Massaman Curry

There are a few dishes out there, that the first time I tried them, I wondered how I was able to enjoy life fully before I knew they existed. Pesto, for example, was one of these heavenly foods. And also avocado (I had never tried guacamole because it looked gross, and didn't first really have avocado until I was in Hawaii with my family and there was a tree with fresh ripe avocados right outside out hotel room. My father picked it, I ate it, and life was never quite the same).

One of these dishes, for me, is Massaman Curry.

Massaman is a Thai curry that is just so unique. The sauce is mainly peanut butter and coconut milk, with a heavy helping of aromatic spices such as ginger, cinnamon, cumin, and cardamom. It can be served with a variety of meats, although given the very strong flavor of the sauce, it's best with just chicken. It also usually has either potato or sweet potato, as well as other sweet vegetables such as carrots and onions.

I have never tried to make it myself, because I honestly didn't believe I could craft something so delicious. But I walked that plank tonight, I made Massaman Curry, and it was totally delicious.

I started with this basic recipe from AllRecipes. I am a very big fan of that site, at least as a good starting place for recipes, even though I rarely make things strictly according to what I find there.

I made some substitutions, and ended up making this:

Massaman Chicken
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1.5 pounds chicken breast, cut into chunked
1 large sweet potato, cubed*
Six tablespoons Patak's Tandoori paste with tamarind and ginger*
2 tablespoons fresh minced ginger
1 can coconut milk*
1/3 cup natural unsalted peanut butter*
1 cup Cashews*

* I have further commentary on the starred ingredients after the recipe.

Heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Add the ginger and curry paste, and cook for about two minutes. Then add the chicken breast and cook for about three more minutes, until the outsides have turned white. Then add the coconut milk, peanut butter, and sweet potato, stir well until blended, and bring to a boil. Then, turn down and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until sweet potatoes are tender (cut the chunks very small so they won't take forever to cook). Serve over rice and sprinkle with cashews.

A word on ingredients. Many restaurants make massaman with potatoes, and you can do that if you despise sweet potatoes. But I recommend trying it with sweet potatoes, even if you don't think you love them. The flavor blends so wonderfully with the peanut butter and aromatics and coconut milk, and sweet potatoes are far healthier than white potatoes. If you do decide to go the plain white potato route, you might want to add 2 or 3 tablespoons of brown sugar to the sauce, to make up for the lost sweetness.

Curry paste is a complicated thing; there are literally dozens of them, and for non-desis such as myself, it can be a bit confusing. For the massaman, you really want something with tamarind. Apparently, there is also a product known as tamarind paste, so you can either use a paste with a lot of tamarind in it (like the one I used) or pair tamarind paste with a mild curry or garam masala paste. If you are at an Indian grocery, you may want to ask the person behind the counter to help, they will probably be more than happy to (though they will inwardly despair over you inability to make a proper curry). Pick up some Mysore sandalwood soap while you're there.

The other ingredient that you may have to get at an Indian/Asian food store is coconut milk, although my grocery store has a variety available in the Asian section.

Another important ingredient is the peanut butter. Jif just isn't going to work right.You may not know it, but most commercial peanut butter it pretty disgusting and overprocessed, is half trans-fat, and has tons of added salt and sugar. All of these things will ruin your curry. I would even be careful of the 'Natural' peanut butters--they are better, but tend to be loaded with salt, which will overload the dish.

My favorite brand is Krema, which is available at my normal grocery store. I recommend it (for everything, really, not just this curry. Peanuts are yummy all by their lonesome). If you can't find it and are someone who goes to the health food store a lot, grind up some real peanut butter (Whole Foods almost all have grinders). Or, failing that, just look at the natural peanut butters that ARE at your local grocery store and find the one with the lowest sodium content.

My husband hates nuts on food. Not the flavor of nuts (so the peanut butter based sauce it no problem), just hard nuts on his food. Even the most delicious of nuts, cashews. So I didn't serve it with cashews tonight, because I wasn't going to bother getting a whole thing of cashews if no one else was going to want them except me...especially because I knew I would then gorge myself on all the rest of the cashews afterward. I don't know how wide-spread this nut-hating trait it, but if you like cashews on your food, please use them. They are delicious.

And that's all. If I make this again, I may want to add onions or carrots.

Happy Massaman!

Teriyaki Beef

I have spent years trying to figure out how they make the food in Chinese restaurants taste so damn good. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure that I don't really want to know, that it probably involves some sort of perverse processes and unearthly ingredients. So I've learned to be satisfied with the vague facsimiles I can cook up in my own kitchen.

Stir-fries have long been a favorite of mine, especially since most grocery stores even carry bags of pre-cut 'stir-fry' mixes that are pretty good. Cook up some meat and some veggies in some sesame oil (I HIGHLY recommend using sesame oil, it really adds that extra bit of flavor that makes it delicious), add a little teriyaki and, voila! -- you have a lovely fresh dinner.

But if you really want that delicious, tender, salty-sweet meat that makes Chinese food so yummy, a slow cooker can really come in handy. This recipes is a big hit with my entire family, which is a rarity.

Teriyaki Beef
1.5 pounds flat iron steak*
1 bottle teriyaki sauce
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon minced garlic
+ Your favorite veggies

*really, a wide variety of beef cuts can work for this, but I personally like to use this cut instead of the roasts, as it's less fatty and too much grease can kill this dish

Just mix the teriyaki, sugar and garlic in a crock pot, then slice up the steak into strips and mix it in, and cook on low for 6 hours. Then, when it's done, spoon some of the sauce from the crock pot into a pan, and quickly steam some of your favorite veggies. Onions are always a good addition (normally, onions are perfect IN the crock pot, but for this recipes, it's so much better if they are still crisp and crunchy). Broccoli is good, or a mix of red and green peppers. If I weren't cooking for my family, I would definitely add in some water chesnuts, but for some bizarre reason the hubby doesn't like them.

When the veggies are tender,just mix in the beef, and then serve it all over rice.

Hope you enjoy!

Pork Week!

I slow-cooked a pork shoulder this week. I love pork shoulders; they are cheap (about $1.50 a pound when they're on sale) and they are great in the slow-cooker. They have a high fat/moisture content, so you can put it in the slow cooker set on low in the morning, with absolutely nothing else, and come home ten hours later to a hunk of meat completely submerged in liquid. Drain all that off, and it shreds very easily.

(Note: pork shoulders are normally sold in the supermarket labeled as either 'picnic shoulder' or 'Boston butt' or maybe just 'butt'. They are slightly different cuts, but essentially the same thing. And not, it's not the butt, since that is the ham--the name has something to do with the kinds of containers they used to be shipped in.)

The only problem is that pork shoulders are very large--normally about 7-10 pound, and they yield several pounds of cooked meat. So, the problem is what to do with all that shredded pork. And it's not that big of a problem, because you can do just about anything with it.

I like to add some salt and pepper and two tablespoons of liquid smoke, and you'll end up with a lot of very versatile meat. If I know I am going to be doing a lot of Mexican, I'll also throw in some green chilis, some cumin and maybe a little onion powder, but sometimes it's better to just go basic and then add spices later.

So, what did I do with all this pork?

Barbecue sandwiches

This is the easiest and most obvious. Stir up some shredded pork with home-made or bottle barbecue sauce, serve it on buns, and you have a very happy family. I always reserve some extra pork-with-barbecue since it makes a great lunch, as well.

Pork quesadillas

I took about a pound of pork and added two teaspoons of chili powder, a teaspoon of onion powder, two teaspoons of cumin and a half cup of water, and simmered it for a few minutes.

I then took some corn tortillas, the little kind (I despise flour tortillas, and don't know why they are so much more popular in the U.S.--nothing beats the flavor and texture of corn tortillas, and they are healthier, as well). I heat one side over medium high heat for half a minute, flipped it, and then put a big spoonful of the simmered pork, a bit of jarred salsa, and then some colby/Monterrey jack cheese. I then folded over the tortilla, let it cook for just a bit, and flipped it a few times until the cheese was totally melted.

It can be time-consuming to make all these, but it's easy, and fun. Everyone loved them and I was requested to make them again for a midnight snack, and then again for dinner the next night. So, I am pretty confident they weren't just being nice.

Pork fried rice
This is so easy for how good it is. It makes a lot and the leftovers are great.

I mixed two cups long-grained rice with a cup and a half of chicken broth, a quarter cup of soy sauce, and frozen 'stir-fry' vegetables (this one had carrots, onion, red pepper, and broccoli; I added a little frozen corn, as well). Heat to a boil and then cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, I lightly beat three eggs and cooked them in a skillet, chopped them up and set them aside.

I then heated about a pound of the shredded pork in a very large pan, enough the let the fat melt and the meat to get a little greasy again. I also added some black pepper. I then added in the cooked rice and veggies and stirred them thoroughly until it was heated through and starting to dry out, just a few minutes. Then mix in the eggs and serve.

So, that's what I have done so far...and I still have a little left from that $11 worth of pork shoulder. Any more ideas?

Bread stuffed with meat

The hubby has been under the weather lately, and I asked him if there was anything that would make him feel better for dinner. And he wanted bread stuffed with things.

He loves bread stuffed with things, and it's a good way to sneak vegetables into him. It doesn't quite work with the kids yet, as they are suspicious of any dish that wants to hide in bread. But since I like calzones or meaty pastries myself, I do make them every now and then; the kids will eat calzones if I cut them into little pieces and give them some pizza sauce to dip it in; for other dishes, I just serve them the filling separately.

So, how do I have the time to make meaty pastries? Well, they are on the time-consuming side, but not too bad if you use frozen bread dough. (There's no way I would try to make my own bread; my husband went through a phase when he was doing it, and although the results were tasty, they just weren't worth the effort; don't tell me that it's easy, I am just not the kind of person that has the inclination or time to make my own bread, as lovely a pasttime as it may be).

I don't know when I first found out about frozen bread dough. It wasn't something my mother ever used, and when I was single, I had no real desire to work with dough. But now that I have discovered it, and all the delightful bready dinners it can yield, I am hooked.

So, they usually sell bags of five one-pound loaves. Usually, one loaf will feed the family, but while I am at it, I go ahead and thaw two and make a big batch of whatever I am making.

Tonight I made Bierox, a German meat-and-cabbage-stuffed pastry that my husband goes nuts over, and that I am partial to myself. I monkeyed around to make my own recipe, so I doubt it's authentic--it just tastes good to me.

So, recipe:

2 lbs frozen bread dough (two loaves)
1 lb lean ground beef
1 small cabbage, shredded
1 medium onion
1 tablespoon bottled minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon Basil

First, in the morning, take out two dough loaves, wrap them in foil, and put them in the fridge to thaw. They will still be a little frozen in the evening, but the dough is actually a little easier to work with when it is cold and firm.

Then, when you have the time (sometimes I do this the night before), make the filling. Put the beef in a large skillet (I use my big cast-iron pan) and cook the beef. When the beef is starting to brown, add the onions and spices; after two more minutes, add the cabbage. Cook until the cabbage is wilted.

Grease a baking sheet and preheat the oven to 350. Cut each loaf into four sections, and roll each into a circular shape, no more than 6 inches in diameter. Put approximately a cup of filling in the middle, and the fold the edges into the middle. Pinch and knead the edges of the dough together so you have a good, tight seal that won't burst open in the oven. Place them on the cookie sheet, and then cook them for 20-25 minutes.

We eat about half for dinner the first night, and then they are good for lunches during the rest of the week. Really good.

As I said before, calzones are also popular. I don't make the super-gooey calzones you get at restaurants; you can actually cut down on the fat, sodium and calories considerably by using ricotta cheese--and in my opinion, you don't lose out that much on flavor.

I take sixteen ounces ricotta, mix in a tablespoon of basil, and sometimes a cup or so of mozarella (to give it a bit of gooey, but you don't have to). And then, go crazy. Olives, broccoli, pepperoni, tomatoes, sausage, mushrooms, bell peppers--whatever your family likes on their pizza. Then, like with the Bierox, roll out some of the dough, daub a 1/2 to a cup of filling in each one, and fold. I fold calzones in the customary semi-circle shape. To do this, put the filling slightly off center, and then take the edge of the dough CLOSER to the filling and fold it over (this helps stretch the dough out a bit and compress the filling). I then take a fork and press it along the edges to get a good seal. Again, cook at 350 for 20-25 minutes, and then serve with pasta sauce.

If anyopne else has good bread-based recipes, share them! I am always looking.

Salads!

This is the song that my husband sings when I make salads for dinner:



But I have a thick skin. And the fact is, even though he is not a fan of rabbit food, I am able to quite frequently make salads that he happily easts.

I think entree salads as a family meal is under--rated. They are perfect for a picky family, because it is very easy to customize each one. My oldest, for example, will not eat regular cut tomatoes, but will gobble up grape tomatoes. She will also only eat orange cheese, whereas sometimes I want a little mozarella or even feta (which my husband isn't wild about). It is almost no extra effort to mix and match, especially if you are starting with a bag salad mix (which I almost always do).

And on those bags: it's obviously the first and most principal ingredient in a salad. I don't waste my time with iceberg, as it is nutritionally pretty empty. Opt instead for romaine, and your kids will get their daily dose of Vitamin A. Better yet, choose one of those 'veggie lover' mixes that has shredded carrots, cabbage, and sliced radishes, and you've already got a pretty healthy meal before you put anything on top of it.

We're all used to standard salad fare, but be creative with the veggies you add. You can stray far afield for fruits and veggies on a salad. My children loved canned mandarin oranges. Avocados are also a wonderful addition. Chopped zucchini, apples, walnuts...anything that you like, is on season, and on sale, just chop it up, through it on some greens and you have dinners.

Of course, most of my entree salads have meat--usually chicken or bacon. If I'm not being super healthy, I will cook up some frozen popcorn chicken and serve that over the salad (it has green stuff under it, so the fried chicken is healthy, right?) Shredded rotisserie also works. My family gets very excited if I make a spinach salad with hard-boiled eggs and real bacon (the trick really is the real bacon).

Another important part of the salad, of course, is the dressing. I personally love that sesame-ginger stuff that they serve at Japanese restaurants. But everyone can have there own--and it doesn't always have to come from the dressing section. Depending on the other ingredients, salsa can be a great alternative to dressing for a salad. So can barbecue sauce.

So, my husband's Simpsons song notwithstanding, I serve my family salad, and I like doing it. And now, my 4-year-old has gotten used enough to eating salad that she sometimes requests 'green stuff' for her school lunch. It warms my cockles.

Fried Chicken

I said in my opening post that one of my goals was to eat food that is nutritious. But looking over what I have posted, it isn't exactly health food.

And it isn't. The food I cook isn't quite as healthy as what I would cook for myself because, frankly, I want the rest of my family to eat it. And cooking up some ribs in the long run is probably better for everyone than serving up some steamed veggies that no one will eat, leading hubby to make a fast food run later.

Tonight, I made the mother of unhealthy foods...fried chicken. And oh was it delicious.

But fried chicken is a great example of how home-cooked food can be much healthier than fast food or other restaurant food, even when it's a notoriously fatty dish.

How? Well, when I fry chicken (which I don't do very much at all), I fry skinless boneless chicken breasts, normally cut into three or four big chunks of meat. Having no skin makes the chicken far healthier. Yes, you can pull the delicious, thickly battered skin off of your KFC, but who has the willpower to not eat at least a few bites?

Also, you know what you are frying in. There is no 'healthy' oil to fry in (olive oil is no good--it can't handle the high temperatures of frying). But good ol' vegetable oil is still better than trans fats or lard, which are both used in many restaurants.

So, I still maintain that fried chicken can at least be healthier at home, even if it is still a long way from quinoa and arugula.

This is my simple frying recipe:

2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 large chicken breasts, cut into 3 large chunks each
Vegetable oil

Beat the eggs with the milk and then pour it over the chicken and let it sit for a few minutes, turning once. Put the flour, salt and pepper in a large ziploc bag. Drop a chunk in one at a time and shake a few times to coat it.

Meanwhile, heat about 1.5 inches of vegetable oil. I prefer cast-iron skillets for frying--they hold up wonderfully over high heat and heat evenly. Also, an occasional deep frying is a great way to keep a cast iron skillet seasoned--just make sure you empty it promptly afterward (and not down your drain, either!)

There are two main secrets to good fried chicken. First, like with all breaded and fried things, you have to have the oil very hot before you put the chicken in the oil. If the oil isn't hot enough, the breading just sloughs off or it absorbs too much oil and gets gummy. Before you put anything in the oil, it should pass the water test--get your hand wet and then shake a few drops of water into the oil. It should pop violently when you do so. That's when it's ready.

I fry for about 14 minutes, turning once in the middle. After the first minute or so, you can turn the heat down a bit--it still need to be medium/medium-high, though. You may want to keep thicker pieces in for just a bit longer.

And that's it! Make enough so that you can make yourself a chicken sandwich the next day, or send some fried chicken chunks in your kids' lunches, and it's worth all the cleaning your going to have to do in the kitchen, since it's impossible to fry chicken without making a mess.

Meatloaf

I love meatloaf, for a few reasons. First, most importantly, pretty much everyone in the family will eat it, several with great gusto. Also, it's not all that difficult, and can be done in the slow cooker (with some important restrictions). Best of all, you can be wonderfully creative with meatloaf--you can chunk all variety of different things into meatloaf and it will still come out as something that everyone will eat.

Here is my most standard meatloaf recipe:

Marjorie's standard meatloaf:

1 lbs lean ground beef
1 half medium onion, chopped
teaspoon bottled minced garlic
1 egg
2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 slices stale whole wheat bread
salt and pepper to taste

Form this into a loaf and it cooks up great in the crock pot over about 7-8 hours. It looks a little rough along the top, but you're going to cover that in ketchup, anyway.


From there, you can add all manner of other ingredients and spices, such as bells peppers, chiles, or tomatoes. Go crazy and add fresh basil and pine nuts. (I can't do this in my house because of my husband's strict 'no nuts' rule. And no, it's not an allergy, it's just picky. I do use them when I make pesto, but they're all ground up then, which is acceptable to him.)

This morning I didn't have time to get the meatloaf together, so I did it in the oven, instead. I do oven meatloaf at 350 for an hour. There are some important differences in oven meatloaves and crock pot meatloaves.

1. You can't put cheese in the crock pot. This goes for everything. There are plenty of recipes out there that call for cheese in a crock pot, and they are uniformly horrible. Something awful happens to cheese in a crock pot, and it turns into something tasteless and spongy. In the oven, however, cheese is wonderful, almost any type (although you want to match up your cheeses with whatever else you are putting in, of course). I don't like meatloaf super-cheesy--I usually just use about 4 ounces with a pound of meat, and it adds a nice salty, tasty glue (I leave out the egg when I am using cheese).

2. I don't use raw veggies in the oven. Some raw onion or chiles or peppers will melt nicely into a crock pot meatloaf, but they will often stay just a bit too crunchy in the oven. so, just make some adjustments. You also want to keep a close eye on it to make sure the loaf doesn't get too crunchy. This is the recipe I use tonight:

Oven Meatloaf:
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 slices stale 9-grain bread, crusts cut off
1 lbs ground round
1 can Italian-style diced tomatoes
2 ounces shredded cheddar cheese

Frankly, it turned out just wonderful. I always feel a little guilty using canned tomatoes (ye Gods the BPA!) but they really do make life easy, so I keep my pantry stocked.

If anyone is reading this, feel free to share your favorite meatloaf variations in comments!