Author: Claire

Thai Red Curry Vegetables

Posted on by Claire

Now that you have some Thai red curry paste (if you didn’t make your own, feel free to use a store-bought version), it’s time to cook a Thai red curry. In this rendition, I used the vegetables I had on hand which happened to be mushrooms, cabbage, and zucchini, but this recipe is incredibly versatile and you can easily use your favorite veggies or chicken – just think about what you’ve liked in past Thai curries you’ve eaten! My curry here doesn’t look too visually appealing (that’s because I didn’t use enough red bell peppers in the curry paste), but the taste is still spot on.

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Thai Red Curry Paste

Posted on by Claire

Thai Red Curry Paste

Anyone who’s a regular reader of this blog has probably figured out that I cook quite a lot of Asian food. I’ve long been a lover of the flavors found in Asian cuisine, and I somewhat recently began doing most of my shopping at an Asian supermarket (H&A Supermarket in Langley Park for anyone who’s in the area) and thus have easy access to many rarer ingredients for ridiculously cheap prices. When I discovered this store, I knew immediately what I had to make first: Thai curry. Thai food plays around a lot with mixing salty, sweet, and sour, and this curry paste is the first step in building a delicious curry with those flavors.

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Homemade Peppermint Patties

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Homemade Peppermint Patties

For those of you who liked my recipe for homemade peanut butter cups, this recipe uses the same technique to make homemade peppermint patties! The filling here is creamy and very minty, and if you want, you can easily adapt this recipe and make different flavored fillings by using different extracts (I think almond extract would be especially tasty!). I even made a strange (but surprisingly tasty) concoction by layering the peanut butter cup filling with this peppermint patty filling (at the request of some co-workers).

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Moo Shu Vegetables

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Moo Shu Vegetables

This recipe has a lot going for it: it’s quick (or, at least, quicker than many of the meals I cook), it’s easy, and it’s got some of my favorite vegetables (mushrooms, carrots, and cabbage!). I also love Asian flavors, and the flavors of the ginger, soy sauce, and hoisin sauce here are a great way to showcase the flavors of the veggies. The moo shu pancakes are surprisingly easy to make, even though I was initially suspicious of the technique of rolling out two pancakes together (with oil inbetween) – it worked out perfectly, and I had no problem peeling the pancakes apart after they’d cooked.

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Roasted Tomato Salsa

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Roasted Tomato Salsa

It may already be October, but my garden is still producing some last tomatoes, so I used them to make this delicious roasted tomato salsa. Popping the tomatoes (and some of the other components) in the oven adds a nice sweetness to the salsa, and I included both jalapeno and chipotle peppers to give this salsa a good spicy kick. The great thing is how truly easy this salsa is – give some veggies a rough chop, toss them in the oven, and then blend with a few other ingredients. I love having salsa around for adding to sandwiches, putting in burritos or tacos, or having with my eggs in the morning.

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Honey-Glazed Cornbread

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Honey-Glazed Cornbread

This cornbread is amazing – probably the best cornbread I’ve ever had. The texture is rich and moist without being overly dense, and it has just the right amount of sweetness to it from an ingenious honey glaze that is poured on the hot cornbread immediately after it is taken out of the oven. I ate this with my jerk chicken chili and it was the perfect complement to the chili’s spiciness. Next time, I think I might add some blueberries to the batter.

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Jerk Chicken Chili

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Jerk Chicken Chili

I first made this jerk chicken chili when I went camping for the first time. I was tasked with choosing dinner recipes, and this recipe stood out because it seemed relatively simple and could be made in a single pot yet had an interesting combination of flavors. It turned out delicious, and I set about making it at home recently, wondering if I only remembered it being so tasty because we had been starving and in the wilderness (well, relatively so – we were actually at a well-established campground with treehouses). But this chili turned out equally delicious prepared in more traditional surroundings!

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The Perfect Roast Chicken

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The Perfect Roast Chicken

Roasting a chicken is a culinary feat I used to think was reserved for better chefs than I. But this recipe easily yields a perfectly cooked, succulent chicken and is actually much simpler than many other dishes I take on. There are a couple tricks that make this recipe a cut above the rest – brining the chicken is the main key to its juiciness, and cooking at a high oven temperature turns the skin a fabulous crispy golden brown. This is also a recipe with a lot of downtime, so you have the opportunity to take care of some of those chores you’ve been putting off while the chicken is brining, in the oven, or resting.

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Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

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Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

This surprisingly simple recipe is sure to impress anyone lucky enough to taste the results – if you don’t hoard all of these peanut butter cups for yourself! They’re the perfect little dose of nostalgia without the unfortunate toothache when you discover your favorite childhood candy is now way too sweet (for better or for worse, I just can’t handle the sweetness of most commercial candy anymore). Of course, you can make these exactly as sweet as you like by adjusting the amount of sugar in the filling and using your favorite chocolate. Because there are only a few ingredients here, you’ll want to make sure you’re using high quality chocolate and peanut butter (look for one where the ingredients are just peanuts and salt).

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Parmesan Mushroom Pasta with Truffle Oil

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Parmesan Mushroom Pasta with Truffle Oil

I’ll admit: simple pasta dishes are my go-to when I’m feeling a bit lazy and uninspired for dinner (for another quick pasta dish, see my Roasted Veggie Pasta with Pomegranate Balsamic Reduction). But there’s no reason why a lazy dinner can’t end up feeling inspired after all, and with a deliciously rich parmesan cream sauce and a dash of truffle oil, this pasta manages to do just that.

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