Dec 9, 2012

Thai Green Curry Soup

I love Thai food, let me say it again I LOVE Thai food, my DH not so much. I did get him to take me to a Thai restaurant for my birthday and he was shocked that the food is not what he thought it was. What did he think it was? I have no clue. Maybe Chinese.  Either way he ended up liking it.  He surprised me this summer when he planted Thai basil at our garden which I took as a sign.  I've had these ingredients at hand, but time was delaying me trying to make my favorite soup, green curry.... Thinking about it makes me salivate.  I typically will order it from a restaurant by my job, but at $9.50 for a small container, it's a splurge and not the norm. BTW, if you are ever in the Mount Vernon area of Baltimore, check out Thai Landing, their food is awesome. Simple and tasty.
 

I read up on some recipes and saw that even though there are various ways to make it, the base is almost always the same.  I decided to make my own version with these ingredients.
 
The green block in the small bowl is the Thai basil frozen to preserve the flavor. I added cilantro because I didn't have Kaffir leaves.
 
 
 
The process was simple; browned the chicken in hot wok, saute the onion and garlic, then add the fat from the coconut milk in with the curry paste and carrots. Let that cook for a bit (while the kids start coughing because of the spice LOL).  Add in the fish sauce, broth, rest of the coconut milk, basil and cilantro. Let it cook for a bit and you are done.
 

 Serve over a bed of rice. DH and DD loved it, DS was tired and wanted nothing but the chicken.  Overall, my version is a PASS.  I could not make it as spicy as I would like since the kids had to eat from it, next batch will be strictly for me. 
 

Dec 2, 2012

Monkey Bread


So today at church, my family was to provide refreshments and I decided I will make semi-homemade monkey bread. Everything went well except when dealing with two toddlers, plans gets derailed. Instead of taking it out of the pan immediately, I did it about half hour later. Needless to say, the result was less than what I expected. There is a reason why they suggest to serve warm. The caramel crystallized in the pan and there was no way I can get it out of the pan without breaking it apart.

Immediately told my husband he will have to stop and pick something else on his way to church. Oh and I ended up missing church because my oldest is sick. Before hubby left he took a ziplock bag full to eat on the way.

So this was a fail in presentation, but a pass in flavour and process. Will definitely try it again.