Thai Chicken Soup

This recipe is adapted from Cook's illustrated magazine:

1 tsp. vegtable oil.
3 lemon grass stalks (bottom 5 inches sliced)
3 shallots
8 sprigs cilantro - chopped
3 tablespoons fish sauce
4 c chicken stock
2 cans coconut milk
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 lb. white mushrooms, stemmed, and sliced in 1/4" slices
1 lb. boneless chicken breast - thinly sliced
3 tbsp. fresh lime juice (2 or 3 limes)
2 tsp. thai red curry paste
cooked white rice

Method:

Heat the oil in a saucepan until it shimmers. Add lemon grass, shallots, cilantro, and 1 T fish sauce, stirring frequently until softened;
Add chicken broth and 1 can of coconut milk, bring to a simmer and reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes;

While the broth simmers, combine lime juice, curry paste, remaining fish sauce, and 1/2 tsp sugar in a small bowl. Whisk together and set aside

strain broth, rinse saucepan, and return broth to saucepan;
Add remaining can of coconut milk to saucepan and bring to a simmer;
reduce heat to medium, add mushrooms and cook for 2 or 3 minutes
add chicken and cook, stirring just until no longer pink -

remove the soup from the heat - stir in the lime juice / fish sauce mixture

To serve:

Fill a small bowl with cooked rice - pack it down and flatten the top. Invert the bowl in the middle of a larger soup bowl so it is like an island- (repeat for each bowl)

Ladle the soup - fill the ladle with chicken and mushrooms - in the soup bowl around the rice - make sure the chicken and mushrooms are evenly distributed. Ladle in liquid soup to the level of the chicken and mushrooms.
Garnish with cilantro and perhaps some sliced red chili pepper - on top of the rice "island"

Yum!!!!

Honey Soy glazed grilled salmon

This recipe is from the Cook's Illustrated guide to grilling and barbecue.

I used skinless center cut salmon fillets instead of skin-on fillets - this worked fine.

Marinate salmon fillets for thirty minutes in a half-and-half mixture of soy sauce and maple syrup. Prepare a two-level grill - heat the grill with all burners on for 15 minutes - then turn all but one of the burners down to low.

Prepare glaze while the fillets are marinating:

In a small saucepan, mix together 3 tbsp. each of soy sauce and honey. Heat over low heat until is thickens slightly.

• Oil the grill over the burner on high -
• Put the fillets over the high burner, grill for two minutes on each side. Brush the glaze on the top side after the second side grills for two minutes -
• Flip the fillets glazed side down over one of the low burners.
• Glaze the new top side.
• Flip after three minutes and grill for another three minutes.

Lemon Rosemary Chicken Skewers

This recipe is from Epicurious.com:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/104459


This is good - worth repeating and fairly easy.

LEMON-ROSEMARY CHICKEN SKEWERS
8 skinless boneless chicken breast halves (each about 7 ounces)
48 8-inch bamboo skewers, soaked in water 30 minutes, drained
1 1-pint basket grape tomatoes or small cherry tomatoes

1 cup olive oil
1 cup fresh lemon juice
6 bay leaves, broken into small pieces
3 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
4 large garlic cloves, pressed
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce

1 cup light mayonnaise
Cut each chicken breast half lengthwise into 6 thin strips. Thread each strip completely onto 1 skewer, leaving 1/2 inch of skewer exposed at 1 end. Press 1 grape tomato onto end of skewer. Divide skewers between two 15x10x2-inch glass baking dishes, stacking skewers if necessary.

Pour oil into bowl. Whisk in next 6 ingredients. Pour marinade over chicken. Marinate 1 hour at room temperature, turning often, or cover and chill overnight.

Preheat oven to 425°F. Remove skewers from marinade and arrange on 2 large rimmed baking sheets; reserve marinade. Bake chicken until just cooked through, about 8 minutes. Transfer to platter.

Transfer reserved marinade to medium saucepan. Boil over medium-high heat 1 minute. Cool marinade 15 minutes. Strain. Pour 1/2 cup marinade into medium bowl; whisk in mayonnaise. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon remaining marinade over chicken to moisten. Serve chicken with sauce.

Bon Appétit
December 2000

Carrot soup

This is from a recipe at Epicurious.com
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/236394

I wanted to have soup and grilled cheese sandwiches - but I wanted something better than cans of tomato soup. I used the recipe below as a starting point, but I made some changes:
-I cut the recipe in half - and it was just enough for two servings;
-I used about a half a C of coconut water (not the creamy stuff used for Thai, but a Goya can of coconut water - like you would get right out of a drilled coconut) in addition to the water called for in the recipe (next time would would replace all the water with coconut water),
-I added about a teaspoon of cayenne pepper sauce - this was just enough to taste a bit of heat;
-I crumbled bacon over the soup before serving it.

The soup was very good - creamy, tasty, satisfying etc. and fairly quick and easy to make. I served it with basic grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches - which were very good dipped in the soup. I will keep this recipe around.

1 cup sliced shallots (about 4 large)
1 Turkish or 1/2 California bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Rounded 3/4 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
1 small boiling potato (3 oz)
1 1/2 lb carrots, peeled and cut crosswise 1/4 inch thick
1 3/4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (14 fl oz)
1 cup apple cider (preferably unfiltered)
1 1/4 cups water
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Cook shallots, bay leaf, ginger, curry powder, and thyme in butter in a 2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until shallots are softened and pale golden, 6 to 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel potato and cut into 1/2-inch cubes.

Add potato to shallot mixture along with carrots, broth, cider, water, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until carrots are tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Discard bay leaf.

Purée soup in 2 batches in a blender until smooth, transferring as blended to a large bowl (use caution when blending hot liquids). Return to saucepan to reheat if necessary. Serve soup sprinkled with almonds.

Pad Thai - A work in progress

I tried making Pad Thai last night - mostly because I had some shrimp and didn't have ant coconut milk - so I couldn't make the Masaman curry / cous cous / shrimp / snow pea dish I had in mind. After a quick inventory of my kitchen, and some web searching for a recipe - I decided on Pad Thai. Here are the two websites I used:

http://chezpim.typepad.com/blogs/2007/01/pad_thai_for_be.html

http://www.thaitable.com/Thai/recipes/Pad_Thai.htm

The chezpim site is more of a method then a recipe - but it seems like a good method. I didn't follow it all that carefully - so I am to blame for the mixed results. My sauce mix was pretty stinky and I don't think I made enough - but the dish can out OK after all. I added some lime juice to the sauce - and ended up hijacking the recipe with some soy sauce to ensure it was edible. Hmmmmm... I guess I will keep trying.