Honey Lime Curry Chicken Stir Fry

For as long as we've been going to the Coventry Regional Farmers Market on Sundays, we've noticed from afar the stand of Connecticut-Grown artisan hot sauces and condiments known as "Dragon's Blood Elixir." And we can't give you one single good reason that we never tried them other than we have some hot sauce favorites always in our fridge, namely, Cholula and Louisiana, and really, how many hot sauces does one couple need? Nevertheless, we've been ever-so-slightly obsessed with the CT local scene as of late, and Doug, the maker of Dragon's Blood was giving out tastes, and there was no line, so there you have it. We stopped. We tried. We got hooked.

Three bottles and a few days later, we thawed a pound of boneless, skinless chicken thighs and prepped to make a stir fry with Dragon's Blood's Honey Lime Curry sauce, one of Doug's several "special" sauces, made with CT-grown chilis and other local ingredients. At our market tasting, he had suggested mixing the sauce with yogurt to thicken it and make it more of a stir fry sauce, and we did, with plain Greek yogurt. Since we had nearly every flavor profile we might need with our sauce (salty, sweet, sour, bitter), as well as great spice from the curry, all we really needed was crunch, which we added with celery, carrots and green beans. Next time we'll try a squeeze of lime over the top (we didn't have any on hand) to punch up the citrus.

This was a lovely, very easy, pretty healthy and quite delicious weeknight dinner that pleased the palette with its variety of flavors and textures. We served it over rice to balance the heat, and had enough for lunch the next day. This one is definitely doing into the weeknight repertoire. We might have to make it on Game of Thrones nights!!!

Honey Lime Curry Chicken Stir Fry

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 carrot, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 pound green beans, cut into thirds
1 celery stalk, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/4 cup Honey Lime Curry Sauce
1 single-serve container plain Greek yogurt
cooked rice

Heat oil in a wok or large skillet. Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Add chicken  and cook until browned.  Add carrots, green beans and celery and continue to cook, stir-frying, until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are tender. In a small bowl, mix together the yogurt and curry sauce; season with salt and pepper. Pour sauce into wok/skillet and stir-fry until everything is coated and sauce is hot. Serve over or toss with

cooked rice.

Yellow Curry Shrimp, and Musings on the Weather in New England

We know that sometimes it seems we make a big deal of the so-called "changing of the seasons." Our readers in, say, Florida or, perhaps, California, may wonder why we make such a big to-do about our "crocus forests" or the fact that it has finally, on April 8th, reached 70 degrees. We suppose it has to do with the wide range of weather that we experience in New England on any given year. Let's take this particular school year for example (we are teachers in "real" life after all): we were hit with a hurricane (you read that right) in October. A hurricane which, according to Wikipedia (yes, we know it's not the most reliable, but admit it - you use it all the time), was  "the deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclone of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, as well as the second-costliest hurricane in United States history." Once we got over that mess, we faced one of the snowiest years we can remember, which included a blizzard that dropped close to 3 feet of snow mid-February (see Nemo Gras). And seeing as the two of us (both in our 40's) can't really remember 3 feet of snow in our snow-measuring history? Well, that'something! While the uber-winter mix seemed to dissipate after that, it was cold, gray and rainy for so long that people were starting to mutiny against that crazy groundhog Punxatawny Phil who predicted an early spring: That damn TV rodent. He really must be taken care of, if you know what we mean...

Fast forward to today. We are tired. We are sun- and, hence, vitamin-D-deprived and we just want to enjoy some warm rays and non-blisteringly-cold winds. Is it really so much to ask? Sure we're a little excited about our crocus. Yeah, we are posting pictures of our spring onions. So sue us. We just can't help it. And when we texted each other about dinner today - something along the lines of, "let's do something lite (sic)" - "okay how bout (sic) yellow curry shrimp n veggies," a plan was quickly hatched. We even used a tool from our fancy garnishing kit (thank you, Turners!) to cut our carrots so they'd be prettier than usual. And, really, aren't they????

This recipe may not be the typical Californian's or Floridian's version of "light" but it was perfect for us New Englanders. Bright, colorful, cheery, and most importantly (for this time of year), quick and easy, we are adding this to our weeknight repertoire because we loved it's cheery springiness and the way it made us feel about the change of seasons. We enjoyed this served over basmati rice - and we even cheated a little bit by using Success Rice Boil-in-a-Bag, which takes 10 minutes, not-coincidentally about the time it takes to make the shrimp. How perfect is that?

Yellow Curry Shrimp

Ingredients:

1 15-ounce can light coconut milk

3 tablespoons yellow curry sauce (we like Trader Joe's)

2 carrots, peeled and sliced

1/2 pound green beans, chopped

1 pound raw shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon fish sauce 

2-3 leaves basil, chopped

1 teaspoon sugar

In a large skillet, bring coconut milk to a simmer. Stir in curry sauce and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add carrots and green beans and simmer about five minutes until vegetables begin to soften. Add shrimp and cook until shrimp turn pink, about 2 minutes. Add lime juice, fish sauce, basil and sugar, and stir to combine. Simmer an additional minute to incorporate all ingredients. Serve over prepared rice, pasta, or simply with crusty bread for dipping.

Curried Mussels with Lemongrass *Award-Winning*

The lemongrass we planted in our garden grew very well. It is almost as tall as Amy! As it starts to get cooler out, we are trying hard to use up all the herbs and vegetables that are still growing abundantly in our front yard. So, we wondered...what would lemongrass be fabulous in? Then we spotted a 2-pound bag of Prince Edward Island mussels at our market for $4.99, and we had our answer.

When you are cooking with lemongrass, you are really only using the bottom part of the stalk. First you chop off the long grassy part and then peel away the outer layers of the bottom stalk, kind of like you do with fresh corn. Underneath should be a pale yellow fleshy stalk that is soft and fragrant. Cut off and discard the bulbous end, then slice thinly about 2/3 of the way up. The green and woody upper part can be used for infusing flavor into a broth, but is not very edible, so should be removed before serving.

This dish uses some random ingredients besides the lemongrass, that is true. But these are things we buy when we see them, often at Asian markets, and tend to keep around our pantry when we are looking to make something unusual or slightly exotic. For New Englanders anyway.

So this dish includes red curry paste and fish sauce which we can find in our normal grocery store, as well as dried galangal, which we bought in Boston's Chinatown, but can be replaced with some grated fresh ginger. Even lemongrass is hard to get around here (although if you need some, we have plenty!!!). If you can't find it, substituting some grated lemon zest would do the trick.

While the broth, with all these exciting ingredients, was smooth, sweet, spicy and citrusy, it turned out slightly thin and didn't seep into the mussel shells as well as we wanted it to. We just ate all the mussels then sopped that tasty broth up with some fresh crusty bread. To solve that problem in the future, we might leave the hot water out of the recipe. 

Curried Mussels with Lemongrass

Ingredients:

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons red curry paste

1 cup hot water

1 stalk lemongrass, chopped

2 pieces dried galangal

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon liquid sugar (simple syrup)

1 can light coconut milk

2 pounds fresh PEI mussels

In a large pot, heat the olive oil. Add the curry paste and stir to fry for about a minute. Stir in the water, then add the lemongrass, galangal, fish sauce, sugar and coconut milk. Bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add the mussels, stir to coat, and put a lid on the pot. Cook, covered, over low heat until the mussels open, about five minutes. Serve with crusty bread.

Secret Recipe Club: Chicken Curry with Whole Spices

When we read about Amanda's (of Amanda's Cookin') Secret Recipe Club, we hoped we weren't too late to join. Well, we were. For that month's "meeting" anyway. But we were "inducted" into the club shortly afterward and are thrilled to be participating in July's posting.

The SRC is a group of food blogging enthusiasts who are assigned another person's blog from which they must read, choose, make and post about, a recipe. The "secret" part is that the person whose recipe we're making doesn't know who we are. All postings are posted at the same time on the same date (what we call the Big Reveal), and it's all great fun.

The blog we were assigned is Passionate About Baking. This beautifully written and photographed blog is by Deeba Rajpal of India. Now, one would think we would have chosen one of her many dozens of baking recipes. However, since it is our first SRC, we decided to celebrate "first timeness" and use Deeba's recipe for "Khade Masale Ka Korma," or "Chicken Curry with Whole Spices" to make our first homemade curry. This particular curry called to us not only because of the use of whole spices but also because of the wonderful simplicity of the dish.

The khade mesale, or whole spices used in this dish

We followed Deeba's recipe, found here, halving the amounts of the ingredients (since we were cooking for two), using Szechuan peppercorns in place of black, and serving the chicken with steamed basmati rice. The result was chicken that was cooked to a perfect texture in an aromatic curry sauce that had a flavorful and comforting spiciness to it. In a word, delightful.

The base of the dish, ghee (or clarified butter)

First, we melted some ghee...

...and sauteed sliced onions in it.

We added some green cardamom pods, whole cloves and Szechuan peppercorns.

Next, we added onion, garlic and ginger that we had ground quickly in a food processor.

This curry gets additional flavor as well as its color from hot paprika.

A few tablespoons of yogurt and some water were added before we put on the cover and allowed the chicken to cook.

The finished product, served with basmati rice.

Red Curry Shrimp with Rice Noodles

About a month ago, we read this recipe for "Thai Red Curry Shrimp Linguine" from the food blog My Tasty Handbook, and it sounded really, really good. Jump ahead to the other night, when we were craving Asian. Would it have been easier to order take-out? Well, duh! But the Christmas bills are rolling in, and unless we win MegaMillions (update: we did not win), they aren't going anywhere.

So, a tiny bit grudgingly, we put away the takeout menu, defrosted that bag of shrimp we had in the freezer and adapted the recipe to suit our tastes and what we had in the house. The spicy heat packed a flavorful punch but next time we'll try the original recipe, made with linguine. In ours, the rice sticks were a little gummy and soaked up every ounce of the sauce. We'd also add  more coconut milk, by the way. We admit, it was not our best meal, but it was still cheaper than takeout!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 tablespoons red curry paste
1 cup chicken broth
1 13.5-ounce can coconut milk
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 package rice noodles
1 pound raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 cup chopped green onions
juice of one lime
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
lime wedges for garnish

Soak the rice noodles in warm water for 30-45 minutes until tender but firm. In a large skillet, over medium-high heat, stir the red curry paste until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the chicken broth, coconut milk, fish sauce and sugar, and whisk until paste dissolves. Bring to a boil and cook until sauce coats a wooden spoon, 7-10 minutes. Drain the rice noodles and add to the sauce. When they begin to stick, add the shrimp and green onions. Cook until shrimp turn pink, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes. Stir in the lime juice, then turn off heat. Serve garnished with cilantro and lime wedges.

Coconut Curry Chicken Soup

Did we not get enough roasted poultry last week? Apparently not, because Tuesday night came and we found ourselves picking up a rotisserie chicken at our local supermarket. It was a "Superbird" which meant plenty of leftovers, and since we already did the pot pie thing with the turkey, it was time for something new and different. A recent purchase of the never-before-seen College Inn Culinary Broth Thai Coconut Curry was inspiration, and basis, for this colorful and delicious soup. The warm spiciness of the curry makes it the perfect soup for a cold winter's night, and an excellent use of leftover chicken!

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

2 carrots, cut into thin one-inch pieces

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 tablespoon red curry paste

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 32-ounce container College Inn Culinary Broth Thai Coconut Curry

2 cups chicken broth

1 15-ounce can coconut milk

1/2 tablespoon salt

4 ounces thin rice noodles, broken in half

1 1/2 - 2 cups cooked, shredded chicken breast meat

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 cup chopped cilantro

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic, curry paste and red pepper flakes, and cook, stirring, 2-3 minutes. Stir in the broth and coconut milk, season with salt, and bring to a boil. Lower heat and add the noodles and chicken. Simmer over low heat 5-6 minutes until chicken is warmed through and noodles are tender. Turn off heat, then add the lime juice and cilantro.