Thai Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce

We are 12 days in now but as we were prepping to go on our 30 days of a strict Paleo lifestyle we decided to indulge in some of our favorite things before we started.

It seems Thai flavors were really on our minds as we were getting ready to be without them for awhile. Pad Thai was sounding oh so good.

So we made these Thai Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce to meet that craving. 

This was simple and fairly healthy Pad Thai-ish recipe.

RECIPE:

Thai Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce (adapted from Food.com)

Noodles

12 ounces linguine

4 tablespoons sesame oil

Sauce

1/2 cup green onion, chopped

1 cup finely shredded carrot

2 cups frozen stir fry vegetables

3 tablespoons minced fresh garlic

1/2 tablespoon ground ginger or 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1/4 cup soy sauce

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

1/2 tablespoon chili-garlic sauce

Directions:

1.Cook pasta in a large pot of salted water according to package directions.

2.Drain and return to pot.

3.Add 2 TBSP sesame oil and toss to coat. Set aside.

4.Heat remaining 2 TBSP sesame oil in heavy pot over medium-high heat.

5.Add green onions, carrots, stir-fry veggies, garlic and ginger.

6. Saute until vegetables soften, about 4 minutes.

7.Add honey, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar and chili-garlic sauce and mix well.

8. Simmer sauce 2 minutes.

9. Pour sauce over pasta and toss well.

10.Transfer to platter and serve warm.

11. Garnish with additional green onions, if desired.

Yields 8 side dish servings or 4 main dish servings.

**Chili-Garlicsauce can be increased or decreased depending on how spicy you like your dish. We like spicy so we used 2 heaping tablespoons.

GCC: Malaysian Mussels

This week our Gutsy Cooks Club assignment included a dish from a cuisine that we love and often cook, Malaysian Mussels from Martha Stewart's website.

As comfortable and familiar as we are with these ingredients we actually weren't aware that they were Malaysian. But evidently Thai and Malaysian cuisine are quite similar. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise really given Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand all surround the same body of water, have the same climate and natural resources. Ironically, we had this meal after watching the movie The Impossible about the horrific 2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean in Thailand. Wow, the beauty of the country and the absolute chaos an event like this brings. An unbelievable movie.

And from that beautiful landscape come these fantastic flavors. What's not to love about coconut milk, curry paste, ginger, lime and cilantro. These fresh ingredients are the base of many Thai flavored dishes we love to make. 

And they are the perfect surrounding flavors for mussels. Living in the Pacific Northwest mussels are readily available to us all year round and we often take the opportunity to enjoy. They are generally a quick Friday night go to meal for us to make. We usually do them very similarly to this recipe. Or sometimes with chorizo and white wine. And almost always with some good crusty bread to sop up all the extra flavor goodness. 

Here's the thing about mussels you have to take the time to clean them well. They have these yucky beard things that have to be pulled off. We generally get them home and immediately get them into a cold water bath that we'll change 4-5 times. Then we scrub them with a vegetable brush. Finally, we pull the hairy beards from the shells. This time and effort makes all the difference in the world in being able to enjoy the meaty, briny mussel meat.

I added some jalapeño pepper for color and heat besides that we didn't get very "gutsy" with this recipe because these flavors make for a delicious dish. And I believe don't mess with what works too much. 

We both wanted to eat our mussels differently. I wanted them served over a fragrant Jasmine rice. And G wanted them as we usually have them served with some good crusty bread. 

Both ways were tasty but I wanted it to be more of meal and rice made it more of a entree in my mind. 

We had our mussels with some fresh spring rolls and a crisp Sauvignon Blanc from the Columbia Valley.

Recipe:

Malaysian Mussels from Martha Stewart

• 2 tablespoons safflower oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tablespoons)
• 1/2-inch piece ginger, minced (2 tablespoons)
• 1 tablespoon red curry paste
• 1 cup coconut milk
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 pounds mussels, beards removed and scrubbed clean
• 12 cilantro sprigs, chopped
• 1 lime, cut into wedges

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When oil shimmers, add garlic and ginger and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute.
2. Stir curry paste into garlic and ginger and continue to cook 1 minute more. Add coconut milk, salt, and pepper to skillet and bring to a boil.
3. Add mussels to skillet, cover, and cook just until mussels open, 2-3 minutes. Transfer mussels to a large serving bowl with a slotted spoon. Pour coconut curry sauce over mussels, garnish with cilantro and lime and serve immediately.

Coconut Chicken Soup (Tom Kha Gai)

Tom Kha Gai was the first dish ever that G made for me back when he was in the "whooing" stage.

14 years later it is still one of our favorite soups to have at Thai restaurants or to make at home. And when one of us is coming doing with a cold or flu it's the one we crave as opposed to chicken noodle.

The coconut, lime and spice all come together in this soup making an amazing flavor and even better aroma in your home.

We had one of those busy after work evenings: drop car off to get new tires because of a recent flat, pick up mail on hold from vacation, pick up G's skis from shop (he can't wait for the weekend to come), go to Costco and pick up the pup from doggie care, etc.... all before 6 p.m. 

And on top of it I was starting to crave 

Tom Kha Gai which along with a sore throat and throbbing headache was sure indication that I am coming down with something.

Amongst all of our errands we decided we would add an additional stop to the Asian market to pick up some fresh galanga ginger (which is well worth the extra trip for the added flavor it brings to this dish.)

Galanga is kind of like ginger on steroids. 

We also picked up Kaffir lime leaves which can be hard to find even at the Asian markets around here but on this day we were lucky and they happened to have some.

And finally lemongrass. All of these fresh Thai flavors make this soup what it is. And what it is ...is delicious.

And this soup is actually fairly simple to make. We prep all of our ingredients first and on this evening we went with using rotisserie chicken since we didn't get home until after 6:30 which really made it come together even more quickly. As soon as you add the galanga,lemongrass and Kaffir lime leaves to the chicken broth the aroma in the air gives hint to the great soup that it will soon become.

Then with the coconut milk, chicken and mushrooms it becomes the Thai perfection we love. We add canned baby corns and for the first time we added some fresh noodles to the soup too.

It was the perfect remedy to soothe our long, busy day and my forthcoming ailments. Along with with a glass of Milbrandt's Sweet Catherine's Cuvee that we picked up on our recent wine tasting weekend we sat to comfort in a bowl.

This is a regularly made soup in our home and will likely always be.

Recipe:

Coconut Chicken Soup with Noodles ( a version of Tom Kha Gai)

Serves 4-6

3 Cups chicken broth

8 large slices galanga ginger

1 large stalk lemon grass cut into 3 inch pieces

6 pairs Kaffir lime leaves or peel from 1 small lime

2 cans unsweetened coconut milk

1 pound cooked and shredded chicken 

2 Tablespoons garlic-chile paste

1/4 Cup fresh lime juice

2 1/2 Tablespoons brown sugar

2 1/2 Tablespoons Thai fish sauce

2 Teaspoons crushed red pepper 

1/2 pound mushrooms, quatered

1 can baby corns, drained

1 cup fresh ramen noodles

Put broth, ginger and lemongrass into dutch oven or stock pot. Tear lime leaves in half, add to pot. Gradually bring broth to boil. Boil 1 minute. Add coconut milk and then return to boil over medium heat. Stir in chicken, add chile-garlic paste, lime juice, sugar and fish sauce. Stir until paste and sugar dissolve. Add mushrooms, baby corns and fresh noodles simmer until mushrooms are tender, about 1-2 minutes.

Float crushed pepper on top and remove from heat. Serve in bowls. Remove lime leaves, ginger and lemon grass from soup before serving.

Pumpkin Shrimp Curry

I'm starting to actually think that maybe we are really an all season kind of couple after all. I mean for me I often feel like life doesn't really begin until the sun comes out and around here it sometimes feels like that day will never come. And for G, he spends from September 'til whenever it finally snows in the mountains literally praying for snow to come. 

But what we both do love is fall. Finally the early darkness allows us to feel not like we have to be out doing something, somewhere. But rather that home is the place to be and good food is the thing to do. When fall finally rolls around we start really thinking about the food we want to make this season. 

And often it is recipes like this one that come to us during this season. Curry is one of those flavors I can never get enough of and the idea of mixing it with pumpkin and shrimp just seemed to sound quite wonderful to us. 

What I always find interesting about many of the pumpkin recipes I've read and tried is that often the instead of pumpkin it calls for a different squash or a combo of both pumpkin and squash. This recipe is a combo of both canned pumpkin and roasted butternut squash.

We found some beautiful large Mexican Prawns that we used for this recipe.

The curry sauce smelled fantastic simmering on the stove.

This was a fantastic dish that didn't disappoint.  I love a Thai coconut curry sauce and this was simple and good. We did add 2 Tablespoons of brown sugar to the sauce to help balance the flavors. A trick G always uses when he makes Thai curry sauces.

Recipe:

Pumpkin Shrimp Curry adapted from Epicurious

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup sliced onion

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 chopped plum tomato

1 15-ounce can pumpkin purée

2 cups vegetable broth

1 cup unsweetened coconut milk

1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 cup roasted butternut squash, roasted and diced

1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

Steamed Jasmine rice

Cilantro

Lime zest

Fried shallots

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and ginger; sauté until soft, about 8 minutes. Add garlic; cook for 1 minute. Stir in plum tomato and pumpkin purée; cook, stirring frequently, until pumpkin is golden brown, about 10 minutes. Add vegetable broth, coconut milk, curry powder, and cayenne pepper; simmer for 20 minutes. Add butternut squash, shrimp, and lime juice. Simmer until shrimp are cooked and squash is warm. Serve with steamed rice. Top with cilantro, lime zest, and fried shallots

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pumpkin-Shrimp-Curry-368281#ixzz29R0L7oPx

New York Steak with Baby Greens and Grilled Nectarines

Summer grilling and stone fruits are two things that go pretty perfectly together at our house. We love grilling peaches, plums and nectarines. G makes a fab grilled peach dish with balsamic vinegar that we look forward to every August when the peaches come in.

Grilling is also so very forgiving to these fruits that struggle to ever get sweet enough in the state of Washington.

This Thai steak salad dish is the perfect vehicle to showcase grilled nectarines.

Recipe:

New York Steak with Baby Greens and Grilled Nectarines ( adapted from The Best of Vietnamase & Thai Cooking)

Dressing:

1 TBLSPN minced shallot

3 TBLSPN champagne vinegar

2 TBLSPN dijon mustard

3 TBLSPN olive oil

2 TBLSPN water

1 tsp agave nectar ( you can use sugar instead)

Salt & Pepper

Salad:

1 # Grilled New York steak

1/4 # baby greens

3 grilled nectarines, sliced

3 TBLSPN Thai basil leaves

1/4 red onion, thinly sliced

Combine dressing, mix well and set aside. Grill steak & nectarines. After letting steak rest slice to 1/2 inch thick.

In salad bowl, toss the greens, sliced nectarines, basil, onion & steak with the dressing. Serve in a mound in the middle of the plate.

Grilled Minty Thai Chicken Salad (Larb Gai)

This is one of those Thai recipes that we crave around here. Pretty much within days of our mint growing back in the spring you can count on one of us saying, "Hey some Larb sounds good." It usually is G as he truly loves this minty, fresh salad.

This dish was originally introduced to us by our fellow Thai loving friend Steve Brown.Steve & G used to teach together and we often would all come together to go out for Thai which grew into trying to cook some our favorite dishes at home together. We blew his heat thermometer off kilter one night with our Fire Noodle recipe. We haven't seen Steve in years but whenever we eat or make Larb Gai we think of him & acknowledge how happy we are that he introduced this dish to us.

For this particular version we actually grilled the chicken thighs which gave it a great extra layer of flavor. We most often used ground chicken or turkey but grilled thighs will likely be our go to technique from here on out.

Our recipe uses kaffir lime leaves which we find at our local Asian grocery. If you can find them I highly recommend using them as nothing compares to fresh, bright flavor they bring to the dish. But if you can't get them you can sub lime zest.

We served our Larb Gai with a Trust Reisling. Perfect to balance the heat and flavor of this Thai inspired salad.

Recipe

Grilled Minty Thai Chicken Salad (Larb Gai):

2 tspns olive oil

1 Tblspn dried red chile flakes ( we go heavy on this b/c we love heat, adjust to your taste)

1# boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1/2 tspn smoked paprika

2 Tblspns brown sugar

3 Tblspns fish sauce

1/3 C fresh lime juice

1/2 small diced white onion

1Tblspn minced lemon grass ( use the inner layers)

3 Kaffir lime leaves, cut into fine slivers

2 Roma tomatoes, seeded & diced 1/2 C fresh mint leaves, chopped

Red lettuce leaves, to use as the bed

Cilantro for garnish

1 bag shredded cabbbage

A few lime wedges for garnish

Mix olive oil & red pepper. Gently brush chicken thighs with chile oil. Grill until cooked through. Mix paprika, sugar & fish sauce and cook in pot over medium heat. Dice chicken thighs. add thighs to sauce in pot just to coat. Transfer chicken to mixing bowl add lime juice, onion, lemon grass, lime leaves, tomatoes & mint. Toss gently.Line plates with lettuce leaves, add mound of cabbage. Place chicken salad in the middle in a mound. Garnish cilantro & lime wedges.

Thai Spaghetti-Squash Salad with Poached Shrimp and Basil

As we've shared previously we have adopted an approximately 80% Paleo lifestyle. It's taken a month or so to really figure out recipes that are still blogworthy with this new eating approach but we are both feeling more comfortable and confident in finding and creating our Paleo version recipes the past few weeks.

This is recipe from one of our longtime favorite Thai cookbooks; The Best of Vietnamese & Thai Cooking by Mia Pham. We have this cookbook and other Thai cookbooks flagged with several of our favorite recipes but this particular recipe for Spaghetti-Squash Salad with Poached Shrimp and Basil was a new one to us and one that I guarantee we'll be making again soon it was so good.

I finally found some Paleo friendly pasta=spaghetti-squash recently and was looking for a creative way to use them and this recipe was just what we were looking for.

I started by cutting the squash in half and removing both the seeds and the ribs and then boiling it for about 5 minutes. After it's boiled you submerge it in ice water to cool it off. Don't skip this step before starting to scrape the spaghetti like strings from the flesh or it's too hot to work with.

Next we made the Thai flavored sauce that include a few of our favorite Thai tastes: fish sauce, chili paste, mint and Thai basil.

Next we poached the shrimp. I found these beautiful Black Tiger Prawns at Metropolitan Market. We typically either grill or saute' shrimp so this is a new technique to us. We actually used our steamer pot to poach them. And wow they were so tender, sweet and perfectly cooked. This might a technique we use more regularly after this.

The final step was to fry the shallots.

I used the grill side burner to save our house

from that dreaded frying aroma that I truly can't stand.

It was time to put the salad together. We tossed the shrimp with the sauce, garnished with cilantro and chopped cashews. The recipe calls for peanuts but peanuts are not Paleo friendly so we went with cashews which gave it the same crunch and salty addition.

This dish was perfect.It conquered our craving for some of our missed Thai dishes that aren't so Paleo friendly.

We served it with a bottle of Trust Riesling that we had picked up on Woodinville wine weekend. Riesling is always a good pairing with Thai flavors as the sweetness of the wine balances the complexity of flavors and spice well.

It also made great leftovers to take the next day for lunch which makes it a doubly great dish in our mind.

Recipe:

Spaghetti-Squash Salad with Poached Shrimp and Basil adapted from The Best of Vietnamese & Thai Cooking

1 (2-3#) Spaghetti Squash

Dressing:

2 Tblspn Fish Sauce

1/4 C lime juice

2 Tblspn Sugar ( we agave syrup to be Paleo Friendly)

1 Tspn Salt

1 Tspn ground chili paste or to taste (to make it spicy use more, we did)

1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced (we used white)

3 ripe roma tomatoes, seeded & cut into wedges (we cut riper grape tomatoes in half)

1/3 # cooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

20 fresh Thai Basil leaves, coarsely chopped

20 fresh mint leaves, coarsely chopped

Garnish:

1/4 cup chopped peanuts (we used cashews to be Paleo friendly)

1/4 cup Fried Shallots

12 fresh Cilantro sprigs

Bring large pot of water to boil. Place spaghetti squash cut in half, seeded & deribbed into the boiling water for 3-5 minutes. Remove from pot submerge in ice bath until cool enough to handle. When cool use a fork to gently scrape flesh working from one side to the other. Soak strands in cold water for 15 minutes to "crisp"them. Drain & dry in a salad spinner.

Combine dressing ingredients. Toss squash & shrimp with dressing. Portion on plates garnish with nuts, fried shallots & cilantro.

Thai Curry Chicken Noodle Soup

We have a pretty serious infatuation with both curry and Thai soups around here. The first meal G tried to "woo" me with was Tom Kha Gai (Thai Coconut Curry Soup) and it is our fav still to this day . When I came across this recipe for a Thai Coconut Curry Noodle Soup from the Sweethome blog I knew we needed to give it a try.

Sadly it's very winter like around these parts still. It has snowed 2 times in the last two weeks, not very typical for the Pacific Northwest but it is what is! And what it has been is... COLD. Soup was in order to warm us up.

I started by pulling everything together.

I decided this was a perfect opportunity to use the new Le Creuset French Oven that we won from being one of the top 5 finalists in the Johnsonville Chili Cook off. ( Bummed we didn't win first place but very excited to have made the top 5.)

I was also excited to have an opportunity to use our Kaffir lime leaves that I had froze last time. They aren't easy to find around here so when we do we freeze what we don't use for future use.

Since this was a mid-week, school night I went the rotisserie chicken route. I first shredded some chicken.

I then started with some cream from the coconut milk, cilantro stems and the curry paste. YES, I went heavy on the curry paste. Can't be spicy enough for me.

Then I focused on some of the flavors that I love about Thai food and the freshness they bring to any dish.

The soup came together incredibly easy and looked fantastic from the start.

It was spicy, comforting and overall fantastic. We loved the addition of the noodles. Although we heed this warning: use far less rice noodles than the recipe calls for. We used a package and they totally absorbed the liquid of the soup. We added more chicken stock and all was fine, especially since I had already went far too heavy on the curry paste the extra chicken broth really helped cool it down a bit.

Super Good Stuff. This will become a "frequent flyer" at our dinner table without a doubt.


Recipe from Sweethome:

Thai Coconut Curry Soup

This Recipe is part of the One Pot Wonders Recipes from Michael Smith Menu

Ingredients
Two 14 oz (398 mL) cans of premium coconut milk
1 heaping tablespoon (15 mL) of Thai curry paste
Roots of 1 bunch of cilantro, rinsed well
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
2 cups (500 mL) of chicken broth
1 carrot, shredded
4 or 5 lime leaves
2 stalks of lemon grass, halved lengthwise, woody leaves removed
2 tablespoons (30 mL) of fish sauce
Zest and juice of 2 limes
A small knob of frozen ginger
A handful of bean sprouts
One 8 oz (225 g) package of rice noodles
Leaves of 1 bunch of cilantro, rinsed well
2 or 3 green onions, thinly sliced
A sprinkle or two of salt or soy sauce

Directions
1. Scoop the thick coconut cream from the top of just one of the cans into a large stockpot set over a medium-high heat. Melt the cream, add the curry paste and stir for a few minutes until they begin to sizzle.

2. Add the cilantro roots and chicken and sauté until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes.

3. Add the coconut juice from the first can and all the contents of the second can along with the chicken broth, carrot, lime leaves, lemon grass, fish sauce and lime zest and juice. Grate the frozen ginger into the broth with a Microplane grater or standard box grater. Simmer for 20 minutes or so.

4. Stir in the bean sprouts. Add the rice noodles, gently pushing them beneath the surface of the broth. Turn off the heat and let stand until the noodles soften, about 5 minutes. Rice noodles don’t need to simmer like pasta to cook; they simply need to rehydrate in the hot liquid.

5. Stir in most of the cilantro leaves. Remove the lemon grass stalks. Taste and season with a touch more salt (or soy sauce) as needed. Ladle into large bowls and garnish with the green onions and remaining cilantro leaves.

Serves 4