Thai Red Curry Noodles

Now this is another fall/winter comfort food, based on the degree of heat! I had never made this noodles before. It was always on the back of my mind to make it and have it instead of with rice. I have a big can of red curry paste sitting in my fridge and I happened to have all the necessary ingredients as well, minus the chicken. So I thought why not make it a vegetarian dish. My family absolutely loved it. To them, the flavor and the crunch were amazing. I came, I cooked and I conquered!

So, here is how I made it.

Thai Red Curry Noodles

Ingredients

½ lb. whole wheat spaghetti
3-4 cups of sliced vegetables of choice, I used onion, cabbage, pepper, broccoli
2-3 tbsp Thai Red Curry paste
2 tbsp peanut butter
Salt to taste
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp + a palmful of chopped cilantro for garnish
Chopped salted peanuts

How to:

Cook pasta per package directions. Keep them al dante.
In a food processor, mix curry paste, peanut butter, 2 tbsp cilantro and about 2 tbsp water to make thick sauce.
Heat oil in a wok on high heat.
Saute all vegetables until they are crisp tender.
Add noodles and sauce. Salt per taste.
Add more pasta water to your likeness and serve hot with cilantro and crushed peanuts.

Chicken in Thai Red Curry

I love the fragrant Thai basil. And that's why I like to incorporate it with different dishes. I make soups and curries, with lots of basil in it. The aroma of the dish fills up the entire kitchen! And this basil freezes well too. So that's an added advantage. Can't believe there are so many potent herbs out there waiting for us to experiment with. And we Indians only use cilantro and mint!

I eat this curry a lot at the Pan Asian restaurant near my work. It's truly a wholesome dish that is so fragrant and aromatic. You can literally smell the basil and the coconut and the spices in the red curry. Red curry is also hotter than the yellow curry, milder than the green. I don't bother to make the pastes at home as it's always time consuming to make it from scratch and so many times, it's difficult to find the fresh ingredients like lime leaves and galangal in the regular grocery store.

I was making this curry for Sunday dinner and hubby came running in the kitchen. His nose is very powerful! He can smell all the different spices at the same time. He can tell which vegetable is being cooked just by the smell! I can't really differentiate between aromas. It has to be very strong for me to tell what's on the stove! So anyways, he asked me what I am making with coconut, red chili paste and basil?! Read on, as this is what I was preparing!

Thai chicken in red curry
Ingredients
1 can coconut milk(14 oz)
1/3 cup coarsely chopped Thai Basil(Vietnamese basil will do as well)
2 tbsp red curry paste
2 tbsp brown sugar
Juice of one lime
1 lb chicken breast, cubed
Carrot, broccoli florets, celery, red pepper all as needed
Salt
About 1/4 cup oil



veggies are being sauted!

 How to:

Simmer the coconut milk for about 15 minutes. Heat oil in the wok. Cook chicken until no longer pink. Take it out of the wok, keep it aside. Now add remaining oil, sauté carrot until crisp tender. Now add other veggies and cook till crisp tender. Add chicken, red curry paste, brown sugar, lime juice, salt and coconut milk. Cook on medium heat till chicken is cooked through. Adjust the seasonings and serve hot curry with scented jasmine rice.



ready in red hot sauce!



Papaya Salad-Thai & Gujarati!

Thai Papaya Salad

I absolutely love papaya-raw or ripe. Ripe papayas, I love to eat them just like that, sauté them with paprika and cashews or plain smoothies. Raw papayas, I use to make Thai salad or Gujarati style stir fry! We, Gujaratis eat this papaya salad with certain kind of pakoras. I remember growing up, I used to eat this a lot with methi pakoras! Yup, mom always used to make shredded papaya salad, fried green chilies and thinly sliced onions with methi gotas(pakoras).

My red Thai chilies are so good and hot! I bit on one just like that(found out later how stupid that was of me!) and literally started sweating buckets! I instantly thought about making papaya salad both ways and using those chilies in it. I mean, nothing could go wrong with crunchy, somewhat tasteless papaya salad spiked up with red hot chili peppers. For an added crunch, I used roasted peanuts in my Gujarati style crunchy salad with a spicy bite. It was pretty hot with lots of chilies. I just sautéed the shredded papaya in mustard seeds, oil and added a touch of sugar, turmeric powder and curry leaves. And of course, used the salted pea nuts to top it off. I made sandwiches out of Gujarati salad. Just wrapped it up in leftover phulka rotis for our lunch! Tasty!



Gujarati Papay Salad

 Thai style salad was also so good, it disappeared right away from the plates! I might need to use the whole papaya to make just one salad instead if I want to save it for work lunch the next day.

Thai Papaya Salad
Ingredients
1/2 medium raw papaya
4 garlic cloves
2 each green & red Thai chilies
1/2 cup chopped scallions, in 1-in (2.5-cm) pieces
handful of fresh coriander (optional)
1/2 to 1 Tbsp. honey
1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 cup roasted pea nuts & julienned carrots for garnish(optional)
How to :
Peel the papaya and rinse with running water to remove the acid. Remove the seeds and shred the papaya with a grater. Set aside.

Place the garlic cloves and the chilies in a mortar and mash with a pestle until crushed into chunks. Place the papaya and the remaining ingredients in the bowl and gently combine all ingredients by mixing with the a spoon. Serve cold,sprinkled with coriander and peanuts if desired.

Satay Chicken

When I look back at the special meals we shared on our little lunch 'dates', one dish that is always fondly remembered is Satay. Satay is a Thai version of the kabab. Skewered pieces of meat are marinated in aromatic flavours and grilled to perfection. The highlight of this dish however, is the spicy peanut dipping sauce.

For those of you who know me, also know that I’ll go to pretty much any length to duplicate my favourite dishes from the restaurants and at the same time, struggle to create a much easier and simpler and healthier version of the recipe in question. I check out the ingredients over and over again on the restaurant menus, make notes and start trying out the recipe at home. Satay is just one such recipe amongst those. So many times, when I start to put down the ingredients on the different menus for different dishes, I almost fall off the chair! So easy dishes, such simple ingredients and we spend so much for those dishes at the restaurants!

Re-creating the Satay was a breeze. What hurt my back though, was the peanut sauce. Until I threw caution to the wind and just followed my instinct. Works every time! And my version of the spicy peanut butter sauce is a breeze to make! It's literally 5-ingredients fix!

CHICKEN SATAY WITH SPICY PEANUT SAUCE
Ingredients
8-10 chicken tenders, boneless
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp turmeric powder
Juice of 1 medium lime
Salt and pepper to taste

How to:

Marinate all the ingredients for at least 2 hours. Best overnight. Skewer the tenders and grill for about 4-5 minutes each side. Keep warm.



Spicy peanut sauce
Ingredients
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 tsp Thai red curry paste(my secret ingredient!) or to taste
2 tbsp hot water or as required
Pinch of salt
Chopped coriander leaves for garnish

How to:

Mix all the ingredients till you get smooth dipping sauce! You might need more hot water. Didn't I say it was a breeze to make?!