Creamy Coconut Milk Meatballs, by Diane

 

My curry paste in my new mortar and pestle!

This recipe from @iheartumami looked promising, but in reality it fell flat. The meatballs are packed with aromatics and nutrition though, and the recipe allowed me to use my Thai red curry paste skills from a cooking class in Chiang Mai last year! Overall Cheryl’s Thai Coconut Curry Meatballs are way better, though I would fuse the two by adding the aromatics into her recipe for the meatballs!

Ingredients:

2 lb ground chicken

3/4 cup cilantro

2 small shallots

3/4 cup diced carrots

1/4 cup basil leaves

1/2 tsp ginger

3 tbsp fish sauce, divided 

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cumin powder

2 tbsp coconut cream

14 oz full fat coconut milk

1 tbsp red curry paste

1 tbsp tomato paste

1/4 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp garam masala

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 410 and line a baking sheet w parchment paper.

2. Blend cilantro through ginger in a food processor until finely diced, then add to a bowl with chicken, 1 tbsp fish sauce, salt, cumin and coconut cream. Mix well and form into golf ball size meatballs.

3. Bake for 20 min, flip and bake another 10-15. 

4. While the meatballs cook, make the sauce in a saucepan over medium heat by adding remaining ingredients plus 2 tbsp fish sauce. Stir often.

5. Combine meatballs in sauce and stir for 2 minutes.

Spiced Sweet Potato Fries with Curry Mayo, by Diane

This recipe came from Eat Delicious, and reminded me so much of my favorite restaurant fries here in DC. I was excited to try them at home since the restaurant is currently closed. These were really flavorful and very easy and quick to make! The mayo would be great on a variety of things as well!

Tip: I have recently discovered that air frying potatoes is wonderful during the summer because I don’t have to turn on the oven, but it does tend to dry out the potatoes. To fix this, I simply remove the potatoes when they’re finished cooking from the air fryer and put them in a bowl that is tightly covered for five minutes. This allows the hot fries to steam them selves which both keeps the air fryer taste as well as allows some moisture back into the french fry.


Ingredients:

Sweet Potatoes-

2 lbs sweet potatoes
2 tbsp EVOO
1 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Curry Mayo-

3/4 cup mayo
2 tbsp lime juice
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp mild yellow curry powder
Pinch sea salt


Directions:

1. Slice the sweet potatoes into long strips and toss with remaining ingredients.

2. Roast the sweet potatoes in a 400° oven for 45 min on a parchment paper-lined baking tray, turning halfway, or airfry at 400° for 15 min then cover to steam for 5 min.

3. While the potatoes roast, whip up the mayo and adjust seasonings if desired.

Coconut Curry Dijon Chicken Fingers, by Diane

I came up with these last night to make as a quick and easy dinner, and they were really good! I used what I had on hand, but it came out perfectly and they were really juicy and had a great flavor.

Ingredients:

Chicken (I used about 1.5 lbs)
2 cups shredded unsweetened coconut flakes
1 cup flour (I used quinoa flour that I had on hand)
1 tbsp garlic salt
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp pepper
1 egg
3 tbsp dijon mustard

Directions:

1. Slice chicken lengthwise into strips. You may need to half the chicken breasts so they aren't too thick first.

2. Create two bowls for dredging- the first containing the coconut, flour, and spices; the second containing the egg and dijon. Combine the ingredients in each bowl well.

3. Preheat the oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with foil, spray with cooking spray, and set it next to the bowls.

4. Dredge each of the strips of chicken into the mustard/egg bowl first, then the coconut bowl. Press down firmly so the coconut topping sticks well.

5. Place the coated chicken strips on the baking sheet with a some room in between each strip. Cook for 10 minutes, flip, and cook another 5-10 minutes until chicken is cooked through.

Thai Coconut Curry Meatballs, by Cheryl

Wow, this was good! The sauce had such a nice taste to it... I couldn't stop tasting it when it was cooking. This was pretty easy and quick to make and was a big hit, though it may have been a little too spicy for Julia. The original recipe didn't include breadcrumbs, but I just couldn't get the meatballs to form right without them, so I added them in. I would have liked the meatballs to be a little more tender, but they were still good. I served this over cauliflower rice for me and brown rice for Jon. Yum!

Ingredients (modified from original recipe):

1 lb ground beef or turkey
1 tsp curry powder
2 tsp ground basil
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
2 tbsp Thai red curry paste
1.5 cans coconut milk
1/3 cup chopped basil

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 375.

2) Mix the curry powder, basil, ginger, garlic powder, almond flour, and bread crumbs together in a bowl. Add in the meat and incorporate well. Finally, add in the egg and form meatballs. Place on large baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

3) While the meatballs are cooking, make the sauce. Heat a large skillet to medium high heat. Add coconut oil, onion, garlic, peppers, and ginger. Cook for 5-7 minutes. Add curry paste then all of the coconut milk. Simmer for 10 minutes until coconut paste is mixed into the sauce.

4) Add meatballs to the sauce and cook for an additional five minutes. Finish off with fresh basil.

Thai Green Curry with Shrimp, by Diane

I love Thai food, and there is a restaurant outside of my office that makes amazing green curry. My coworkers and I love to get it with shrimp, so when I saw this recipe in Rachael Ray Magazine I knew I had to give it a shot. It was surprisingly easy! I added in some other veggies to make it heartier like carrots, zucchini, and mushrooms. Overall this was quick, easy, and healthy and I would definitely make it again!


Ingredients:

1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
1 large shallot, chopped
2 tbsp Thai green curry paste
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 lb. peeled deveined shrimp
1 14 oz. can coconut milk
5 oz. baby spinach
1 tbsp fish sauce
Optional: cooked rice, lime wedges


Directions:

1. Cook first 4 ingredients over medium heat, stirring often for 3 minutes.

2. Add the next 4 ingredients, stirring often for 4 minutes.

3. Serve with rice and lime wedges if desired.

Spicy Beef and Potato Curry, by Diane

This recipe actually came from an email I got sent out by Whole Foods. They wrote an article on cooking with turmeric, my favorite spice, and I had to see some of the recipes. They were all amazing, but this is the first one that caught my eye and I've been dying to make it for weeks now. It tastes just like it looks, warm and filling! The whole house smelled amazing too. The chiles didn't wind up being spicy at all, so I added cayenne for a slight kick.


Ingredients:

1/2 onion, chopped
2 serrano chiles (remove seeds for a milder curry)
3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon peanut or expeller-pressed canola oil
1 3/4 pound sirloin tip steak, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
1 cinnamon stick
1 1/4 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 can light coconut milk
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 pound red potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/3 cup packed cilantro leaves 

Directions:

1. In a blender, combine onion, chiles, garlic and 1/2 cup water and blend until smooth. Set aside.

2. In a large skillet with a tightly fitting lid, heat oil over high heat. Sprinkle steak with salt. Add half the steak pieces to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Transfer to a bowl with a slotted spoon; repeat with remaining steak. Set aside.

3. Return the skillet to medium-high heat and add cinnamon, coriander, cumin and turmeric; stir for 10 seconds and then add the onion and chile mixture. Simmer for 1 minute and then stir in coconut milk, tomatoes and sugar. Add the beef back in, cover the skillet, and simmer 40 minutes. 

4. Stir in potatoes and continue to simmer until beef and potatoes are very tender, about 20 minutes more; remove the lid during last 10 minutes of simmering if you would like a thicker sauce. 

5. Remove cinnamon stick; taste curry and add more salt if desired. Serve garnished with cilantro.  

Baked Kerala Chicken Cutlet, by Diane

I stumbled across this recipe on tastespotting and thought it was a typo. Chicken cut-LETS are breaded and fried pieces of chicken in America, but in India a chicken cut-LET is a delicious snack you have with tea in the afternoon. It consists of cooked chicken that is ground with chiles, ginger, onions, and curry and then mixed with mashed potatoes, formed into a patty, breaded and fried. These sounded amazing, but I wanted to make them healthier so I found a recipe to bake them instead.

Fried recipe here: http://www.collaborativecurry.com/2011/03/i-cannot-ignore-what-is-happening-in.html?showComment=1392489330891#uds-search-results

Baked recipe (beef version but you can cook the chicken ones the same as I did) here: http://blessingsfrommykitchen.blogspot.com/2012/08/baked-beef-cutlets.html

I liked these a LOT and it's hard to stick to just one. They are a bit labor intensive to make though, especially if you fry them, so be warned. They pack a major anti-inflammatory hit with all the spices, and are great for a meal if you eat a couple. Traditionally they are served with ketchup, but I couldn't get the hang of this and experimented with different sauces (so far tamarind sauce wins). Also, I found that mine needed a lot of salt (the recipe calls for very little), so make sure to taste the patties before you bread them.

Ingredients:

Chicken Breast - 3 (About 1 Lbs)
Cinnamon Stick - 1 inch piece
Cardamom - 2
Cloves - 4
Potato - ½ lbs
Onions - 2 big (chopped fine)
Ginger - 2 inch piece (chopped fine)
Garlic - 4 pods (chopped fine)
Curry Leaves - 1 sprig
Green Chilies - 8 (chopped fine) (reduce if it’s too hot for your taste)
Eggs - 2
Bread crumbs - ½ cup
Flour - ½ cup
Salt - to taste
Vegetable Oil - 1 Tbspn + enough for deep frying


Directions:

1. Cut the chicken breast into big chunks. In a deep pan, cook the chicken with ¼ cup of water, ½ tsp salt, 2 green chilies cut, 1 garlic pod, about 1 tbsp of the chopped onions, whole cinnamon stick, cloves and cardamom. Cook till all the water is completely drained and chicken is cooked through. Set this aside to cool. Once cool, pick out the cinnamon stick and grind the remaining in your food processor until it resembles a coarse nut meal.
2. Simultaneously, steam/cook the potatoes until soft.
3. Heat oil in a pan and sauté finely chopped onions till translucent. Add finely chopped ginger, garlic, green chilies and curry leaves and sauté till the garlic and ginger gives off the cooked aroma.
4. Once the potato cools, powder it using a fork. Mix all the cooked, boiled and sauteed ingredients together. Check for salt and adjust according to taste. Form small balls of equal size, press it on a spoon to form oval shapes.
5. Preheat oven to 375°. Coat 2 9X5 baking trays with cooking spray.
6. Take flour and bread crumbs in two separate plates. Beat 2 eggs in a bowl big enough to dip each of the cutlets. Take each shaped cutlet, roll in flour, dip in egg, roll in bread crumbs and place them on the baking sheet.
7. Spray tops of cutlets with a final coat of nonstick cooking spray. Bake in oven for 18 minutes when edges are crisp and tops are golden brown. Rotate baking trays halfway through.

Slow Cooker Chicken Saag, by Diane

Indian is one of my favorite types of food, and usually I get some sort of saag (spinach). I decided to try it out at home, and the result could not have been easier. It took me less than 10 minutes to throw this together! I was pleasantly surprised to find that this dish did not contain cream or butter, which most saags tend to use, and instead used coconut milk to thicken it up. I picked a lite coconut milk to lower the fat content and it came out perfectly.

This dish is a major hit of the anti-inflammatory foods, including ginger, onion, garlic, turmeric, curry, cayenne, cumin, and spinach. It's great for the digestive tract and for warming the body which in the wintertime = less energy output. This dish does pack some heat though, and if you're not a fan eliminate the cayenne and cut down on the garlic and ginger.

The only changes I made were to drain the liquid from the tomatoes and substitute a small 6-8 oz can of tomato sauce because I like it to be thick and creamy, and I know from experience that tomato juice and coconut milk produce a watery dish (if you look at the recipe photo from the website compared to mine you'll see the difference). I also used a mix of half fresh half frozen spinach for consistency, because restaurant saag is usually chopped finely like frozen chopped spinach is (ain't nobody got time for that). 

Recipe from: http://aarongoulette.com/bingethinking/slow-cooker-chicken-saag/


Ingredients (my version):

2.5 lbs chicken, cubed
1 tsp each turmeric, cumin, and cayenne
1.5 tbsp each curry, coriander, and garam masala
1 tsp salt
1 large onion, chopped finely
2 inches ginger, minced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 can lite coconut milk
1 6 oz can tomato sauce
8 oz each fresh and frozen spinach

Directions:

Place chicken in the bottom of the crockpot, cover with spices, and stir to coat well. Add in remaining ingredients in order with spinach last on top. Cover and cook for 4 hours on high, stirring once about halfway. Stir once more and turn heat down to low to cook for 1 more hour. Remove from heat and let sauce thicken. Add more salt to taste.

bottom of the slow cooker, topped it with all of the ground spices. In a food processor, I chopped the onion, garlic and ginger to a minced consi - See more at: http://aarongoulette.com/bingethinking/slow-cooker-chicken-saag/#sthash.aAPYBVlJ.dpuf

2.5lbs chicken breast – cubed to bite size

15oz fresh spinach (or frozen if you’re lazy) – I used baby spinach – less stems, etc.

1 large onion, diced

Ginger, minced

5 cloves garlic, minced

1tsp Turmeric

1tsp Cumin

1tsp Cayenne pepper

1.5tbs Coriander

1.5tbs Garam Masala

1.5tbs Curry

1 can coconut milk (richens the sauce)

1 can diced tomoatos

- See more at: http://aarongoulette.com/bingethinking/slow-cooker-chicken-saag/#sthash.aAPYBVlJ.dpuf

2.5lbs chicken breast – cubed to bite size

15oz fresh spinach (or frozen if you’re lazy) – I used baby spinach – less stems, etc.

1 large onion, diced

Ginger, minced

5 cloves garlic, minced

1tsp Turmeric

1tsp Cumin

1tsp Cayenne pepper

1.5tbs Coriander

1.5tbs Garam Masala

1.5tbs Curry

1 can coconut milk (richens the sauce)

1 can diced tomoatos

- See more at: http://aarongoulette.com/bingethinking/slow-cooker-chicken-saag/#sthash.aAPYBVlJ.dpuf

Shrimp Curry, by Cheryl

Shrimp Curry

Complete meal with the shrimp and eggplant curry

I just realized that I forgot to post the rest of the Sri Lanken dishes that I made from the recipes of my friends Ashley and Kam. This recipe goes really well with the eggplant curry and pairs well with rice to offset the spice. It's a delicious and different way to make shrimp. Yum!


Ingredients:

Shrimp, peeled and tail off
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove
1 cinnamon stick
2 pieces of anese
5-10 curry leaves
1 tablespoon cumin
2-3 tablespoons curry
2 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
2 teaspoons crushed fenugreek (I didn't use this)
salt and black pepper
canola or vegetable oil

Directions:

1) Saute the onion and garlic in oil until soft.

2) Add all of the spices and mix until fully coated. Add more oil.

3) Add the shrimp and cook until no longer transparent.

Eggplant Curry, by Cheryl

Not the most appetizing shot... but it was delicious!

The first week we were in Italy we met our friends Ashley and Kamalan. Kamalan is Sri Lankan so when they have us over for dinner their meals usually consist of Sri Lankan cuisine made by Ashley. The food is so delicious and SPICY! Ashley gave me all of their recipes and I've tried making some of them. While the meals generally don't take that long to make, it's very hands on using a lot of spices that were a little foreign to me. I've made this dish twice and both times it came out very well... although the second time was a little better since I knew what to expect. I highly suggest giving it a try since this can be a side dish to any meal you make, not just when the whole meal is Sri Lankan. Yum!

Ingredients:

- one eggplant
- 1 can coconut milk
- oil (to fry)
- 1 onion
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- spices: anise, cinnamon, chili powder, tumeric, curry powder, black pepper, salt, crushed fenugreek (I didn't use this), cumin powder, and curry leaves (about 6). Use more curry powder than the other spices.

Directions:

1) Cut eggplant into small pieces. Toss with red chili powder, salt, and tumeric.

2) Heat oil in a pan and fry the eggplant. Remove once eggplant has browned and dry on a paper towel.

3) Add a few tablespoons of oil and saute the onion and garlic. Add the spices and saute until the onion is cooked.

4) Add the can of coconut milk, more tumeric and red chili powder to taste.

5) Mix well, add the eggplant, and let simmer until the curry sauce has thickened.