Frog from the living room: "Dinner's ready, isn't it?"
Me, in kitchen: "Yes, how did you know?"
Frog: "I could hear the camera beeping"
* * *
I was a busy little chipmunk in the kitchen last night than I was in a long while. I made two different Thai curries and two kinds of Christmas cookies. And I even managed to watch most of "The Triangle", second installment. Aaaaaaaaah... It's so nice to have reporing period over.
I used my Thai green curry and my Thai red curry last night. I pretty much used the same method for both although the ingredients in the sauce were almost exactly the same. For the red (His) I cubed up chicken breast for the main food item. In the green (mine) I used a mostly vegetarian content. I really liked the green better than the red and HE liked the red better than the green. Wow... much better choice making than the weekend! Here's the recipe for mine:
Nerissa's Thai Green Curry
1 tbsp oil (I used olive)
1 small block super firm tofu, diced
1 large green pepper, seeded and diced into 1 inch squares
4 inches of broccoli stem, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup small broccoli florets
1/2 cup frozen cut green beans (I suppose you could use fresh... not that WE get any)
2 1/2 tbsp prepared green Thai curry ( I used Maejin brand)
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 cup coconut milk
Heat skillet over medium heat and add oil when warmed up. Once heated, add tofu. Stir constantly until browned around the edges (1-2 minutes). Add green pepper, broccoli stems and broccoli florets. Stirfry with toful until the vegetables are bright green (up to 5 minutes). Add frozen green beans. Stir into vegetable tofu mix for 1 minute. Add green curry paste and fish sauce. Stir into vegetable tofu mix for 1/2 a minute. Add coconut milk. Stir to mix in curry. Let come to a simmer and keep on lowered heat, bubbling, for 5-8 minutes. Serve. Good with freshly cooked hot Thai Jasmine rice.
Serves 4
This was oh so yummy! I found Frog's red curry to be too salty for my taste. But he loved it. That's the main thing. Here's his:
The two cookies types I made are butter tarts and peanut butter balls. Both are highly addictive, suger-laden treats I grew up with. They are ONLY for Christmas (What other time of year would you justify that much fat and sugar?) in my opinion. Kinda like my mom's cinnamon buns... but that's for another day...
As I have to close up this post soon, I'll leave you with the pictures but post the recipes later.
The oh-so-yummy (favourite phrase today) butter tarts, oozing with brown sugar and currants. I know most butter tarts I've encountered outside my family have raisins but currants are the only way to go with these puppies. I couldn't imagine them without the little sour edge to those little jewels.
Peanut Butter Balls (hopelessly unimaginative in name but a joy to peanut butter lovers). My kids made some with me yesterday afternoon. They are all clamoring for the recipe and as enamored of the butter icing on them as I was at their age. They went a little overboard on making the coloured coconut so my making them at night was a way of using up the leftovers.
5 comments:
MMM...those butter tarts sound awesome! I can't wait for the recipe! I love currants and I'm not a huge fan of raisins in baked goods, so I think you made a great decision. Sounds like you've got the Frog trained to come to dinner on the beep! That's pretty cute. We had green curry last night also that my roommate made - ours was really really spicy though so at least I drank my water quotient for the day! Glad to hear you're getting a bit of er...relaxation of sorts, now that report cards are in! You should submit your cookie recipes for the Holiday Cookie exchange over at SoCal Foodie: http://socalfoodie.blogspot.com/2005/12/holiday-cookie-exchange-1-join-in.html
That's the link to the first one, but there's one this friday and next friday also.
We always made peanut butter balls at Christmas, too. We called them Tiger Balls - I guess because the coconut made them look a little stripey? We didn't used coloured coconut, though - how festive yours look! The butter tarts look lovely, too.
michelle: I hope to have the tart and PB ball recipes up soon.
My green curry could have been really spicy but the coconut milk toned it down a good notch. That's funny about the water. I've done that with food too.
Thanks for the info about the Cookie exchange. I thought there had only been one and I missed it (((michelle))) hugs to you!
dawna: I didn't think we were the only one who made this dessert but there have been so few people I met who have!
I did make some with plain coconut too but they went into some gift packages we auctioned off at the school a couple days back. Normally my mom made them just red and green but I had a stab at using "neon food dye"
Wow! What an ambitious--and succesful--night in the kitchen!
:) Thanks, Lisa! I was riding high on the "no more report cards" feeling, making it sooo possible *G*
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