Mmm Thai Foods - Bamee Gaeng

Brent and I are huge fans of curry.  We stop by the Drunken Noodle on occasion and can't get enough of it.  I usually order the Ba Me Gaeng, but I cannot for the life of me find a recipe for that online!  Anyway..  There was actually a point where he asked that when we make our monthly menues if we could put more Asian and rice dishes on there.  We're constantly looking for more recipes and this is one we found online.

Here's what you'll need:

2 cups uncooked Jasmine rice (I used the Mahatma brand) and cook according to package
1/4 cup red curry paste
2 (13.5 oz) cans coconut milk
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut into strips (either use ENORMOUS chicken breast or add 3)
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1/4 cup white sugar
1-1/2 cups sliced bamboo shoots, drained
1/2 red bell pepper, julienned
1/2 green bell pepper, julienned
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 cup pineapple chunks, drained
Dash of red chili powder or cayenne pepper

1.  Drink the pineapple juice - ok, just kidding, but I did. It's my favorite.  Reminds me of when I was a kid and Mom would let me drink the juice that she drained from the can :)

Real 1.  In a small bowl, whisk together the curry paste and one can of the coconut milk.  Transfer to wok (I don't have one so I used a large pan) and mix the remaining coconut milk, chicken, fish sauce, sugar, red chili powder (or cayenne) and bamboo shoots.  Bring to a boil and cook for 15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

2.  Mix the bell peppers and onion into the pan.  Continue cooking for 10 minutes or until the peppers are more tender.  Remove from heat and stir in pineapple.  Serve over cooked rice.

I was surprised at how much this smelled and tasted like the Ba Mee Gaeng at the Noodle!!  It wasn't exactly like it, but it was close enough for my taste!  However, it's not spicy at all like the recipe suggests, so that was a little disappointing.  It's a great recipe for people who don't like the spice as much, or have kids who aren't fans of the spicy.  Consider adding some ground cayenne pepper if you do want some spice.  BUT  -  maybe we got the wrong curry paste?  Who knows.  Anyway, I added some cayenne pepper toward the end so that my left overs tomorrow would be spicier.

Speaking of left overs...  HOLY MOLY!  This makes a TON of food!

I did do a couple things differently, however.  I only had a cup of bamboo shoots as that's what the can gave me (I'm lazy, what can I say?) and Brent hates onion, so I didn't put any in at all.  Sometimes I try to sneak a bit in the food (I don't like much of it either, but a tad doesn't hurt) and I play it off like that's how I'd always made the meal.  He's not stupid and he totally remembers how I had made stuff the previous times.  Also, as far as changes, I added a tad less sugar than what it called for.  I didn't want it to be too sweet.

All in all this was a great meal!  I'm really impressed and glad I tried it out.  I'm still on the hunt for more recipes with curry!  Either Thai or Indian.  I recently got a recipe from a friend for sweet and spicy sweet potatoes.  I'm stoked for that one.  I'm a sucker for sweet potatoes, but that's another blog for another day.

What are some of your favorite curry recipes?

recipe source: allrecipes.com - Thai Pineapple Chicken Curry

New Toy

We broke down and got this at Target.  We're excited.  Now what to cook with it...

Pom Kick

I'm still on my pomegranate kick.  I made some muffins this morning after doing some cleaning.  They look a lot like cornbread.  Oh my gosh are they good.  I think I'd consider sprinkling a bit of sugar on the top before I bake them next time to make them a little bit more crunchy.

You'll need:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup milk (add more if you need, but I definitely didn't need to)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 egg

2 tbsp butter

1/4 tsp orange zest (I always put in a bit extra)

1/4 cup orange juice and pulp

2/3 cup pomegranate seeds

Add the sugar to the flour, then add the baking soda.  Set aside.

Beat the butter until it's fluffy, then add the egg and mix well.  After this is well combined, add the orange zest.

Mix the orange juice and milk in a small bowl and set aside.

Add the butter/egg mix to the flour and mix it constantly.  Add the milk and the orange juice and mix it well.  Gently fold in the pomegranate seeds.

Bake at 350˚F for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

(I saw a recipe like this where the person put a smal piece of dark chocolate on the tops of all of the muffins.)

Project Life

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my boys

Sweet and Salty Pretzels, Pomegrante Muffins, Egg Nog French Toast AND Alfredo Pasta!

I had a busy weekend! I took off the wrong weekend for the back up managing for our apartment building so it was kind of a little pseudo vacation.

We had gone out for a "couple's" night with some of our friends and we also had some friends come in from Minot that we went out with later that night. It was fun..

Yesterday we had jammie day and brinner. It was so great. I made french toast. Mom always made the best french toast and I remember growing up and just eating myself stupid on the stuff. I like to tweek the recipe depending on what I'm craving.. and the season of course.

Last night I made it with Silk's Nog. It tastes like egg nog, but coming from Silk it's all natural and free from any animal product, gluten, dairy, lactose.. Yadda. Honestly, I can drink sthat stuff straight from the carton. Anyway, Here's the recipe if you'd like it :)

2 eggs

Rounded 1/2 cup of flour

Pinch of salt

Cinnamon

3/4 cup of milk (or soymilk.. or egg nog)

The bread I use is Country Hearths English Muffin bread. I use it because it's a little more dry and soaks up more of the batter. When I make the egg nog french toast I add nutmeg, cloves and a small dash of ginger. There's really no science behind the amoun

t of spices I add, I just do it until I think it smells right (I won't taste si

nce there's raw egg in it. Mom freaked me out when I was younger and I am very hesitant to sample anything with raw egg in it).

Heat up a pan or griddle and cook until golden brown. Silk als

o makes a pumpkin spice drink which is seasonal and I like using that in pancakes or even in the french toast batter ... I add pumpkin spice to that batter.

After eating we sat down to watch the movie we rented. We got "Grown Ups". It was cute, but as Brent always says, it was nothing to write home about. It was

obvious why Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 9%. That sound pretty awful, but it was cute. We munched on some pomegranate. Deeeeeelicious! It's my favorite.

Today I wanted to bake.. I wasn't sure what I wanted to bake, so I started off by making some almond bark dipped pretzels and sprinkled lightly sprinkled with some kosher salt. There's something about the salty and sweet to those things that's irresistible. I gave Brent a baggy of them to take to work and he sent me a text saying he'd eaten them right away.

Then I Googled a couple recipes and decided that I was going to bake some muffins.. Banana Pomegranate muffins to be exact. They're pretty. And were super easy

to make.

2 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 large egg

1 cup sugar

4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used Dannon Greek Yogurt)

1/2 cup sour cream (I used Daisy Light)

1 Pomegranate, seeded (It's easiest to score the fruit's skin and peel it apart in cold water. That way the fruit sinks to the bottom and the pulp floats to the top)

2 large bananas, mashed.

Preheat your oven to 350˚F and adjust rack to the middle position. Grease a standard 12 cup muffin tin and set aside (I don't like cleaning so I just used paper cups - isn't that what most people would do?)

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

In another bowl, whisk the egg until well-combined and light colored.

Add the sugar to the egg and whisk vigorously until thick and combined, about 30 seconds or so. Add the butter in increments, mixing well after each addition.

Add the sour cream, whisk to comine; add the yogurt, whisk to combine.

Add the mashed banana and stir it enough to combine. Then, add in the pomegranate seeds. It's important to stir them in gently with the whisk or a spatula so as to not break the rubies ;)

Add the wet mixture and fold with a rubber spatula until batter comes together. Small spots of flour may remain and the batter will be super thick, but don't over mix it!

Add them to the muffin cups (I overfilled mine - love that!) Bake until a light golden brown and a toothpick (or butter knife) inserted in the middle comes out clean. I baked mine for 25 minutes and rotated the pan half way through to ensure an even bake.

Sooooo tasty! :)

- - - - - - -

Then tonight I made my homemade alfredo sauce with angel hair pasta and shrimpies.

I seriously have to half this recipe, sometimes quarter it. It's so good, super rich and, unfortunately, doesn't reheat well. Just make some garlic toast to dip in the remaining stuff :) The butter just separates from the cheeses and makes it hard to eat as left overs, although, one time I did drain the butter out and spread the cheese on to a pre-made pizza crust and made chicken alfredo pizza. You could also just keep it cold and spread it on smell pieces of toast rounds or something.

Alfredo Sauce

1/2 cup sweet butter

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 c. heavy cream

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese

3/4 c. mozzarella cheese

- Melt butter in medium sauce pan over med/low heat.

- Add garlic and stir until butter starts to bubble.

- Add cream and pepper, bring to a simmer.

- Stir frequently, add parmesan cheese and simmer for 8-10 minutes, or until sauce has thickened and is smooth.

- When sauce has thickened, add the mozzarella and stir frequently until smooth.

If I'm making it with shrimp, I take the tails off and drain them really well and then toss them in the sauce to heat right before serving.

Wow.. What an entry! I'll have to write an entry about my chicken curry I made a week or two ago!