Thai Red Curry Paste

A little while ago I posted a recipe for Thai Green Curry Paste. Here's the sequel: Thai Red Curry Paste. The main difference is in the pepper base. This recipe uses hot red Thai chiles which accounts for the red(der) colour!

This is a spicy recipe! Now, everyone rates spicy differently, but I truly think this would sit at the "Medium" scale in a Thai restaurant. Want less spice- use less chiles...more- use more chillies!

Red Curry is fantastic served with yam, cauliflower, yellow bell peppers, and your choice of protein!

As always, this recipe is gluten-free and dairy-free!
This recipe will make enough for 8-10 large curries.

Homemade Thai Red Curry Paste

17 to 20 (2- to 3-inch-long) dried hot red Thai chiles, halved and seeds discarded
4 teaspoons ground coriander
2 lemongrass stalks (tender inside only)
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
4 teaspoons chopped ginger
6 (4-inch-long) fresh Kaffir lime leaves
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro roots and stems
5 small shallots, chopped
2 green jalapeño peppers, chopped
2 teaspoons shrimp paste (available at South China Market on Granville Island) (I also read that you can sub this for 1 tsp salt if you're a vegetarian...no guarantees though)

Soak dried red chiles in water about 10 minutes.  Blend all ingredients using a blender or a hand blender (hand blender is more effective).
Once it's all blended together, store in the fridge for up to a week. You can also separate the recipe into individual curry servings- store these in ziplock bags in the freezer and just pop them into the pan when you're ready to use!

To make the curry:
Saute half a yellow onion in coconut oil.
Add diced chicken thighs (or your choice of meat or seafood). Cook until no longer pink inside.
Add diced veggies of your choice....really, whatever you want.
Add a generous dollop of this curry paste along with one can of coconut milk (I use Aroy-D--no binders or thickeners).
Cook until veggies are tender. Voila!

Chicken Soup for the Soul With a Cold

Last Tuesday I came down with a horrendous cold. They're just so inconvenient, you know? It's putting a serious hamper on my daily activities and production levels!

Since I've been sick, I've been eating Campbell's Chicken and Rice soup like it's going out of style- but I knew there was nothing better for me than homemade.

So tonight- that was my project!
I adapted a recipe from Canadian Living- but it didn't have an essential "get better" ingredient that I wanted to throw in there- GINGER!

Here's my recipe:

Chicken Soup for the Soul With a Cold
*this recipe makes a whole lot of soup- so be ready to put some in the fridge or freezer if you can't finish it all.

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 medium yellow onion
4 ribs celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
4 small yukon gold potatoes- peeled and diced
1/2 yam, peeled and diced
1 tbsp dried thyme (use fresh if you have it!)
3 sprigs fresh parsley, diced (I had some in my garden-- use dried if you only have that)
salt and pepper to taste
5-6 cups reduced sodium gluten-free chicken broth
1/2 cup rinsed jasmine rice
1.5 inch piece of ginger root, peeled and cut into very small pieces

Heat olive oil in your largest pot--you will use only this pot for the soup.
Brown chicken thighs over medium heat.
Once browned, remove from pot- chop into small pieces and set aside for later.

Add onion and celery to the pot.
Saute for 2 minutes.
Add carrots, potato, yam, thyme, parsley, ginger, salt, and pepper.
Saute for 3 minutes.
Return chicken to pot.
Stir in broth and 4 cups water.
Bring to a boil- simmer for 5 minutes.

Stir in rice.
Cover, and cook until rice is soft- approximately 15 minutes.

YUMMY!

What do I do with that chicken!?

This post is the first of a couple that I'm going to make today, and it deals with the question above.

When you're stuck for dinner, one popular thing to do is to pick up one of those supermarket roasted chickens, right? I recently did this last week for my if-i-get-even-slightly-hungry-i-think-the-world-is-going-to-end boyfriend, who truly thought he would die if he didn't mean now. So, I went out and bought a chicken.

If you're like me, I don't really like tearing it apart. I go straight for the goods. The chicken breasts on top.
Once those are gone it's definitely a bit of work to get the rest.

So what do I do with that chicken carcass!?

The answer: SOUP!

As I posted before, soup is so rewarding. I really should make it more often.
Here's my (loose) recipe for Supermarket Roasted Chicken Leftovers Soup:

Ingredients:
Chicken carcass with meat/skin/bones/all that's leftover from the pickings.
Water
1.5 medium yellow onions
Several garlic chives
Coarse Sea Salt
Rosemary
Oregano
Peppercorns
1.25 cup (approx), cooked jasmine rice
One long skinny leek- sliced thinly.
4 small/medium carrots- sliced thinly.

Put chicken carcass, bones/skin/everything, into a very large pot. Cover with water, and bring to a boil.
Once boiling, add 1.5 medium yellow onions cut into 1/4s.
Add 2 tbsp sea salt, 1 tsp rosemary, 1 tsp oregano, and 1 tbsp peppercorns.
Boil boil boil!!!
Add a small handful of garlic chives.
Boil boil boil!!!

(I boiled for over an hour. Up to you. The longer, the better, in my opinion)

Strain everything from the pot, into another large pot so all the liquid and solids are separate.
Time to sort the junk from the good stuff.
Pick out all the pieces of chicken, and discard skin, bones, cooked onions and chives, and other unidentifiables.

Add the good stuff (chicken pieces) to the liquid and put on medium heat.
Add leek, carrots and rice.
Season with salt and pepper to your taste.

Cook until the carrots can be pierced with a fork.

Enjoy!

Curried Cauliflower

YUMYUM!

I bought a cauliflower this past week knowing that I wanted to experiment with it. Cauliflower is a great vegetable- especially cooked. It's so neutral that it can be made with anything. If you haven't done mashed cauliflower as a heathy replacement for mashed potato, you absolutely should. It's divine. And you feel especially healthy eating it.

Tonight's recipe I call:

Curried Cauliflower and Chickpeas over Jasmine Rice

1 medium yellow onion
2 tsp yellow curry paste (I used Thai Kitchen- found at Whole Foods)
1 1/4 cup chicken broth (replace with veggie broth if you're a vegetarian!)
1/2 cup coconut milk
Olive Oil
1/2 jar Dalla Terra Roasted Pepper Antipasto (found at Whole Foods)
15 baby yellow potatoes
1 head of cauliflower, chopped into medium-large bite size chunks.
1 medium tomato
1 can chickpeas
3 cups cooked jasmine rice (I prepared with 1 cup jasmine to 2 cups water)

Over medium-high heat, heat up a small amount of olive oil in a large wok or pan.
Cut all baby potatoes in half, and add to pan. Cook 5 minutes.
Add chopped onion. Cook 3 minutes.
Add cauliflower. Cook 3 minutes.
Add to pan, chicken broth, curry paste, coconut milk, and antipasto. Cook 5-7 minutes.
Add chickpeas.
Once all veggies are tender, add fresh tomato.

Serve over rice!

Since the antipasto and curry paste have so much flavour to them...I found the final dish needed no extra seasoning!

Fantastic!