Showing posts with label Spices. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spices. Show all posts

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Crock-Pot Mango Coconut Chicken Curry

Absolutely delicious, and a wonderful lunch to bring to work! This makes a crock-pot full!

Ingredients:

12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 tablespoon coconut oil (if you don't have this, go ahead and use butter)
1 can coconut milk
2 cups diced carrots
1 zucchini, quartered, then diced
2 tomatoes, diced
2 mangos, skinned and diced
2 bell peppers, colours of your choice, diced
1 1/2 tbsp medium curry powder
1 tbsp grated ginger
1/4 cup cilantro (I used freeze dried)
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp onion powder
salt, and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Toss it all in your crock-pot or slow cooker, and stir.
Cook on low for 9 hours. No need to stir!


Sunday, October 20, 2013

Perfect Pork Loin Rub

If you haven't already discovered this, Costco sells the BEST pork loins. They come in packs of 5 or 6 in the fresh meat section, so you can pack them up and freeze them, cooking only one at a time.

Tonight I made a perfect pork loin rub, adapted from an online recipe I found to accommodate my allergies. It's sweet, with a hint of heat that can be adjusted by the amount of crushed peppers you add! This recipe is enough for one pork loin.

I rubbed this mixture onto the pork loin only minutes before wrapping in tin foil and baking at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

Enjoy!

Ingredients: (I measured very loosely, so play a little with this recipe to develop your favourite blend!)

1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp coarse black pepper
1/2 tsp Himalayan salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp thyme

Shake it up! Rub it on!

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

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 jalapeƱo 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!

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Homemade Taco Seasoning

I love tacos. For a long time, I bought those "taco kits" by Old El Paso. They come with the taco shells, some mystery taco spice, and some extra mysterious "taco sauce" (what is that!?). I always threw out the taco sauce...why is it not refrigerated? Something freaky going on there.

In doing some research about the ingredients of taco spice, I learned:

  1. One serving size (1/6 of the package), gives you 23% of your daily sodium intake. (woah)
  2. Maltodexrin is the number one ingredient. (huh?!)
  3. In addition to maltodexrin, there are some extra special ingredients such as: monosodium glutamate, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, silicon dioxide, ethoxyquin (developed by Monsanto, and labelled as 'moderately toxic'), and the ambiguous "natural flavour"
SCARY!

What's all that doing in my spice mix?!!?!

Now, catch your breath...I know that was horrifying. I have the solution

.

Homemade Taco Seasoning. It works the same, it looks the same, it smells the same, but it's MUCH BETTER FOR YOU! (and this version is garlic free)

This recipe will make a lot. Keep it stocked in a jar and add it to your beef, chicken, pork...whatever! It's multi-purpose!

In a large jar, mix together:
1/2 cup chili powder
6 tbsp paprika
1/8 cup onion powder
2 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp ground cumin
2 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
4 tsp red pepper flakes

Ta-da! Easy peasy.