Can I get a 2 and 5 year old to eat thai curry?

Tilapia in a thai coconut curry sauce, to be exact.  I’ve got the fact that the five year old loves fish on my side. And she’ll eat carrots and sugar snap peas. The two year old is a hard sell.

Speaking of the two year old…imagine this. I had my recipe written on the back of an old bill’s envelope. Ingredients out. Pan hot and ready. The recipe is coming together perfectly. It’s the best (dare I say it?) curry I’ve made and the two year old is crying from the living room, saying his tummy hurts. I finish dinner, get it dished up, and put on their little table. The five year old inhales it, green curry sauce, snap peas, carrots, brown rice and all. The two year old whines. Henry and I debate whether or not he was constipated or was going to have diarrhea.

One vote for diarrhea. One for constipated. We continue eating. The two year old even tries some of the tilapia. Whines some more, squeezes out a few tears. Then silence. And then the muggy stench. Afraid to look, Henry finally lifts the shirt and checks the diaper. Doesn’t even need to lift the shirt–or can’t rather. It’s stuck to the toddler’s back.

Poop 1

Dinner 0

I sense a reemerging theme in my new life. And it’s smelly.

Tilapia with Green Coconut Curry

Post Script:

The curry was damn good. Please try it. Tweak it. I added some fish sauce, sriracha, sugar snap peas, and carrots instead of the veggies the recipe suggested. Delicious.

Ok, you caught me.

I played hooky from yoga again. Tomorrow, my irresponsibility stops. Promise.

In other news, yesterday, I attempted to make Smothered Chicken. It smelled amazing. All of the ingredients were fresh and delicious. But. In this instance, the parts were better than their sum. And, holy grease bath, batman. I don’t know what I did (oh, besides the whole cream, butter, cheese, and bacon grease…) to make it so greasy. Oh, wait. Nevermind.  I was going to blog about it, but yeah. No.

We are going to go pick up the little people later today, and we need groceries, so I started to menu plan.  We have tilapia in the freezer and Henry keeps begging me for ground beef tacos. The tilapia, I can work with. I will make this. The ground beef tacos? The last time we made tacos, we can a coinciding stomach flu hit our house. The last thing I ate before, ahem…I ralphed? Those tacos. We haven’t eaten it since. Henry loves Mexican food–and every time we go out to a Mexican restaurant, he orders Chile Colorado. I think if I make it for him as a surprise, he’ll forget about the tacos. I will likely use this recipe.

In other news, I went through a box this morning that included:

• love letters from my first love (circa 2000)
• letters from my ex-mother in law (bring on the crazy)
• old grammar tests (damn, I did good!)
• letters students wrote me for my birthday during student teaching (circa 2009)
• papers I wrote in high school

Wow. What a trip.

Happy Friday! Gotta finish cleaning the apartment before the kiddos get here to wreck it! 🙂

Lazy Sunday Morning: Interesting Recipes from the Web

• Chicago Style Spicy Cheese-Caramel Popcorn. Oh, my. During the holidays, when everyone else groans and rolls their eyes when they receive a tin of popcorn (you know, the one with the Santa or puppy with a Santa hat on the front), I am gleeful. Cheese, butter, and caramel popcorn all mixed together?! Well, there is a cardboard divider that keeps them separated, but as soon as I can, I take the divider out and mix the hell out of the popcorn. I can devour a can of that popcorn in an embarrassingly short time span. Anyway, this recipe looks absolutely ridiculous. Tabasco, caramel, and cheese. Yes, please. 
• Stir fried Clams with Thai Chili Jam and Basil: One of the things that is so appealing about this recipe to me is the fact that it comes together quickly with just a handful of ingredients. The major players of this dish are fresh, briny clams and Nam Prik Pao, which I have never worked with before. I think this would be a good recipe for someone who was interested in making Thai food, but a bit intimidated by unfamiliar ingredients or processes. If you weren’t interested in using clams, I’m sure you could substitute any protein–tofu, chicken, beef, pork–any of these would work well. 
• Boozy Watermelon Rosemary Lemonade: This recipe won a contest for Best Poolside Drinks. Doesn’t it make you wish summer would hurry up and get here? 
• Okonomiyaki: I have forever been intrigued by this dish. Has anyone had it before? I’d like to have it in a restaurant or prepared by someone who knew what they were doing before I try it for myself.
• Chocolate Thai Green Curry Cake: Please! Someone who bakes! Make this and blog about it…or better yet, send me a slice!

A Tale of Two Chickens: It was the breast of times…

I have spent way too much time Googling chicken recipes this afternoon.  An embarrassing amount of time.  No 4th of July celebrating for me today, as I am hiding and lurking in the shadows, keeping my hair dyeing disaster to myself.  I can’t get it fixed until tomorrow, so here I am, Googling chicken recipes.

I found two recipes that caught my eye.  The first one is from a favorite blogger, Closet Cooking.  Here is his Curried Honey Dijon Roasted Chicken recipe.

The next recipe that I want to try is from a new Food Network personality, Aarti Sequeira.  Her show is called “Aarti’s Party.”  Cringe-worthy name, huh?  It’s like the only way Food Network could commit to an Indian food personality if is they could find some cutesy way to make her more mainstream.  “Aarti’s Easy and Affordable Indian Meals” isn’t as charming as “Aarti’s Party,” I suppose. Anyway, I haven’t seen her show, but her food has good reviews and seems pretty delicious.  Here is her recipe for Roasted Chicken Breasts with Orange, Cardamom, and Turmeric.  

My plan is to make both recipes and use them as lunches to take to work this week.

So, what I have done is mixed the separate marinades and have placed the chicken breasts in their respective zip lock baggies.  They are resting peacefully in the fridge as I type this. Aarti’s recipe really doesn’t say to marinade the chicken, but instead, to mix the spices and juice with butter and to cover the chicken with the mixture and then roast soon thereafter . I’d like to cook all of my chicken at the same temperature and at the same time (in separate pans, of course), so I thought marinating Aarti’s chicken makes sense.  It will give the chicken time to soak up the orange, cardamon, and turmeric and I guess I will just add the butter last minute, right before roasting.

The Closet Cooking recipe is the baggie to the left; Aarti’s recipe is in my right hand.

Chicken update: 

I roasted all of the chicken breasts at the same time in the oven.  Silly me, I forgot to salt Aarti’s recipe.  I salted it last minute, while cooking in the oven, and it turned out ok, but still, sheesh.  Who forgets to salt a marinade?!  Anyway, to accompany these recipes, I also made a rice pilaf with toasted almonds, cranberries, green onions, cumin, and ginger.  I cooked a  cup of rice in two cups of chicken stock, some grated ginger, and cumin seeds.  After the rice was nearly done cooking, I chopped up three or so green onions, and added that to a huge handful of cranberries, and a handful of almonds I roasted in a small frying pan. When the rice was cooked, I added it to the nuts, fruit, and green onions.  It was such a delicious pilaf and it went perfectly with both chicken recipes.  We packed the chicken and rice for lunches this week and each recipe was a great success.

Sunday Morning Menu Planning

Sunday: 

• Lunch:   Out.  I think we will take a long walk this afternoon and eat wherever we end up. 
• Dinner:  Tacos.  Market of Choice has some ground beef on sale right now.   It wasn’t on sale, but I bought some anyway. 

Monday: 

• Lunch: Soup and/or sandwich
• Dinner: Leftovers

Tuesday:

• Lunch: Trader Joe’s convenience lunch.  Something frozen.  We’ll see what looks appetizing today.         
•  Dinner: French Lentil Caviar Salad with a Poached Egg

Wednesday:

• Lunch: Hummus, crackers, veg
• Dinner: Breakfast

Thursday:

• Lunch: TJ’s convenience lunch
• Dinner: Out (payday!)

Friday:

• Lunch: Out
• Dinner: Wing it

I’ve decided to micromanage my week’s meals a bit more than usual.  What I usually do is make a list of a few dishes on the weekend, cook them, and divvy them up for lunches and dinners and call it good.  The problem I still run into, however, is the temptation to eat out, even when we cannot afford it–even when we have leftovers.  I am so tired when I get home–too tired to cook and leftovers just don’t sound good on some nights.  So, I’d like to start choosing some quick and easy meals that I can cook in minutes on weeknights so that I don’t have any excuses to eat out.

Baby Steps into Indian Cooking

Let me be the first to admit:  I know nothing about Indian cooking.  Not one damn thing.  And the term “Indian food” is pretty meaningless if you consider, according to Wikipedia, there are over 30 regional styles of cuisine in India.  What someone cooks in Northern India is going to be completely different from what someone cooks in Southern India.  So, as I peruse recipes, I feel completely lost–geographically and gastronomically. For your information, here is a list of the regional cuisines.

 

 

• Andaman and Nicobar Islands
• Andhra Pradesh
• Arunachal Pradesh
• Assam
• Bihar
• Chhattisgarh
• Daman and Diu
• Goa
• Gujarat
• Haryana
• Himachal Pradesh
• Jammu & Kashmir
• Jharkhand
• Karnataka
• Kerala
• Lakshadweep
• Madhya Pradesh
• Maharashtra
• Manipur
• Meghalaya
• Mizoram
• Nagaland
• Orissa
• Puducherry
• Punjab
• Rajasthan
• Sikkim
• Sindh
• Tamil Nadu
• Tibetan
• Tripura
• Uttar Pradesh
• Uttarakhand
• West Bengal

(Daunting, yes?)

According to Wikipedia:

“India is a diverse country with many regional cultures, each region has its own food specialties, primarily at regional level, but also at provincial level. The differences can come from a local culture and geographical location whether a region is close to the sea, desert or the mountains, and economics. Indian cuisine is also seasonal with priority placed on the use of fresh produce.”

The first and only time I ate real Indian food was at a friend’s wedding.  Since then, I have timidly tried my hand at a couple recipes.  Most have been disastrous.  I made a recipe a few months ago, with garam masala, and even though I thought it was terrible, Jeff said he liked it and ate every last bite.  I think my mistakes so far have been not really knowing what I’m aiming for, or what a dish is supposed to taste like before I make it.

Knowing my shortcomings and being completely intimidated by the scope of Indian cuisine, I went ahead last night and made some Indian food.  I got the recipes from Smitten Kitchen.  I made a yellow dal, a shredded cabbage salad, and black-eyed peas in a spicy goan curry.  The recipes were a little involved–but once I got the process down of cooking the pulses separately from the spices and vegetables, which need to be caramelized in their own pan, it got easier.  So, the worst part is that these recipes were a several pot and pan operation. That being said, it was worth the mess and dishes to clean afterwards.  Well worth it.

Cabbage salad

With last nights’ successes under my belt, I plan to make a couple more dishes today.  These Indian spiced potatoes look amazing.  And I will also make a red lentil recipe from Madhur Jaffrey.  The recipe is below.

Red Split Lentils With Cabbage (Masoor dal aur band gobi)

Madhur Jaffrey, Indian Cooking

From Smitten Kitchen

Serves 4 to 6

200 grams (1 1/4 cups) red split lentils (masoor dal), picked over, washed and drained
1.2 liters (5 cups) water
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 to 4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and cut into fine slices
225 grams (1/2 pound) cored and finely shredded cabbage
1 to 2 fresh, hot green chilies, finely sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 medium tomato, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon peeled, finely grated fresh ginger

Put the lentils and water into a heavy pot and bring to a boil. Remove any scum that collects at the top. Add the turmeric and stir to mix. Cover, leaving the lid very slightly ajar, turn heat down to low, and simmer gently for 1 1/4 hours. Stir a few times during the last 30 minutes.

When the lentils cook, heat the oil in a 20 to 23 centimeter (8 to 9 inch) frying pan over medium heat. When hot, put in the cumin seeds. Let them sizzle for 3 to 4 seconds. Now put in the garlic. As soon as the garlic pieces begin to brown, put in the onion, cabbage and green chilies. Stir and fry the cabbage mixture for about 10 minutes or until it begins to brown and turn slightly crisp. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon of the salt. Turn off the heat under the frying pan.

When the lentils have cooked for 1 1/4 hours, add the remaining 1 1/4 teaspoon salt, the tomato and ginger to the pot. Stir to mix. Cover and cook another 10 minutes. Add the cabbage mixture and any remaining oil in the frying pan. Stir to mix and bring to a simmer.

Simmer uncovered for 2 to 3 minutes or until the cabbage is heated through.

Sunday Menu Planning

I am feeling completely uninspired on the cooking front these past couple days.  I think this whole week has been uninspired.  I spent my whole vacation waiting for my vacation to happen–and now, here I am: Saturday afternoon.  I need to do chores, cook for the week, and do some lesson planning before school starts on Monday.  Break is, effectively, over.

The recipes I’ve decided to make this week come from, easily, one of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen. This trio of Indian recipes looks really good.  The first recipe is a sour cabbage salad that highlights lemon juice and whole mustard seeds.  I’ve never bought or used mustard in its seed form, but it was cheap at my local supermarket, so I definitely won’t shy from it if it comes up again in recipes.  The next is a simple, yellow daal–and if you recall, I need to use up my grains and legumes, so this recipe looks perfect for that purpose.  Finally, I’ll make a black-eyed pea curry.  I’m looking forward to moving towards a more vegetarian diet again, and I think these three recipes will be a good transition back into meat free meals.

I also plan to make this bean salad, which is used as a sandwich filling.  I think I’ll use a different type of beans instead of garbanzo beans, though, in this recipe.  Garbanzo beans tend to taste like wet dog to me.

P.S. I bought some kimchi from a local Asian foods market in Eugene.  I think they make it on-site. I’ve never had it before.  I’m pretty excited.

Sunday Morning Menu Planning

At 10:15 this morning, I have my second Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga class.  I took my first class on Thursday–a beginner’s class, the website explained.  Beginners?  By the end of the class, everyone was busting out their head stand moves–practically levitating, others were.  Head stands, levitation, chanting in Sanskrit…needless to say (the most useless phrase, isn’t it? If I don’t need to say it, why am I?), the class was a tad advanced.  Needless to say (there I go again), I woke up the next morning, with grumbling muscles I didn’t even know I had.  Back of neck muscles?  Above my elbow muscles?  Pinky toe muscles?

I have class again this morning. I’m trying to mentally prepare myself, by preparing some recipes to cook for when I get back.

Four recipes I’ve come across this week have sounded really good.  Two curries and two noodle dishes.  I couldn’t decide which two I wanted to make, so I decided to combine the two curries into one curry and the two noodle dishes into one as well.

Spicy Soba with Shiitakes +  Curry Spiced Noodles

Red Kidney Bean Curry +  Spicy Vegan Potato Curry

I also plan on making bell peppers stuffed with tempeh and some sort of grain (quinoa, bulgar, rice, etc.).

Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Curry

The dish I am making today is a combination of two recipes I found this morning.  The first one is from The CopyCat Cook.  The combination of creamy sweet potatoes and red lentils sounds like a good pair.

This curry seems to be (and I’m definitely not a curry expert) an Indian-inspired curry (cumin, turmeric, and lentils) and I’m in the mood for Thai, so I found this recipe, which calls for Thai curry paste, cilantro, and fish sauce:  Sweet Potato Thai Curry.

The final dish will use green curry paste, coconut milk, fish sauce, spinach, lentils, ginger, garlic, onion, cilantro, and of course,  sweet potato.

(Vegetarians should omit the fish sauce!)

Finals Notes:

I decided to partially cook the sweet potatoes and lentils in their own pots prior to adding all the ingredients together in the curry.  I wanted to make sure that all the ingredients were cooked through at the same time, spent the right amount of time in the curry sauce, and cooking those ingredients separately seemed the best way to do it.  It was a bit more work, but I felt I had more control over the final dish this way.  No crunchy lentils or potatoes for me!

As I added the potatoes and lentils to the curry sauce, I also added some veggie stock to thin out the coconut milk.  Green curry also tends to taste soapy to me (am I the only one?) and the veggie stock mellows out the curry paste.

I ended up leaving out the fish sauce and the spinach and adding a healthy dose of lime juice at the very end of cooking.

This is, by far, the best curry recipe I’ve ever made.  I highly recommend it!