Last night, we had some family friends over for dinner and there was a special request for a vegetarian meal, which was good by me, since I had bought all these fresh seasonal vegetables from the farmer's market on Wednesday, including eggplants, peppers and salad greens. I also had plenty of leftover tomatoes, onions, garlic and ginger, all perfect for a Thai vegetable curry. After two attempts at Thai curries over the last week, I've developed a good sense of the taste, strength and balance of the key Thai flavorings including the fish sauce, thai curry paste, coconut milk, lime juice, and herbs, so I was able to construct my own recipe. I thought it was definitely the best Thai curry that I have made so far; just the right blend of spicy, sour and sweet, with lots of fresh vegetables. The tempeh and tofu add just enough protein and substance to make for a very filling meal.
To prep, I thinly sliced 1 small red,1 small yellow onion (just for variety; you can use the same kind) and 3 peppers, chopped five seeded roma tomatoes, minced four cloves of garlic and about 1-2 TB of fresh ginger, seared one packaged of tofu cut into cubes (so that it doesn't fall apart in the curry), diced a package of tempeh from Trader Joes for extra protein and texture, cut up 5 small Japanese eggplants that I sprinkled with salt and let sit for about an hour to draw out the bitterness, washed and minced 2/3 cups of thai basil and a handful of cilantro, zested 1 lime and juiced 2-3 limes. The curry served 6 people amply with some leftovers for lunch.
Add the garlic and ginger and saute for a minute or two until fragrant
Add the peppers and eggplant and saute for 5 minutes until softened, season with a little bit of salt (a lot of recipes add all the vegetables at once, but I like to add them one at a time to really bring out the flavors)
Add the chopped tempeh
Mix together half a cup of light coconut milk and 2+TB of red curry paste and then pour over all the vegetables. Toss everything together for a few minutes so that the curry / coconut flavors really penetrate the vegetables
Add the tofu, the rest of the can of light coconut milk and an additional 14 oz can of light coconut milk, 2 TB of fish sauce, 1 3/4 TB of brown sugar, the cilantro and bring to a simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally
Add the chopped tomatoes, lime juice and zest and let it simmer for another few minutes until heated, and add the fresh thai basil and mix through, salt to taste, and serve over brown rice
We also had the watermelon, mint, feta and arugula salad that we have been making a lot this summer, and paired the meal with a refreshing 2009 Peju Rose and La Crema Pinot Noir.
I didn't have a lot of time to cook the other night, so I made what is becoming our new favorite quick and healthy meals: real veggie burgers. K. and I love burgers but have become increasingly wary of ground beef, not knowing exactly what goes into it, so we've been making burgers with alternative fillings. My new favorite is using a large portobello mushroom in lieu of the patty (thanks to Adam and Karen for the idea!). I also grilled some of the japanese eggplant that I picked up at the farmer's market as another patty substitute.
Portobello Mushroom Burger
Eggplant Burger
For the portobello mushroom, I seasoned both sides with a little olive oil, salt & pepper, and minced garlic, and wrapped it tightly in foil. I put the foil packet on the grill to allow the mushroom to steam and cook, and then finished it off by taking it out of the foil and directly on the grill to get some good grilled flavor to the mushrooms. I cut the eggplant in half and seasoned it similarly with olive oil, salt & pepper and put it directly on the grill. For the last few minutes, we also grilled both sides of the hamburger buns. For toppings, I sliced half an onion into rings, seasoned with olive oil, salt & pepper, wrapped it in foil and tossed it on the grill. While everything was grilling, I tossed some arugula with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, sliced some castello blue cheese from Trader Joes (I love this blue cheese, so creamy and just pungent enough), and sliced some tomatoes. I just assembled the burgers with the portobello mushroom, topped with some blue cheese and the grilled onions, with tomato and arugula, and that was it! It makes for a huge, incredibly flavorful and juicy burger. All the components really enhance the burger: the rich meatiness of the portobello mushroom or eggplants, with the pungent, creamy blue cheese, soft grilled onions, fresh tomato and fresh arugula, in between nicely grilled slightly crunchy hamburger buns. It's a great meal; it's fast to prepare and cook, tasty, and relatively healthy. You don't miss the meat at all! As a side, we just had the remaining arugula salad topped with rosemary pecans, cranberries, and some blue cheese.
I know I said I wasn't going to buy anything for six months, but I couldn't resist picking up a couple of items. Yesterday, as I was picking up an item that I had repaired (Lululemon offers free repairs and hemming, even on items that have already been worn), I saw the Move It Messenger bag on a mannequin, which must have been a return as the bags sold out quickly months ago. I had seen pictures of the bag, but never in any stores, so I quickly snagged it up as I always have the option of returning it. I'm still debating keeping the bag; I think it's really cute, there are a ton of zippered pockets, open pockets and mesh pockets within pockets, so it really holds a lot in an organized fashion. There's even a cell phone holder on the top of the strap which is a nice little detail and I love the bright blue lagoon lining. My only concern is that it may be too pink (never thought I would say this). Normally I adore bright pink; it's the senorita pink that I love, and I have a bunch of matching items in the exact same color including groove crops, run:speed shorts and a flow y, but I'm not sure if its too much for a bag. I'm keeping the tags on for now and thinking about it.
I also tracked down the run:energy SL through phone sales after much debate. The lime color isn't my favorite and the writing is a bit cheesy, but it's a great shirt and on sale for a good price so I decided to track it down. I love the shirt; it feels great on, it's very silky and cool, and has cute ruching details on the back and with the little drawstring at the waist. I've paired it with my run:zoom knee shorts which surprisingly are the bottoms I've been wearing the most (I love the silky smooth feeling of luxtreme fabric), aside from the run:tracker skirt. Even K. commented positively on the outfit and he rarely comments on my workout clothes (and thinks my Lululemon addiction is a bit nuts, which I agree). The shirt also look cute with the run:tracker skirt, which is going to be my Disneyland 5K outfit.
At least 4 different kinds of eggplants: purple, white, red / white round, dark purple
With all the recent travel and general busy-ness, it's been a few weeks since I've been to the farmer's market, so I stopped by after Pop Physique to see what was in season and pick up some vegetables. It's still the height of tomato and peach season, and I saw some neat varieties of peppers, eggplant and cantaloupe. I bought some Japanese eggplant, peppers, salad greens and thai basil. I'm thinking about making more thai curry with different vegetables.
Usually I think of cantaloupe as filler fruit, but we had some deliciously fragrant cantaloupe last week from the Korean market
Jen and I checked out the new Pop Physique today in Mar Vista. We purchased 3 classes for $20 through Groupon, which was a good deal as individual classes are usually $20 each. It's a pretty successful concept, with this one being the third location opened, after Silverlake and Studio City. There are a few other similar studios around LA such as Bar Method and Barre Physique which are looking to franchise and expand. Classes are an hour long and move quickly through a variety of exercises, from repetitive movements with small weights, abdominal and other muscle work on a mat, stretching and toning exercises using the ballet bar, and some strap and ball work. The focus is on several repetitive motions working out different muscle groups. I thought it was pretty good; I liked the ballet bar work the most, it definitely worked muscles that I don't normally use with yoga or running and the stretching felt nice. I like the couple of yoga-esque poses that they threw in there. There is enough variety and you cycle through different series fairly quickly so that it doesn't become too painful or boring. It still isn't a comprehensive workout, given the lack of cardio, but is a nice supplement to running and yoga. I enjoyed the exercises more than Circuitworks which was a little too difficult and too rushed for me, although the cardio portion of Circuitworks is a good idea. At around $20 a class, Pop Physique is too expensive; I'm accustomed to paying around $12 per class for 1.5 hour yoga classes that I still prefer.
Thanks to Z., I recently discovered the Cooking Channel on TV. I watch / record Food Network a lot for cooking inspiration, but I've been tiring of it a bit recently. While I really like Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) and Giada in particular, I've been craving some more variety. Some of the Food Network personalities are a little too perfect, overly styled and / or slightly psycho for me: Claire Robinson, Marcela Vallalolid, Sandra Lee, Anne Burrell, plus they have a bunch of non-cooking shows which I don't really like: Chopped, Food Network Challenge, Ace of Cakes. Maybe it's because it's not in high definition or perhaps because many of the shows are older, but I find the Cooking Channel to be a lot more accessible, with a real focus on the food. I like the ethnic variety as well; I've been watching a lot of the Spice Goddess, which has helped de-mystify Indian cooking. I also really like being able to watch some older episodes from real chefs like Mario Batali and Jamie Oliver. Plus, since it is not in high definition, I'm able to record a lot more shows without filling up my DVR.
I tried my hand at Indian cooking for the first time yesterday, following the Spice Goddess' recipe for "No-Butter Chicken." Since this was my first time cooking Indian and using a lot of the spices, I followed her recipe exactly, which can be found here. I liked that the recipe seemed relatively light, without any butter and cream, only non-fat Fage greek yogurt for some tang and creaminess. I was able to find all the spices that I didn't have, including cumin seeds, turmeric and garam masala (a mix of cloves, cumin, cinnamon, black pepper, cardamon, coriander) at Whole Foods. I served the chicken over white rice, with a side of arugula topped with my recent Trader Joe's discovery, dressed with a simple balsamic vinaigrette.
The chicken was really spicy with lots of interesting and unusual flavors (to me at least) and I liked the consistency that the yogurt added. I found the dish a little too cinnamon-y, not sure if its because Whole Food's garam masala is particularly heavy on the cinnamon, or if that's just how garam masala tastes and I just wasn't used to the flavors. In the future, I might also add some more fresh vegetables, maybe some peppers, tomatoes or spinach. It was a fun experiment and really quick to prepare (less than 30 minutes including prep time) so I'll be trying some more of her recipes in the future, especially now that I have the spices in my cabinet.
I'm becoming a little bored of all the same flavors and dishes that I've been making recently, so I've been on the lookout to try some new recipes, particularly from ethnic cuisines that I haven't previously attempted. The other day, I came across Giada making Thai food on Food Network, and it looked quite easy without needing to buy too many ethnic ingredients and condiments that I would never use again, so I decided to give it a shot. Now, in a separate episode, I also watched Giada cook supposedly Chinese food, which was the most Americanized stereotypical version of Chinese food that I could imagine that you would never find in a real Chinese / Taiwanese household; I mean come on: Orange and Pineapple Beef and Vegetable Chow Mein? I don't think they even grow oranges and pineapples in China or Taiwan. In any case, I am no Thai food expert, so I can't vouch for the authenticity of her Thai recipes. To be on the safe side, I mostly adapted recipes from epicurious.
Last week, I made Thai chicken red curry which was pretty successful (picture and recipe to be posted later), so last night I tried to be even more ambitious and made my own Thai shellfish red curry, which was also quite easy and even more tasty.
To prep, I diced 1/2 a large onion, 1 shallot, 2 red and yellow peppers, 4 roma tomatoes (seeded), 5 cloves of garlic (minced), 1 TB of fresh ginger (minced), 1 cup of cilantro (finely chopped). I bought a 2.5 lb of mixed shellfish from Costco, including mussels, shrimp, scallops, squid. It was a nice variety and looked good, even though it was frozen. I was looking for live mussels that I bought last time, but these were a good substitute and fairly reasonably priced at $12.50 (much cheaper than Whole Foods), plus they clean the seafood for you, peel and devein the shrimp, debeard the mussels and slice the calamari. I let the shellfish defrost, soaked and scrubbed the mussels in a separate pot and rinsed the rest of the shellfish before cooking.
Saute the onions and shallots for about 5 minutes until softened
Add the garlic and ginger and saute for a minute until fragrant
Add the peppers and saute until softened, another 3-4 minutes
Add the tomatoes and saute until heated
Add 1/3 cup of dry white wine and stir it around for a minute or two
Add 1 can of light unsweetened coconut milk, juice from 3 limes and some zest, 2 TB of red curry paste, 2 TB of fish sauce, half of the cilantro, pinch of salt, a tsp of brown sugar, and bring to a simmer for a few minutes
Finally, I added the shellfish and stirred until all the shellfish was basically under the broth and simmered until the shellfish was done, about 5 minutes, added a handful of leftover fresh spinach leaves, and then sprinkled the remainder of the cilantro over the pot right before dishing it into large bowls.
I also toasted 1.5 baguettes that I cut in thirds and separated top from bottom, brushed the open faces with olive oil after toasting and rubbed half a clove of garlic on them for some garlic bread to dip in the curry. I was surprised, the dish was really delicious. There was a lot of nice heat and spice from the curry paste (almost too spicy) and some warmth from the ginger as well, balanced by the sourness and acidity from the fresh limes and mellow richness from the coconut milk. I love the combination of spicy, sweet, sour, salty flavors in Thai food, it definitely awakens the palate. The broth was delicious and packed with flavor and we sopped up every last bit with the bread. All the fresh vegetables, including the peppers, tomatoes, spinach and cilantro were a really nice balance to the dish, keeping it from being too rich or one-dimensional, and you could faintly taste the subtle onions and garlic in the background. It was also nice to have a variety of seafood as opposed to say, just mussels. I overcooked the seafood slightly as I was trying to keep the dish warm before serving (seafood is so fickle), but it all still tasted very good. It's also a lot healthier than in restaurants since I used light coconut milk, which you can find at Trader Joes and Whole Foods. I'm sure restaurants use regular coconut milk which has over 2x the fat of light coconut milk. I saw curry paste at both Trader Joes and Whole Foods and fish sauce at Whole Foods, though I used imported sauces from an Indonesian market. We paired the dish with a 2009 bottle of Crios Torrontes, a nice vibrant and floral white that goes well with spicy Asian food. Next up: my attempt at Indian food.
for about 5 minutes until soft
