Chai Pani's Malabar Chicken:

I'm dying to make this!!


Source:  http://aspicyperspective.com/2010/08/chai-pani-dream-incarnate.html

Recipe: Chai Pani’s Malabar Chicken Curry

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil + 1 Tb.
• 1 ½ tsp. mustard seeds
• ½ tsp. fenugreek seeds
• 12-15 curry leaves, finely chopped
• 2-3 small dried red chiles (cayenne, bird)
• 4 cups chopped red onion (2 large onions)
• 2 ½ Tb. grated ginger
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 1 ½ Tb. ground coriander
• 1 tsp. turmeric
• ½ cup chopped cilantro (leaves and/or stems)
• 3 cups chopped tomatoes
• 2 Tb. fresh lime juice
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk

Instructions

1. Pour ½ cup oil in a large sauce pot over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves, and red chiles.
2. Sauté for 1-2 minutes, then add the ginger and onions. Reduce the heat to medium-low and allow the onions to brown until they are dark and soft enough the smash with a spatula—about 25-30 minutes.
3. Add the chili powder, coriander, turmeric, and cilantro—mix together.
4. Raise the heat back to medium and add the tomatoes, salt, and lime juice. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have disintegrated and the oil separates out—15-20 minutes.
5. Add ½ cup of water and 1 cup coconut milk. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat.
6. In a separate skillet, heat 1 Tb. of oil over high. Add the chicken to the skillet and brown on all sides, leaving the centers pink—2-4 minutes.
7. Add the chicken to the curry and simmer 5-7 minutes until the chicken has cooked through. Serve over basmati rice.
8. Cook’s Notes: I went to a small foreign market to collect some of the unique ingredients for this recipe. There, I had no trouble finding everything on my list. Extra curry leaves can be wrapped and frozen for later use. This is a GREAT make-ahead! Letting the curry sit overnight enhances the flavors!
9. *To make this a “slow carb” recipe, serve over lentils instead of rice.

Preparation time: 15 minute(s)

Cooking time: 1 hour(s)

Number of servings (yield): 4

Red Lentil Curry: it's what's for dinner soon!

Red Curry Lentils

Author: Pinch of Yum

Prep time:  15 mins

Cook time:  30 mins

Total time:  45 mins

Serves: 6

 

Ingredients

• 1½ cups lentils, rinsed and picked over
• ½ large onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons red curry paste
• ½ tablespoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• ½ teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon minced ginger
• a few good shakes of cayenne pepper
• 1 14 ounce can tomato puree
• ¼ cup coconut milk or cream
• cilantro for garnishing
• rice for serving

Instructions

1. Cook the lentils according to directions. Drain and set aside.
2. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add the onion and saute for a few minutes until fragrant and golden. Add all the spices (curry paste, garam masala, curry powder, turmeric, cayenne, sugar, garlic, ginger) and stir fry for 1-2 minutes. Add the tomato sauce; stir and simmer until smooth.
3. Add the lentils and the cream. Stir to combine and simmer for another 15-20 minutes (the longer, the better)! Serve over rice and garnish with cilantro.

Notes

Even better the next day! For a vegan option, sub oil for butter.   

Asian cabbage wraps:

These wraps were so delightfully easy and tasty!!  

Source:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/asian-lettuce-wraps/detail.aspx

I subbed cabbage from my CSA for the lettuce, and then followed the recipe for the rest!  Awesome dinner.

Ingredients Edit and Save

Watch video tips and tricks

• 
• Grilled Skirt Steak with Asian BBQ Sau…

• 
• Chinese Pork Dumplings

• 
• Spicy Orange Zest Beef

• 
• Sweet and Sour Pork

• 
• Spicy Kung Wow Chicken

• 
• How to Make Fried Rice

• 
• Asian Lettuce Wraps

• 
• Asian Orange Chicken

• 
• Pickled Ginger Asian Pear Coleslaw

• 
• Types of Cooking Oil

• 
• Garlic: Fresh Vs. Powdered

• 
• How to Peel and Chop Onions

Original recipe makes 4 servingsChange Servings

• 4 cups water
• 2 cups uncooked white rice
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 pound ground pork
• 1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 (14 ounce) package firm tofu, drained and cubed

• 2 carrots, shredded
• 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/4 teaspoon hot chile paste
• 1 head iceberg lettuce leaves, separated

Check All Add to Shopping List

Directions

1. In a saucepan combine the water and rice. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes, until water is absorbed. Set aside and keep warm.
2. Heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Cook the pork, green onions, and garlic for 5 to 7 minutes, or until lightly brown. Add the tofu, carrot, Hoisin, and soy sauce, stirring frequently until heated through. Remove from heat, and stir in the sesame oil and chile paste.
3. To serve: spoon a small amount of rice into each lettuce leaf, top with the stir-fry mixture, and drizzle with additional soy sauce or hoisin, if desired. Wrap the lettuce leaf to enclose the filling.

Kitchen-Friendly View

• PREP15 mins
• COOK32 mins
• READY IN47 mins

Footnotes

• Optional additional stir fry ingredHoisin sauce, also called Peking sauce, is a thick, reddish-brown sauce that is sweet and spicy, and widely used in Chinese cooking. It's a mixture of soybeans, garlic, chile peppers and various spices. It can be found in Asian markets and many large supermarkets. Look in the Asian or ethnic section. If this item is not in stock at your local store, ask your grocer to special order it for you. Most grocers will be happy to do this for their customers.

Pioneer Woman Leftover Turkey Pot Pie:

The "before baking" picture.
I highly recommend the PW link to Sylvia's Perfect Pie Crust.  Others just pale in comparison.

You can see my system for organizing online recipes in the background:  print out a page and keep it in a 3-ring-binder (ala "Mittens" ;)  )  and on the blog.  

  

Leftover Turkey Pot Pie

1 pie crust (1/2 of Perfect Pie Crust recipe)
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup finely diced onion
1/2 cup finely diced carrot
1/2 cup finely diced celery
2 cups leftover turkey, light and dark, diced or shredded (or both!)
1/4 cup flour
2 cups low-sodium chicken or turkey broth
splash of white wine (optional)
1 cup heavy cream
Frozen peas (optional)
Fresh thyme, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Melt butter in a skillet or dutch oven. Add onion, carrots, and celery, and cook until translucent (a couple of minutes.)
Add turkey and stir. Sprinkle flour over mixture and stir. Cook over medium heat for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly.
Pour in chicken or turkey broth, stirring constantly. Splash in wine (you can leave this out if you’d like.) Pour in cream. (May add frozen peas at this point if you’d like.)
Bring to a slow boil and allow mixture to cook and thicken for a few minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste (do not underseason), and fresh or dried thyme to taste. Do one final taste at the end and add what it needs.
Pour mixture into a casserole dish or deep pie pan.
Roll out crust so that it’s about 1 inch larger than the pan you’re using.
Place the crust on top of the pot pie mixture, and press crust into the sides of the dish. Cut vents in the top of the crust.
Bake for 30 minutes or until very golden and bubbly.
Allow to cool for a little bit before serving.

Serve with a large spoon.

Delicious!

"After" photo, post-baking, pre-digging-in.

It's awesome.  Quick, easy, and a great way for me to get my kids to eat tons of veggies! (Well, okay, mostly juts Finn...)

Source:  http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/11/quick-recipe-leftover-turkey-pot-pie/

Changes I made:

--  I leave out the cream/milk because I've been dairy free, or kids have been dairy free, for so long that it's just become habit.  It's also fewer calories that way.  :)

--  I add as many veggies as I can/want:  corn, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, onions, garlic, celery, etc.  Lots of CSA stuff!

--  With the Sylvia's pie crust recipe, I make one batch for 2 crusts, not 3.  If I make 3 they are too small/thin.

--  I use lots of thyme, but dried, as I rarely have fresh on hand.  LOTS of thyme!

Red Lentil Chili:

This is another recipe from my sister Renee.  It'll be one of my "meatless meals" so I have high hopes that you don't miss meat at all!  I haven't made it yet, but she ADORES it.  I did get my 4 lbs. of red lentils in the mail from Amazon, though, so now I'm all set!  I'll be using the last few of my CSA red bell peppers in it.  Sniff.  Ah, I'll miss my CSA so much this Winter!!

"Red Lentil Chili:

1 large onion, chopped (2 cups)
1/4 c vegetable oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes (I use cayenne pepper and add to taste--maybe 1/4 teaspoon.)
5 cups chicken broth
2 cups orange split lentils (don't use another kind of lentil)
28 oz. diced tomatoes, in juice
2 red bell peppers
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 Tablespoons brown sugar (optional)

In a heavy pot, cook the onion in oil for 10 minutes over low heat. Add the garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano, thyme, paprika, and pepper flakes; cook, stirring, for 3minutes. Stir in the chicken broth, lentils, and tomatoes; simmer for 40 minutes; add up to 1 cup water if the mixture becomes dry. 

Add the peppers and celery (I ran them through a food processor first) and simmer until lentils are cooked and veggies tender, about 30 more minutes. Stir in the brown sugar toward the end. Or not. If it's a little spicier than you'd prefer, the sugar can help balance it out a bit. But I leave it out more than half the time.

Serve over basmati rice. It’s even better as leftovers!"

Watercress Beet Salad:

We made this salad for two of our recent family birthday parties.  It's so delicious!  I hate beets, however, so we put those on the side rather than in the recipe.  I guess I'm just a sucker for anything curry.  However, I do love that it has a base of watercress and not boring old lettuce like so many bland salads these days!

I've now made the recipe with both the red wine vinegar and the fresh lemon juice.  I think I much prefer the lemon juice. The red wine vinegar just left too much tartness and we even had to add a little powdered sugar to cut that down.  If you have no lemons (FRESH is important...no canned lemon juice), obviously use the red wine vinegar...just be prepared for more tartness!! :)

Watercress Beet Salad

Curry vinaigrette (for 16 people):

4 cloves garlic

2 tsp. salt

8 tsp. curry powder

2 tsp. fresh ginger, peeled and grated

10 T lemon juice or red-wine vinegar

1 ½ c. olive oil

Salad:  4 bunches beets, scallions, apples, chopped walnuts, 4 bags watercress, 2 cartons crumbled goat cheese

Beets:  Leave 1 inch stems on, rinse, rub with oil, roast in ¼” water at 400 degrees 25-40 min. or until tender when pierced with knife.  Cool, peel, slice, toss with vinaigrette.

Heavenly Soup:

I got this recipe from my sister Renee.  We often eat it every St. Patrick's Day, because she doubles the cilantro in it and it's a delightful green.  It's a wonderful soup, especially if you are...like me...trying to include more meatless meals in your diet.  You don't miss meat in this soup at ALL.

It's also amazing with that Italian herb bread from allrecipes.com that I have on this blog...

"Carrot and Corriander (Cilantro) Soup

2 medium onions
6 large carrots
3 large potatoes (the kind you buy individually - baking potatoes)
1 bunch fresh cilantro (I used 2...more on that later)
8 cups chicken broth, made from soup base
2 cups heavy cream (I omit)
1/2 c. butter
salt and pepper

Peel vegetables. In a food processor, shred the heck out of the carrots, potatoes and onions (they looked pretty pulverized when I was done). 

Melt the butter in a large saute pan, and saute the vegetables for 15 minutes, covered. Add a little salt & pepper.

Transfer the vegetable mixture to a large stock pot, add chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low for 20 minutes, covered, until vegetables are tender. Chop the cilantro (again, I ran it through the food processor) and add. Puree the soup in a blender in batches. Return to the stock pot, stir in the cream. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve!

When my friend made it, it was a nice orangey color. But I decided I wanted a stronger cilantro flavor, so I used two bunches instead of one. The result was great in the taste department, but it was kind of green looking - a little like split pea soup. Maybe not as aesthetically pleasaing, but it was really like something you'd get as a first course in a fancy restaurant - SO good!"