Happy St Patty's Day!

After having a couple frustrating days at work while feeling on the brink of a cold and chronic shoulder pain, I've managed to concoct the perfect remedy (that surprisingly doesn't contain booze): exercise, cook, eat, chill. Maybe throw a power nap in there (I am the queen of power naps).
Yesterday I went for a run and make a delicious, rich chicken curry with the little ingredients in our fridge. Curry is my fallback plan for any meal. It's so easy and good. Go ahead and try it out if you dare:

1kg chicken thighs (bone in), about 7-8 pieces
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 onion, chopped
Some ginger, about a tbsp roughly chopped
One leek, sliced
One can of coconut milk
1 - 1.5 tbsp green curry paste
About 1.5 - 2 cups frozen peas

Brown the chicken thighs in a little oil in a large pan or saucepan on high. Set aside and drain excess oil.
Throw in a little more oil and brown up the garlic, onion and ginger. Throw in the leek and toss around a bit. Reduce heat to medium.
Dump in the coconut milk and mix in curry paste until delightfully homogenous.
Put in the chicken thighs and peas, mix around until everything is covered. Reduce heat to medium-low. Put a lid on the pan/pot and simmer (stirring occasionally) until the chicken falls off the bone with minimal effort.

My cure for the blues today was trying my hand at Irish soda bread. I thought it appropriate, as it's St Patrick's Day and I don't feel like getting drunk. I'm really happy about the results. I couldn't help but try out a slice before snapping a picture.

It was warm, dense, and a bit tart. I hope it lasts till Saturday so I can make some french toast and use up the 1/2 container of mascapone cheese I have hanging out in the fridge.
This bread is ridiculously easy to make.

Preheat oven to 375F
3 cups flour
1.5 cups buttermilk
1.5 tsp salt
1.5 tsp baking soda

Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make a reservoir in the center for the milk. Pour in 1 cup of buttermilk and set aside the other 1/2 cup. Mix ingredients together, stirring in the remaining 1/2 cup of milk. Mix until you have a soft dough.
Sprinkle some flour on a clean surface. Knead dough on surface for no longer than 30 seconds to a minute, just enough to make the dough stick together. Pat into a flat circle and slice an X about 1/2" deep and plop it onto a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for 40 minutes or until the bread makes a hollow sound when you tap it on the bottom.
IMPORTANT:
DO NOT OVERKNEAD or else the carbon dioxide bubbles will collapse.
Also apparently it's important to make sure the oven is fully preheated before putting the bread in.

Voila! Enjoy your bread.

xo
v

Mango, cashew, coconut, red rice dish

This recipe is one of my own design. I first came up with it my last night in Eindhoven as a quick, post adventure meal.

a glug of oil (coconut is my favorite, but olive, vegetable, or canola also work)
1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 small or 1/2 large onion, chopped
1 cup red rice (usually can be found at Asian super markets)
2 cups water
1 ripe mango, peeled and diced
1/2 yellow, red or orange pepper, finely chopped
1/3-1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut, or fresh chopped coconut, if you have it! (it's much better)
1/4 tsp (or more) cayenne pepper
freshly ground black pepper
salt

- Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add in garlic and onion and cook until soft
- Throw in the red rice and saute for a minute or so
- Pour in the water. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 45 minutes (until rice is soft and most of the water is absorbed)
- This would be a good time to do your chopping of everything else
- Stir in the mango, pepper, cilantro, and coconut
- Stir in cayenne pepper and black pepper, salt until the flavors really come out (this may require more than you think)
- Add in more cayenne and black pepper as needed

Some chopped avocado and turmeric are also good options to add in

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Sesame Pizza with Green Tea Miso Gravy

This is taken from Brendan Brazier's Thrive Diet book. For those of you who do not know, Brendan Brazier is a professional Ironman triathlete, vegan, and developer of Vega foods, a line of whole food supplements. His whole premise is whole foods, soy and dairy free, everything as unprocessed as possible. Sounds delicious? Well, most of his recipes are. Some of the most interesting are his pizzas, as they are very far from a traditional, bready thin crust pizza. These are often cripsier crusts made from a variety of veggies and seeds and often contain a lot of protein.
This is my favorite pizza I've tried of his. The miso gravy is unreal and can be used in other dishes besides pizza. For extra protein and vit B I sprinkled on some nutritional yeast over the crust after the gravy.

Sweet Potato Sesame Pizza
Crust

1 cup ground sesame seeds (grind in coffee grinder until a fine powder, but not until a paste)
1 cup grated sweet potato
1/2 cup chickpea flour
1/4 hemp or coconut oil
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tsp dried basil
sea salt to taste

Preheat oven to 300F
Put everything into a food processor until mashed up nicely. Spread on a pizza pan (that has been previously lightly coated with oil, preferably coconut) till desired thickness.

Topping
1 tomato, sliced
1/2 onion, diced
1 cup chopped red pepper
1/2 cup grated beet
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 tsp oregano (or 1 tbsp fresh)
1 tsp thyme (or 1 tbsp fresh)

After spreading as much gravy as you see necessary onto the crust, throw the veggies on and put in the oven for about 45 minutes, longer if you want, but try not to overcook the veggies.

Green Tea Miso Gravy
As quoted in the book, "This flavorful gravy delivers probiotics for digestive health". How nice.

2 tbsp coconut oil
1 onion, diced
3 tbsp ground sesame seeds
1 tsp finely ground green tea leaves (do the same way as the sesame seeds)
1 cup brewed green tea
1 1/2 tbsp brown rice miso pastes

Heat coconut oil in frying pan over medium high heat. Add onion and ground sesame seeds, lightly fry. Add the ground tea leaves, brewed tea, and miso paste; stir well. Keep stirring until desired consistency reached.

Makes 2 cups and can be refrigerated up to one week.

I found that I needed to turn up the heat to get it boiling a bit more to reduce it quicker, and it turned out fine. Don't be afraid to do this.

Saag Panir (Indian spinach curry with homemade cheese)

Like I said before, I love paneer. Its bouncy texture and delicate, slightly sweet taste compliments the heat in most Indian dishes. The following recipe is from Steven Raichlen's "High Flavor, Low Fat Vegetarian Cooking" and it has quite a few good dishes in there. It's similar to the Palak Paneer that Dana and I are in love with at Remedy Cafe, only this one has tomatoes and sour cream in it.
Here we go.

Paneer
First off, you have to make the paneer. You will need a cheesecloth. If you don't know what that is, it's a loose woven cotton cloth used for straining and it can be found at most grocery stores.

6 cups 2% milk
3 tbsp lemon juice

1. Bring milk just to boil in a large heavy saucepan. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the lemon juice. The milk will curdle in about 10 seconds.
2. Pour the mixture through a strainer lined with cheesecloth. Let drain for 10 minutes. Rinse the curds under cold water to remove the lemon taste and let drain.
3. Gather the corners of the cheesecloth together and tie the curds into a tight bundle. Place the bundle on a sloping cutting board in the sink. Place a heavy weight, like a cast-iron skillet (or a few textbooks on a plate), on top.
4. Press curds for 2 to 3 hours, or until firm. Unwrap the cheese and cut it into 1/2" cubes.

Saag Paneer (or "Panir", as spelled in the book)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 cinnamon stick
salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a pinch of cayenne pepper to taste

2 ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped
3 10oz packages of frozen spinach, thawed
1/4 cup vegetable stock or water
3/4 cup sour cream
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 cups diced paneer
1/4 cup chopped cilantro or green onion for garnish

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Lightly brown the onions over medium heat (4 to 5 minutes), adding the ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, cinnamon stick, salt, black pepper, and cayenne after 2 minutes.
2. Stir in the tomatoes and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the spinach and vegetable stock or water and gently simmer for 10 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated.
3. Stir in the sour cream and lemon juice and simmer for 3 minutes. Stir in the paneer and cook until warmed but not melted.
4. Correct the seasoning, adding salt and pepper to taste.
5. Garnish with cliantro or green onion and serve with basmati rice.

Enjoy!


(I hope musicpb from flickr doesn't mind me using their picture, it was the best looking one there! If you ever find out and want it removed I will most definitly do so. I just didn't have any pictures of it myself but in the future I will!)