Thai Red Curry with Basmati Rice & Avocado Eggrolls

I told you I would get it done by hell or high water, and after pouring through tons of different recipes, I finally did it. I made my own thai red curry (his with chicken, hers with tofu), and it came out.. alright. My only complaint was the level of spiciness. I was expecting ALOT more spice, especially because I added ALOT more red curry paste than the recipe called for, but nothing. I’m missing something.. But it was still pretty damn good.

Okay, this recipe is a three-parter. Here goes nothing..

Thai Red Curry with Basmati Rice & Avocado Eggrolls

Basmati Rice Preparation:

• 1 cup basmati rice
• 1 3/4 cups water

I didn’t realize how involved making basmati rice was! Usually I just throw my cup of brown rice in the rice cooker with a cup and a half of water and turn it to cook. Noooottttt with this rice.

Step one, put the cup of rice in a large bowl and cover with water (not your 1 3/4 cups cooking water). Swish around with your hand for a minute or two to remove the starch – the water will get very cloudy. Strain of the water and repeat the process 3-4 more times until the water drains off clear. Next, cover rice with water and leave to soak for 30 minutes. Drain off water, add rice and 1 3/4 cups cooking water to a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cover once it boils. Let simmer for 25 minutes, then turn off the heat, let sit for five minutes and finally fluff with fork and serve. WHEW! Right? It was damn good though.

Note to self: Start the rice first.

Avocado Eggroll Preparation:

• 2 Wonton Wrappers
• 1/2 Ripe Avocado
• 1/4 Red Pepper
• 2 T Red Onion
• 2 T Garlic Powder
• 2 T Nutritional Yeast (oh man, can’t wait to write a post about this stuff) or light cream cheese or whatever you not vegans eat
• Spray EVOO

Preheat the oven to 425. Chop up your red pepper and red onion somewhat small then course chop your avocado. Add all to a small mixing bowl along with garlic powder and “cheese” of choice. Stir to combine. Spray a baking sheet with EVOO then lay down your wonton wrappers. Add half of filling to the center of each, fold the sides in then roll into and eggroll shape, sealing it shut with a little bit of water.

Spray the whole thing with EVOO spray and bake for 1-12 minutes, turning over once.

These turned out awesome. I’m probably bring them down the Mexican route next time and maybe add chili powder, corn, maybe black beans. Now that would be awesome. Sorry for the lack of pictures, You’ll see one cut in half on the final plate.

Thai Red Curry with Chicken or Tofu Preparation:

• 1 Skinless Chicken Breast (you have no idea how hard it was for me to even buy this)
• 1 Block Extra Firm Tofu
• 1 Head Broccoli
• 1 Red Pepper
• 1 Can Bamboo Shoots
• 1 Yellow Onion
• Handful green beans
• 6 Baby Portabella Mushrooms
• 1-2 Jars Red Curry Paste
• 2 T Lime Juice
• 1 T EVOO
• 2 T Thai Basil (I was going to get regular basil until I saw a jar of Thai Basil over in the foreign foods section, so I used that. It smells like black licorice, this may have been a poor Choice)
• 1 1-inch Piece Ginger
• 1 Can lite Coconut Milk
• 2 minced Garlic Cloves

I made the “meats” first. I cubed up the Chicken into bite sized pieces and pressed and cubed the extra firm tofu into 1 inch cubes. I put each in their own pan with a little coconut oil and a teaspoon or so or red curry paste and let them cook. Here’s what they turned out like (there was lots of extra tofu):

chicken..

tofu..

Next, chop up all of the veggies into bite sized pieces.

Add 2 T EVOO to your wok or sauté pan along with a whole jar of thai red curry paste. It definitely will not kill you, I promise. Sauté on medium heat until Red curry paste begins to bubble. Add minced garlic, finely minced ginger, lime juice, thai basil goo and coconut milk. Stir to combine. I like my veggies cooked, like wilty cooked, so taste as you go along, but I increased my heat and tossed all of the veggies in.

Throughout the cooking process, I added a few extra teaspoons of red curry paste, but it still didn’t really give it the kick I was looking for. Anyone know how to spice up a curry dish?? I thought it was the curry itself, but I think there’s something more to it.

I cooked the veggies for about 20 minutes until my desired tenderness.

To plate: Rice, “Meat”, curry veggies on top, eggroll cut in half on the side. Siracha as required. Final product:

G’damn I need a real camera.

Tofu Pad Thai.. M’mmmm..

Truth me told, I’m a blog hound. I will find fitness/vegan/foodie/green blogs and literally read the whole blog back to when it was first started, and bookmark all of my favorites along the way. One blog I found recently, not vegan, but basically about a young newly married couple- she’s vegetarian (used to be vegan) and he’s, well, “normal”, both into fitness, both into going out. I could instantly relate.

So the blog is about two years old, and she posts basically everyday, if not twice a day, and I’m almost done with it. Obsessed much?

A couple of months ago, the boy and I felt the need to switch up the “this is getting boring” weekly dinner menu. Enter Tofu Pad Thai. Even the meatatarian in my house ate it, just sayin’..

Healthier Tofu (or any other protein you’d prefer) Pad Thai

Sauce:
– Juice from 2 limes
– 2 T brown sugar
– 1.5 T Siracha (pretty spicy, but I dig it that way-change it up to your liking)
– 1 t oil of your choice (I used coconut)
– 1/4 cup bragg’s liquid aminos

Main Ingredients:
– 2 heads broccoli (she recommended 1 small one, but i LOVE broccoli, soooo,,)
– 2 Carrots
– 1 block extra firm tofu
– 3 scallions
– 8 oz brown rice noodles

Garnish:
– lime wedges
– Siracha!!!!
– chopped peanuts
– cilantro (gross, but whatever floats your boat)
– drizzle of tahini (a random add on I used, awesome.)

Let’s get cooking.. First things first, chop up your tofu into 1 inch cubes, no need to press or drain, all of the water cooks off. Saute them in a Tb of coconut oil over medium low heat until all sides are browned.

While the tofu (or other protein) is sizzling away, start boiling a large pot of water for your brown rice noodles.

Next, chop up the veggies. I swear the moment the peeler hits the carrot my dog comes running. He is a total carrot addict. It’s his kryptonite. He just can’t help himself.

Finish chopping the carrots and broccoli into bite sized pieces.

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Time to start the sauce. Mix all ingredients in a wok and bring to a boil. Why a wok? Because everything is better in a wok, trust me. add in the broccoli and carrots and saute in the sauce until tender or to your liking. My favorite vegetable is cooked broccoli. My least favorite vegetable is raw broccoli. This is a very important step.. for me..

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When the veggies are cooking, make sure the water has come to a boil. Remove from heart and add brown rice noodles, stir to separate. The box I bought said to let them sit in there for five minutes. Take my advice, start trying them at around 3.5 minutes. 5 minutes is WAY too long.

Add tofu, scallions and noodles in with veggies and sauce, toss to combine, let meld together for a few minutes.

Serve immediately. I highly recommend the drizzle of tahini, squeeze of lime and half bottle drizzle of siracha.

My only complaint was the lack of sauce, as I’m a “saucy” girl.. 😉 I would make 1.5 times the sauce if you add the extra veggies.

Enjoy!

The Pros and Cons of Field Work and a new Love Affair

Oh, field work. You are such a double edged sword. Sometimes you’re hard to love, but easy to hate at the same time. Does that make sense? Probably not, but in general, I do enjoy field work. It gets you out of the office, gets you out of your element, usually makes you see completely absurd things that logically make no sense, give you a real sense of what engineering is all about. Blah, blah, blah.. I’m sure I’ve lost a few of you already. Cliff’s notes: Engineering is awesome.

Lets start with the cons:
– Even though you may be inspecting a hotel, you are not looking at the parts of the hotel that the guests see. You’re looking at the parts that even maintenance doesn’t want to see.
– Batt insulation is itchy
– So is fireproofing. Make sure to have a grill scraper in your “engineering site bag” – thanks Nate, didn’t learn that one at school..
– People who work at the places you’re inspecting will ALWAYS ask you if they are losing their job. This is a fail safe.

Pros:
– Out of the office at lunchtime? Out to lunch!
– Learning and stuff.. blah, blah..

But back to lunch.. i mean, unfortunately sometimes lunch is the highlight of the day. So, we’re working right in the heart of Wilkes-Barre on the square. There are american, middle eastern, thai, japanese, chinese, the list goes on..

Day One. American. Veggie wrap, no cheese, whole wheat wrap with side salad. With red wine vinegar only. Meh. Better choices that I thought there would be. No picture, wasn’t worth it.

Day Two. Feeling Exotic. Cafe Toscana? Eh.. Sushi? Naw. Chinese? May as well just buy a cot on the side. Enter Thai. So I have only had thai food once before, for a friend’s birthday a few years ago. It was okay, nothing to write home about, so I never really searched out for it again. BIG mistake. HUGE.

Blogosphere, meet red curry. Red curry, blogosphere.

Oh, did I mention the best spring rolls in the world?

It was absolutely fantastic. I ordered a spiciness level of 4 out of 5. It was good, I could have gone five though. You call those left overs? I call it dinner.

Day three. Its started at around ten-thirty while the fireroofing was raining down on me while up on the ten foot ladder squeezed though a half ceiling tile that the only thing that would keep me going was if we went back to Thai-Thai at lunch. So we did. Tried the red curry? Gotta try the green curry! &%^*#$% fantastic. dying. died. new obsession. I feel like i’m cheating on sushi, but damn.

Also, world’s best spring rolls. again.

Red vs Green. I can’t choose.. Thoughts??