in the Cooking Club of America. I let my membership to this lapse a few years ago because it was getting too expensive with all my other various subscriptions (which have also gone by the wayside by now, too) but I still have quite a few recipes I've saved I want to try.

I made this last week and gave it to some family members to eat; I certainly didn't need an entire cake hanging around my house, especially as it was my birthday and I knew I was going to have lots of leftovers from my celebration (more about that later). I did take one slice, however, just to taste. I'll give you my critique after the recipe! Originally, this recipe is accompanied by a creamy vanilla sauce, but I didn't do that. I also didn't add the pecans as I had just used mine up in another project.

Pumpkin-Coconut-Pecan Pound Cake, from Cooking Pleasures Magazine

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 can (15oz) pumpkin puree (I used 2 cups of my own pumpkin puree)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut (I used unsweetened)
1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease & flour a 12-cup bundt pan. In a large bowl, beat the butter until light & fluffy. Beat in the sugar until light & fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in pumpkin & vanilla until well combined. Mixture will look curdled.

2. In another bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. At low speed, slowly add them to the wet ingredients. Fold in coconut & pecans.

3. Spoon into prepared pan & bake...about an hour or so, or until done.

4. Cool & serve!

Now I really liked the combination of pumpkin & coconut. I love both flavours and they work well together. But this cake wasn't super pumpkin-y, which was disappointing. The colour was a bit pale. I also over-baked this slightly, so it was a bit dry. My bad for sure. The taste was good and I would try this again, just perhaps with a bit more pumpkin in it and I'd be a little more careful with the baking time.

If you make it, let me know how it goes!

"Say Yes to Noh!"

Best motto ever!

It comes from this company, Noh, which makes a whole bunch of Hawaiian mixes, one of which, the Haupia Pudding/Luau Dessert AKA Coconut Pudding, arrived in a nice box from that fair State, along with the macadamia nuts I've been making cookies with, courtesy my friend Jodi. Tonight, needing a sugar fix very badly, I made the pudding mix. It was dead easy, being one of those "just add water" jobbies.

The picture on the package doesn't look much like a pudding, however; the little squares of whiteness look like something much thicker than a pudding, but in the fine print on the package, the word "flan" is used. That's more like it. The pudding, once cooled in the fridge, set up in a very solid, flan-like way. You could cut it into any shape you wanted to.

The verdict: weird! Very weird! Solid, and not creamy the way a flan normally is. I guess that's not surprising given it only required me to add water to it. But it was also quite flavourless, which was disappointing; it tasted bland and watery. I added some chocolate chips to mine just to make it more interesting, but I still couldn't finish it in the end.

Oh well! It was still a bit of a tropical, cultural experience in my Canadian winter surroundings, so that alone was worth it.

Incidentally, the package also says this makes a great topping for cakes, but I wouldn't go there. I also don't think it would be good warm on ice cream, as the package also suggests. Go with Jello pudding instead!

Magazine Monday # 72: Bobby Flay's Toasted Coconut Cake

On Dec. 21 I had my annual Solstice feast and for dessert I had a really hard time choosing what to make. There were so many great magazine recipes to choose from, but eventually I settled on this little number by Bobby Flay, which appeared in the holiday issue of Food Network Magazine.

There were a lot of steps to this cake, but it was overall quite simple despite the lengthy recipe. And I have to say it was quite possibly the most ridiculously amazing cake I've ever made. I'm not kidding - I've made a lot of great cakes, but this one took the...er cake. There were no leftovers at all.

I will definitely be keeping this in my repertoire, but I did one thing different: I didn't make a coconut simple syrup. The cake was so moist that I didn't feel it needed to be brushed with anything. I was also far more liberal with the Malibu I went to the liquor store specifically to purchase (I only go in there when looking for baking & cooking ingredients and I don't know my way around at all, so luckily the staff is quite helpful there even though I get funny looks from time to time). Also, the buttercream was way too buttery. I would probably use half a cup less the next time, and I had a lot leftover, too. The coconut custard was divine; there was some of that leftover too, which I just spooned from the bowl.

The recipe is here. I was so impressed with this recipe that with an Amazon gift card I got for Christmas courtesy my good friend Charlie, I ordered the new Bobby Flay's Throwdown cookbook. I'm very much looking forward to receiving it because I enjoy the show a lot.

Coconut Muffins

Coconut is one of my favourite flavours, and last week I saw a recipe for Tropical Coconut Bread on Denise's blog, Keeper Worthy Recipes. If you don't already read Denise's blog, I encourage you to go on over and take a peek. She is also Donna-FFW's sister, incidentally, which is how I happened upon KWR to begin with. I love it when blogging becomes a family affair!

Anyway, since I'd already decided to make the Sour Cherry & Buttermilk Loaf from the previous post, I decided to turn the coconut bread into muffins. I used my king-size muffin pan and my mini muffin pan with mini silicone muffin cups. I got 6 king-size muffins and 11 minis.

This is one great recipe! The texture of the muffins was right on - light and fluffy but still with enough density to set it apart from a cake - and the flavour was coconutty without being overpowering. They weren't too sweet, like coconut pudding can be.

The recipe is here.

Thanks Denise; this recipe is definitely keeper-worthy!