Thai Green Curry = Success!

My mom and I made a delicious pot of green curry last night. All from scratch. I was quite proud, as well as in shock, when I tasted it for the time - it was gooooood! I'd definitely recommend this recipe, which I got from one of my cooking classes at Culinary Communion (RIP!). The recipe for the green curry paste makes 4 batches, and each batch produces enough to feed probably 4 people. We edited the protein to make Green Curry Chicken with Eggplant instead of duck. And we also made a side dish of Green Papaya Salad with Prawns. Yummo.

This is "howie do it"....

Green Curry Paste (Makes 2 1/2 Cups)

5-10 green thai chilies
1/2 C cilantro, minced
1/4 C lemongrass, minced
5 thin slices galangal, or ginger root
1 tsp shrimp paste (I omitted this since I didn't have any)
10 green jalapenos
8 cloves of garlic
1/4 C shallots, minced
1 tsp cumin

Combine all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth, adding a little bit of water if the blender needs help. You can disperse into 1/2 C servings and freeze until you need them.


Green Curry -----Protien---- with Eggplant

1 lb duck breast, skin on - or 1 lb chicken - or 1 lb tofu, or whatevers
1/2 C green curry paste (made from above :))
2 C Thai eggplant, or regular kind, cut into large chunks or dice
1/2 C coconut cream (I omitted this too, to be more "healthy")
1/4 C Thai basil, chiffonade (cut into thin ribbons)
2 C coconut milk
1/4 C + 3 T fish sauce (we like the brand with three crabs on it)
3 T palm sugar (you can use brown sugar if you don't have this, but it's sweet.. haha)
4 kaffir lime leaves (or more, because they are sooo fragrant)
red jalapenos for garnish (or just use some cilantro or basil)

Prepare the protein: Rub the meat with the 3 T of fish sauce. Score the skin in several places, but not down to the meat. Place the protein skin side down, into very hot saute pan, or dutch oven with oil. Turn heat down to medium. Leave undisturbed for 10-15 minutes, or until deeply browned and most of the fat rendered away. Flip. Cook two more minutes and remove from pan. Thinly slice the duck on an angle. Reserve.

- What I did was brown 7 chicken drumsticks in the pan. When they were nice and crispy outside (with probably 4-5 minutes fro being cooked all the way through, I removed them. Then added the green curry paste to the dutch oven w/ the left over oil inside, so the paste could cook for a little bit. Then I added the coconut milk (2 cans), and heated until it boiled.

Once it boiled, I added the sugar and fish sauce, and then added the eggplant and meat back into the pot. Mixed it all up and let it simmer for 7-10 minutes so the eggplants would soften and soak up the curry sauce, and the chicken would finish cooking. When everything looked almost done, I added the lime leaves and basil. Serve it with brown rice. Pine nuts go well with the rice - helps add texture.

Delicious! I'd add pictures right now but blogspot is being funky. Until next time! :)

Recent delicious treats via the Bay Area

Last weekend I visited my sister in the Bay Area (just saying "Oakland" sounds so... ya know). Anyways, there were a lot of delicious things I consumed, which is one of my favorite reasons to visit her, besides that whole seeing your sister thing. It was a Friday night- Sunday night trip so we tried to fit in as many meals as possible (as usual). I landed around 9pm Fri night, and she was kind enough to take me to Popeyes for delicious juicy spicy fried chicken. I still believePopeyes has the best Fried Chicken, and Fried Chicken is definitely #1 or #2 of my all time favorite foods. The nearest Popeyes from me is 40 minutes away so I don't frequent it often, which is good for my cholesterol level.

Anyways, Saturday was white water river rafting day at the American River. Our trip included a lunch of all you can eat sandwiches, which we definitely loaded up on. We were starving the whole morning so we kept chanting "Sandwiches, sandwiches!" to motivate ourselves. After lunch was finished and the post-food coma passed, we chanted "korean bbq, korean bbq!" to motivate ourselves for dinner. And it was quite the feast. We went to a place in Sacramento and boy was it tasty.

Lots of fatty pork ala bacon, beef and chicken, and the famous korean sides as well. I am a BIG fan of korean bbq, especially from shabusen, where they have the all you can eat korean bbq and sushi. :)

We finished off the night at Fentons Creamery in Oakland, famous for their ice cream. The line was out the door when we arrived at 10:30pm - definitely a hoppin' place on a Saturday night. More food-induced comas followed post consumption of ice cream. I ordered 2 scoops - chocolate marble and coffee & cookies. Delectable.

Sunday was my favorite meal day. My sister surprised me with a new place - Bakesale Betty's - which as AMAZING fried chicken sandwiches. They're served in a hoagie roll with a spicy cabbage slaw mixed with cilantro and sliced jalapenos. MMMM. BB's also has amazing baked goods - we got a chocolate chip cookie and a candied ginger scone. Both were baked to perfection.

Of course, Manpuku was an obvious choice for dinner. I cannot visit my sister without going to Manpuku near UCBerkeley - cheap but delicious sushi. You can rarely find that combo. It's usually either cheap or delicious. Not here. It's both! :) We ordered the hot king roll (cali-roll inside, tuna on top, with siracha and green onions), the aloha roll (my fave! cali-roll inside, salmon on top with slices of lemon), and the avocado and salmon roll. So effing delicious that my mouth is watering right now just thinking of that meal. We topped this meal off with a steaming bowl of hakata ramen ("tonkatsu" for you noobs). The pork broth is so savory and flavorful, and they include picked veggies, a hard boiled egg, and braised pork with perfect al-dente ramen. Definitely gives Samurai Noodle a run for their money though I'd like to go to Japan and get the real deal. There's always next trip...

Zucchini

Zucchini is growing like crazy in our yard. We think they are growing a couple inches a day - I also think the hot heat is the cause of it, but I'm not complaining.. yet. They are delicious, but also must be consumed rather quickly.

from right to left: cilantro, zucchini, tomoatoes, flowers, thai basil, basil, flowers, sunflowers, basil, rosemary

haha just cuz. ^^

From Nancy Leson's blog, I swiped a recipe for Crispy Zucchini and Shrimp pancakes. My pancakes turned out a little too salty (too generous with the salt & fish sauce) but other than that, they were tasty, and reminiscent of Korean seafood pancakes :) MMMM.

in the makings. the sauce on the left is of soy sauce, rice vinegar, white wine, and chili oil.

the crispy edges are my favorite. i wish the whole thing could be a delicious crispy edge.

I also made a pasta dish with zucchini by first frying slices of zucchini in butter/"evoo", garlic powder, sliced king mushrooms, and some "leen ouw" - I don't know the name for it but it has lots of holes inside and is a crunchy root. Then I sauteed some shrimp in garlic, deglazed with white wine, and added in some Trader Joe's 3 cheeze tomato sauce, which is delicious! Boiled up some spinach/garlic fettuchini I got from Pike Place, and when the pasta was almost done, added it to the sauce to soak up all the deliciousness. It was tasty, especially for lunch the next day. No pix of this but maybe next time!

Need to find some more recipes for zucchini but I think zucchini bread is up next.