Raw Rainbow Pad Thai

I have written and taken pictures for about 4 posts that I have deemed not good enough for your kitchens. Each dish was good enough for dinner, but left me wanting to tweak and experiment once more before giving it to you- and I just haven’t had time. Plus I’ve been working on a game plan for some of my friends that are going to do a sorta-detox with me. So there are a few recipes I want to try before including in the game plan.

 

However there is one recipe I’ve tried since the last post that is indeed worthy of your kitchens. But because my photos were crudy and because the recipe is perfect as-is, I am only going to direct you to Oh She Glows.  This conncoction is not going to make it to the cleanse menu because it contains tamari, but it is delicious and wayyyy healthy. I was holding the recipe until I can get my mitts on a spirilizer someday but couldn’t wait and instead used my julian veggie peeler and a trusty pairing knife. Get thee some peppers, zuchinni, and red cabbage; then try this recipe that certainly lives up to it’s name.

 

isn’t it beautiful!

grilled eggplant & green curry

I’ve been working on a week-long game plan for you. I’m aiming for a list of each meal, snack ideas, occasional deserts, and tips for preparing ingredients ahead of time. But I’m testing it out as I go. One of the meals I wanted to included was a total flop. It was a recipe I cut out from a real simple magazine years ago and had stowed away in the little photo album I use as a recipe binder: “Thai ginger chicken.” The image was this beautiful dish that was much more inspiring than the above image.

Thai Veggie Burgers

The Hubs and I decided last week that enough was enough. The clutter was driving me crazy. We bemoaned our own failure to hang up pictures and curtains. We succeed in keeping our kitchen clean,  but when it comes to clutter, we are both guilty of letting things accumulate in the living room.  So what do you do when you are ashamed of your filth? Invite people over! We decided that we needed a deadline and a potluck was just the enforcer.

While I did prepare an unhealthy potato salad,  (who can turn down a special request?) we also served organic, grass-fed hamburgers and homemade veggie burgers. Our guests brought all sorts of omnomery including homemade ice cream (avocado lime for the adventurous, chocolate and strawberry for the faint of heart) and corn bean salad. I planned on taking all these cool pictures, but I got stuck at my job late and guests were actually beating me to my house- so I had to kick it into gear and leave the camera behind.

The veggie burger came from my favorite food blog, Cookie + Kate.  I love my usual lentil burgers, but turns out lentils give the hubs stomach aches, so I was excited to try this new recipe.

Thai Coconut Curry & Honeymoon

Friends, it’s been awhile! Too long. Since our last encounter I’ve changed my last name and went on a honeymoon to Costa Rica. It was thirteen days and it was lovely. Waterfalls, Howler Monkeys, and Coatis, or “nose bears,” were the highlights and a wicked sunburn was the low. 

I couldn’t fit the whole waterfall in this shot but there’s the hubs  swimming next to it!

Arenal Volcano… yes, volcano.

Being the longest vacation either of us had ever taken, on day eleven we each confessed that we were ready to go home. Ready to get back to our own bed, anxious to get those thank you cards out, and excited to finally get the house in order . Maybe the last two were just me. I was also ready to get back to cooking. We both were burnt out on too-busy/wedding-prep/vacation food- simple carbs, refined sugars, even pop! gasp!

I’ve been dreaming of these, my lentil burgers, and maybe another round of cold buckwheat soba noodles. Alas, this past week did not allowed for much cooking. Our tasks to straighten up after the wedding (getting the many something-borrowed items back to the right people, cleaning a very messy home, writing many thank you cards, making a giant goodwill pile out of old muffin pans and the like, taking all the cardboard shipped presents came in to the homeless shelter, etc.) took for-ev-er. All very wonderful problems to have, no?! The hubs had to leave Wednesday morning for work and wasn’t back until Monday night, plus I was traveling over the weekend- so it just didn’t make sense to go stock the fridge with crisp fruits and veggies that would inevitably wilt before we had a chance to enjoy them.

Thus, we did a lot of take-out. The house is finally starting to look like a home and not a war zone, however, recently there’s been much more resturanting than preferred.  The upside is that one of these meals out inspired me to find an at-home-version.

If you haven’t been fortunate to become acquainted with much Thai food, please allow me to introduce Panang curry. The true-blue recipe is complex if you don’t typically use thai ingredients like dehydrated shrimp, but produces an incredibly delicious result. My version of the recipe will be simplified for us beginner home cooks and give you some whole food benefits.

whole cumin

Turmeric and fresh chillies have immune-boosting power. The brown rice instead of white gives the dish a high fiber count and is rich in selenium, which studies claim reduces the risk for developing cancer, heart disease and arthritis. Additionally, one cup of brown rice provides 80% of our daily manganese requirements, which helps the body synthesize fats and benefits our nervous and reproductive systems. Coconut milk will give the dish a wonderful cream, without leaving out your lactose intolerant or paleo friends. Further, while coconut oil/milk does have a lot of saturated fats, it is debatable whether that is a bad thing. The saturated fat in coconut oil/milk is plant-based and breaks down in the body somewhat differently than saturated fat from animals. Many researchers claim that this fat may actually lead to an increase of HDL – or good – cholesterol levels. Coconut oil and milk also contain Lauric acid, which may work as an anti-bacterial agent, helping your body fight off unwanted bacteria, such as staph. That being said, some of the research out there causes me to go at coconut oils and milks in moderation. But really, isn’t that always the key?

I always order Panang with chicken though it is traditionally made with beef and can be prepared with pork too. It usually comes with a side of white rice and a vegetable. The first time I had it the curry was made with some chicken and tons of green beans. Other times it has been served with steamed broccoli but I much prefer the green beans. Of course the green veggies are going to serve up a good source of dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals. If you have the beans on the side they stay crisp until making it to table, where, if it’s my plate, it will end up mixed into a big bowl of deliciousness. I went ahead and threw mine into the curry sauce to save dirtying up another pot. It’s spicy enough that you’ll stop eating when you run out of water, but not painful. (Unlike the hub’s experience with “authentic thai heat” at noodlehead in Pittsburgh the first night of our honeymoon. A restaurant I highly recommend, btw. I had the Chiang Mai Curry which was some sort of heaven, but a much more complicated dish that I will leave for the professionals at this time… humm when’s the next time I’ll be in Pittsburgh?)

Not-so-traditional Panang Curry

Adapted from http://thaifood.about.com/od/thairecipes/r/penangcurry.htm
Note: Takes about an hour and a half to prepare and cook. There is a good bit of prep work but then it just simmers on the kitchen stove for a long time. I served mine with brown rice. This makes a pretty big recipe, so use a big pan for the curry!

• 3 chicken breasts cut into bite-sized pieces or small slices. Can substitute other meats, even shirmp.
• Every recipe I researched called for kaffir lime leaves, but they aren’t available where I’m from so I substituted bay leaves during the simmer and some lime zest.
• 1 red bell pepper or sweet red pepper, slice.
• 1/2 loose cup fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped or tore up.

Curry Sauce: 

• 4 Tbsp. tomato paste

• 1 small white or yellow onion, chopped

• 1 thumb-size piece ginger, finely minced

• 3 cloves garlic, finely minced 

• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce

• 1/2 tsp. soy sauce

• 2 Tbsp. fish sauce (If you don’t want to experiment with fish sauce, or if you’re allergic, you could try using a few drops of Worcestershire or more soy sauce with an extra squeeze of lime juice.)

• 1 tsp. shrimp paste  I just substituted 2 Tbsps more of fish sauce to save $ and on the ew factor. Additionally some sites recommend avoiding shrimp paste if you are preggo, get heartburn, or are on a reduced salt diet. Shrimp paste is not a health food.

• 1 Tbsp. paprika

• 1 Tbsp. chili powder (I used what I had, smoked paprika and smoked chili powder. If you have regular, use it- the smoked flavor made it taste a little more southwest and less thai.)

• 1/2 tsp. ground coriander

• 1/2 tsp. whole cumin

• 1-2 red chili, minced, OR 1/2 to 1 tsp. cayenne pepper or chili flakes to taste

• 1/2 tsp. turmeric

• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

• 1/8 tsp. nutmeg (Fresh nutmeg is stronger, more aromatic than the pre-ground stuff- so use less if you wield a trusty micrograter like moi’.)

• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves

• 1 can good-quality coconut milk

• juice of 1/2 lime

1. Blend all curry sauce ingredients – except the whole cumin seeds – in a vita-mix or food processor. (I forgot to hold my cumin seeds- darn!)
2. Start browning chicken (or your meat of choice) and add in cumin seeds and cook until fragrant  Pour curry sauce into pan before meat is cooked through. 
3. Add in the lime (or lime leaves) mix well 
4. Cover and stir occasionally until chicken is cooked through. In last 3 minutes add peppers to top of curry and cover, do not stir in. Steam green beans (or broccoli or whatever) on the side(or throw into curry 10 minutes before cooking time is finished)
5. Season to taste: add more fish sauce if not salty enough; add more coconut milk or a little yogurt if too spicy; add more lime juice if too salty.
6. Sprinkle with fresh basil leaves and serve with your veggie and brown, whole-grain rice.

Orange Pan-Glazed Tempah

Last week my friend Catie came over to help me with mundane wedding project tasks, God bless her. While cutting burlap and twisting birdseed into tulle wrappers, we started talking about food. She has been trying to avoid overly processed foods too. We started swapping what ingredients we had been experimenting with. I mentioned that the dinner I had prepared I had made a few days earlier, but with tofu and that it was surprisingly better than that night’s chicken version.  I also passed on a tip I had learned from a food blog, but had yet to try- freezing tofu before preparing it as that will give it a more meaty texture. My friend stated that she hadn’t cooked with tofu much but rather had some success with tempeh.”Tempeh!! Oh tell me more!” 

Tempeh was an ingredient I had only heard of and didn’t know anything about. My pal explained that Tempeh appealed to her because it was less processed than tofu. Holy crap. Even tofu is ‘processed’. I hadn’t even thought of that. I figured if it was in the hippie section of the grocery it was not processed. And really, it’s not that tofu is all that processed, just more so than tempeh. If my understanding is correct (feel free to correct me in the comments section), tofu is made from soy milk, whereas tempeh skips that step of making soy milk and is pretty much straight up fermented soy beans. Once I got my mitts on some at the local natural foods grocery I discovered that indeed, it is pretty unprocessed. check it. Yes, those grey and black spots are fine and don’t indicate any spoilage.  

I found a recipe online and decided I would pair it with some red peppers I had on hand and some quinoa although the inspiration recipe paired it with wheat berries- another ingredient I need to try! (Can I add that to my wedding registry?) The recipe isn’t a marinade as I expected, but rather a glaze. The flavors are kind of a mild version of that Chinese dish, orange chicken, which I loooovvveee but haven’t had in a long time because it’s so processed and sugary. But I wanted to run with that, so I tweaked the recipe to make the flavors a bit stronger. I also sprinkled on some chopped up peanuts for texture and cilantro and red onion for color and to give a stronger flavor. 

    



ginger and mircograter



Orange Pan-Glazed Tempeh

Serve with your choice of veggies and/or whole grain. Slightly adapted from 101 cookbooks. 

1 cup OJ. If you squeeze your own takes about 3-4 large oranges.

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

2 teaspoons tamari or soy sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons dry white wine. The original recipe calls for mirin, but I didn’t want to buy a jar of something I may never use again.

2 teaspoons molasses (or maple syrup)

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

2 small garlic cloves

some olive oil

a lime or lemon if you’ve got it. I cheated and used some of that stuff in the bottle- don’t you judge me.

a handful of fresh cilantro (optional)

package of tempeh. The original recipe remarks you can also use extra-firm tofu, though I haven’t tried it. 

Juice your oranges into a small bowl and remove any seeds. I won’t tell if you use reg. OJ. 

Grate your ginger into bowl and add the soy sauce (or tamari), white wine (or mirin), and your sweetener of choice (maple syrup or molasses). Set aside. You are not marinating anything. 

Cut up your tempeh. I cut mine into small triangles. Fry it in large pan with olive oil for about 5 minutes on each side. 

Pour your OJ mix into the pan and simmer for about 10 minutes until sauce reduces to a glaze. (I added red peppers to mine at this point and threw in some red onion slivers in the last minute of cooking. You don’t want to really cook red onions or they loose that beautiful color.)You can squeeze some lime on top, sprinkle on some cilantro and peanuts on top for a real ta-da and to make it a little more Thai-like. 

Serves 4, or two with one small leftover side dish for lunch if you have a boy to feed.