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