Jen Cooks Curry

I tried out a new curry recipe last evening and it was one of my more successful attempts at this type of dish. I know I should just stay away from cooking Thai and curries at home, but I love the flavors of these foods so much that once in awhile I have to take a stab at it.

Anyway, for curry, it was a fairly simple recipe. And, for a curry made by me, it tasted pretty good too. It was beautiful to look at as well, so I just had to post a picture.

I used mint and cilantro, but didn't make it to the Asian grocery for curry leaves or Thai basil (both optional). Also, no palm sugar – I used brown sugar instead.

I loved the fresh herbs and the shallots, but overall, it was on the mild side for me. I like a lot of spice and more pungent flavors. If you're more of the mild type, you might like to try it. The recipe is from Sunset Magazine: Fresh Herb & Tofu Curry.

Summer Into Fall: Salmon Chowder

It was the last week of summer, and we wanted to make Northwest salmon on the grill one last time, before the cooler weather and rain arrived. I prepared a huge side of wild-caught salmon, using my favorite cedar plank salmon recipe. We enjoyed it, but it was way too much food for just the four of us.

Leftover salmon is good on a crisp salad, in a pasta dish, or just re-heated. But the forecast predicted the beginnings of fall weather. Salmon chowder, I thought, was the way to go. I've made chowders before, but never with great results, so I looked for a new recipe. I found one that looked promising, which actually called for canned salmon, but of course, I was looking for a way to use our leftovers, so I made that substitution and a few other changes. I wasn't sure about the idea of using creamed corn, but decided to give it shot. The chowder turned out delicious and just in time for the first cool, drizzly day we've had in months. Perfect!

My recipe is below. If you decide to try it with canned salmon, let me know how it turns out. I'm a little curious.

Salmon Chowder  PRINTABLE RECIPE

3 Tbsp butter
3/4 cup chopped yellow onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 garlic cloves - minced
2 cups diced red potatoes
2 carrots - diced
2 cups chicken broth
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp dill weed
15 oz can creamed corn
12 oz can low-fat evaporated milk
1 Lb (at least) cooked salmon - broken into small pieces
4 oz shredded cheddar cheese
2 Tbsp chopped parsley (optional)

1. Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Sauté onion, celery, and garlic for a few minutes, until onions are tender.

2. Stir in potatoes, carrots, broth, salt, pepper, and dill weed. Bring to a boil; then cover and simmer over medium-low heat for 20 minutes.

3. Add corn, evaporated milk, salmon, and cheese to the pot. Stir often, until heated through. Ladle chowder into individual bowls and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Avocado Love: A Salad

When buying avocados, I always get an extra and give a half to my six-year-old daughter. She loves scooping the fruit out of the peel with a spoon and eating it up. She's determined to grow an avocado tree, and there are a number of pits buried in our backyard in random locations. Unfortunately, I've never heard of an avocado tree growing in Oregon.

If you love avocados too, you'll enjoy this salad. It's super simple and quite delicious. It can be a nice alternative for those who like Caesar salad. It's made with tender butter lettuce, lime citrus instead of lemon, red onion for bite, and avocado for creamy richness.

Salad with Avocado, Onion, and Lime Dressing  PRINTABLE RECIPE

1 cup thin slivers of red onion (about half an onion)
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 cups torn butter lettuce
1 cup sliced avocado (about 1 avocado)

Combine the onion, olive oil, lime juice, salt, and pepper in a salad bowl. Let stand at least 10 minutes. Add lettuce and avocado and toss gently.

Cleaned-Up (Vegetarian) Dirty Rice

Here's a little something for you, for Meatless Monday. Be sure to check out the Meatless Monday website if you haven't already heard about this movement.

I got the latest special issue of Cooking Light recently, called Dinner Tonight! (Yes, there's an exclamation point in the title.) And dinner the other night was Cooking Light all the way, except that I made slight modifications to, I think, yes, all the recipes: blackened chicken, dirty rice, and salad.

My husband kept asking me, "What is dirty rice anyway?" Well, I've always thought of it as a leftover rice dish – rice, dirtied up with Cajun seasonings, onion, celery, and bell pepper. But I googled it, and Wikipedia explains: "Dirty rice is a traditional Cajun dish made from white rice cooked with small pieces of chicken liver or giblets, which give it a dark ('dirty') color and a mild but distinctive flavor. Similar to a pilaf, it also includes green bell pepper, celery and onion...."

So, I didn't exactly make dirty rice, because in addition to using a mixture of leftover brown and wild rice, instead of white rice, I also omitted what turns out be the defining ingredient of dirty rice: the chicken livers. Another thing I did was to use smoked hot paprika (instead of standard paprika), which definitely added some heat and, of course, smokiness. Lastly, I kept the hot sauce on the side, thinking it would make the dish too spicy for the kids, but it was too much for them anyway. Maybe our dirty rice wasn't technically correct (shall we say it was clean dirty rice?), but it was flavorful and we really enjoyed it.

The chicken was quite good too, even though, mainly by accident, I altered that recipe a bit too and forgot to make the sauce at the end (we were hungry)!

The best of all, however, was the salad with lettuce, onion, avocado, and lime dressing. Again, accidentally, I altered the original recipe. But my only mistake was to use double the lime juice it called for – nothing major – and we really liked the limeyness (? liminess? limyness?). Anyway, we liked all the lime flavor – especially good with the avocado and onion.

Following is the recipe for my cleaned-up version of dirty rice – perfect for Meatless Monday. Watch for the salad recipe later this week.

Jen's (Vegetarian) Dirty Rice  PRINTABLE RECIPE

1 Tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup chopped green bell pepper
3 garlic cloves - minced
1 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme
3 cups pre-cooked (leftover) rice (any kind - white or brown, with a little wild rice mixed in if you like)
2 tsp smoked hot paprika
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
kosher salt
hot pepper sauce (like Tobasco)
2 green onions - thinly sliced

1. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, celery, and bell pepper and sauté about 4 minutes.

2. Add garlic, thyme, then rice, paprika, and crushed red pepper and stir together. Stir rice occasionally over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until rice is warmed through. Season with salt and hot pepper sauce to taste.

3. Keep rice over low heat until ready to serve. Stir in green onions just before serving.

Stick to the Specials: Sawatdee Thai Cuisine

I visited my local Thai restaurant again yesterday. The only one in the town of Sherwood, the one where I haven't had the best luck overall, but where I've tried a couple very good dishes.

Today, I picked the first item on the specials board, Yum Apple, and got it to go (as you can see in the photo). This salad is not on their regular menu, so it's a real special, not just on special. It was made of tart green apple slices, lettuce, shredded carrots, shallots, mint leaves, cilantro, toasted coconut, and a nice lime dressing with, I'd guess, a little fish sauce. It was quite delicious!

I've had good luck with other specials at this place too. The one that comes to mind is some sort of crispy papaya salad I tried over the summer. It was great! Because their specials seem to be better than their regular menu items, and because it'll keep me trying new things, I think my strategy with this place, from now on, will be to stick to the items featured on the specials board.

In case your wondering, the place is Sawatdee Thai Cuisine. The people are friendly and polite, and they seem to really care about the food – presentation is always lovely. Be sure to try something from the specials board outside the front door. I think you'll find the best selections there.

In Season: Homemade Salsa

Tomatoes are ripe and delicious right now, and so are many kinds of hot peppers. That makes it the perfect time to make fresh salsa.

Just take the four main components of salsa: tomatoes, onion, chile peppers, and garlic. Then create your own basic or designer salsa using: hot peppers or mild ones, lots of onion or just a little; add optional ingredients like cilantro, lime juice, mango, cucumber....  A little salt is always a good idea too.

This salsa is made with a variety of heirloom tomatoes, shallots, habañero, cilantro, lime juice, and kosher salt. I used shallots, which have a mild onion and garlic flavor, because that's all I happened to have on hand. Lucky me – it turned out great!

By the way, avocados are also in season now, so make some guacamole too, and enjoy the best of the season!

Banana Bread (Gluten-Free!)

I got this recipe off a bag of Namaste Foods gluten-free Perfect Flour Blend. They call it "Best Banana Bread" and it really is the best! No one would even guess it's gluten-free.

I recommend Namaste Foods flour blend as well as the recipe, but in the interest of saving space in my pantry and not having a bunch of different flours and mixes in there, I adapted the recipe ever so slightly to use a homemade brown rice flour blend that I like to keep on hand.

If you like, you can add half a cup or so of chopped nuts or seeds to the batter.

Banana Bread (Gluten-Free)  PRINTABLE RECIPE

2 cups brown rice flour blend  PRINTABLE RECIPE
1 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
3 very ripe bananas - mashed
1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 325° and lightly spray 9" x 5" loaf pan with non-stick spray.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together flour blend, baking soda, salt, and xanthan gum. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, mix together sugars and oil. Add eggs, bananas, and vanilla, and stir until well blended. Fold in dry ingredients.

4. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 65 to 75 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove bread from pan and cool on wire rack.