veggies and noodles with thai coconut curry sauce

I got the recipe for this on the Our Best Bites website (linked on the left of the blog). You can find it here. It's a knock off of Noodles & Co Bangkok Curry, which I'm now considering ordering on my next visit there. Yum.

I don't like curry. This doesn't taste like "curry". It uses red curry paste, which I actually had lying around in the fridge. I also happened to have coconut milk in my cupboard. This really hit the spot with me tonight. Even Nathaniel ate it up, which really shocked me!

A couple of notes:

1. I used fresh broccoli and fresh carrots instead of the stir fry mix. I didn't blanch them first, I just threw them in the wok the same time as the red peppers and it was fine. With sitting for 5 minutes in the sauce to thicken, they soften even more. If they're soft once you add the sauce, I'd imagine they'd get a little limp.

2. I did half the recipe. Probably a smart idea. But, after I ate my 3 lbs and Thanny ate some, there's probably enough for Andrew to eat for dinner when he gets home and not a whole lot of left overs. So I may actually make the whole thing next time!

3. As a lover of sweet chili sauce- you do not have to go to the Asian market to find it. They have two brands in the Asian section of Smiths. Just so you know. (P.S. If you've never had sweet chili sauce, try it with sour cream and dip potato wedges in it. I ate this all the time in Australia- they even had sour cream and sweet chili potato chips in the store there, America needs to get with the program and get some of those. yum!)

Follow the link (the word "here") for the recipe.

Chicken Satay Noodle Soup

Rachael Ray says that this serves 4. Thinking it really did, I decided to just make it for the 4 servings and have Andrew and I eat it once for dinner and then once for lunch the next day as left overs. We've eaten it for dinner and I've eaten it twice for lunch and there is still TONS of soup left. So my advice is that if you don't have a large crowd to feed, half this recipe for sure!

That being said, this was kind of a fun and different kind of dinner. I would definitely not forget the toppings at the end (cilantro, peanuts, green onions and lime) since I felt like they totally made the meal.

Salt

1/2 lb whole wheat pasta

2 Tbl vegetable oil

3/4 lb chicken, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

3/4 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbl tamari (dark soy) *I used regular soy since I didn't have any

1/4 cup Thai red curry paste

2 Tbl tomato paste

6 cups chicken broth

One 1-inch piece fresh ginger, thinly sliced

1/2 head napa or savoy cabbage, shredded *I only had regular cabbage and it worked fine

1/2 cup apple joice

1 cup bean sprouts

1/4 cup chopped peanuts

green onions thinly sliced

1 Tbl chopped cilantro

Lime wedges

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil, salt it, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain

2. Meanwhile, in a soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the chicken and garlic and cook, stirring until the chicken is opaque, about 5 min. Transfer to a plate.

3. Add the peanut butter, tamari, curry paste and tomato paste to the pot and stir. Increase the heat to meduium-high and whisk in the chicken broth; add the ginger. Bring to a boil, then stir in the cabbage and cook until wilted, about 2 minutes. Return the chicken to the pot and stir in the apple juice.

4. Divide the pasta among 4 bowls. Ladle the soup over the pasta. Top with the bean sprouts, peanuts, green onions and cilantro. serve with the lime wedges.

Beef and Broccoli

I made beef and broccoli for dinner last night. The picture does not do it justice. This is a picture of the cold leftovers that were in the fridge overnight. This picture is also "beef heavy" as there were more veggies when it was all in the skillet. Anyway, this tasted like the chinese restaurant- only 10x better. I also would have served it over brown rice but I was out.

I doubled-ish the recipe. I doubled the sauces but the beef and veggies weren't quite doubled I don't think- I was expecting more people to eat last night + Andrew and I live off of left overs so I made more on purpose.

Here are the ingredients:

1/2 lb steak
1 T cornstarch
4 T soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 clove of garlic minced
1 lb. broccoli
1 1/4 c water (I honestly didn't remember this when I made it and eye balled adding water on my own as I went)
4 tsp cornstarch
3 T vegetable oil
1/2 c. thin sliced carrot

Plus I also added to the recipe on my own to help get the beef more tender:
a few squeezes from half a lime
about 1/2- 1 T rice vinegar

1. Cut the beef into slices. (I cut mine probably 2 x as thick as they do it at the restaurant)

2. Combine sugar, ginger, garlic, 1 T soy, 1 T cornstarch, rice vinegar, and lime juice in a bowl and mix together. Add the beef, cover and let sit. (I let mine sit for about an hour)

3. Cut veggies and place aside.

4. Combine 4 tsp. cornstarch and 3 T soy in a bowl and set aside.

5. Heat oil. Add beef and stir fry 1-2 minutes. Add the veggies and stir fry. Add water as needed so nothing burns up in the pan.

6. I broke with the recipe here- I stir fried until the veggies were still crisp (crisper than you want to eat them) and added the soy mixture. I cooked the sauce with the beef/veggies until the sauce thickened and bubbled a bit.

7. Then I pulled the pan off of the heat and placed a lid over top. The veggies steamed the rest of the way and it helped keep the meat tender (often my meat gets a little over cooked in stir fry and this worked like a charm).

8. Serve over rice and enjoy!

Peanut Butter Lovers Day

Happy Peanut Butter Lovers Day! I didn't know that such a day existed until today. Though I can't say I'm surprised, there are all kinds of silly made up holidays. Anyway, I decided to dedicate dinner and dessert to peanut butter. I made a homemade thai peanut chicken marinade/sauce over fried rice for dinner and peanut butter cookies for dessert. It was delicious!

I left the peanut butter cookie recipe upstairs, I'll post it tomorrow.

Peanut Chicken

I used two chicken breasts for Andrew and I to eat (plus a little left over for one lunch for tomorrow). I mixed together the sauce and marinated the cut up chicken bites in the fridge for a couple of hours. Then I just heated about a Tbl. of oil in our pan and cooked the chicken through. I took out the chicken and made the fried rice (rice, rice vinegar, soy sauce, garlic and onion salt, green onions, broccoli, scrambled egg, frozen carrots and peas) in the same pan. We have bought a bottle of peanut sauce for stir fry etc and Andrew said he liked this homemade version much better. I liked it because it tasted fresher and I could control the heat with the red pepper flakes.

4 Tbl. hot water
4 Tbl. peanut butter
2 Tbl. soy sauce
3 tsp. vegetable oil
3 tsp. white vinegar or rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced or grated
1/4 tsp red pepper or red pepper flakes
chicken

Mix up the water and peanut butter first- whisking it works really well. Then add the rest.

Orange Chicken

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We LOVE this chicken. It is great with white rice, but homemade fried rice might be even better!

Chicken Ingredients
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. salt
white pepper
oil (for frying)
1/2 cup cornstarch plus 1 Tbl. cornstarch
1/4 cup flour
1 Tbl. ginger root minced
1 tsp. garlic minced
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup green onion chopped
1 Tbl. rice wine
1/4 cup water

Orange Sauce Ingredients
1 1/2 Tbl. soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbl. water
5 Tbl. sugar
5 Tbl. white vinegar
zest of 1 orange

Directions
1. Mix egg, salt, pepper and 1 Tbl. oil in a bowl. Add chicken and stir to coat.
2. Stir cornstarch and flour into a separate bowl.
3. Heat oil in wok or fry pan to 375 degrees (or until the oil sizzles and bubbles when a piece is dropped in)
4. Coat chicken in flour mixture in batches.
5. Add chicken in small batches to the oil and cook for 3-4 minutes or until lightly golden brown
6. Remove chicken and set aside. Empty oil and clean wok.
7. Heat 1 Tbl. oil. Add garlic and ginger until fragrant- about 10 seconds.
8. Add red peppers and green onions. Add rice wine (optional) and stir for a few seconds only.
9. Add prepared Orange Sauce and cook until it comes to a boil.
10. Add cooked chicken and stir.
11. Stir 1 Tbl. cornstarch into water and add to chicken and sauce. Stir and heat until sauce is thickened and coats.

Note: We used rice vinegar since rice wine has alcohol. I thought it tasted fine but Andrew would leave it out next time- he thought with all the white vinegar it was too acidic. He may have also substituted some of the orange juice (from the orange we zested) in place of half of the white vinegar in the sauce.