Cauliflower Curry

I'm currently at the tail end of a cauliflower obsession.  Every fall I go through a cauliflower phase where I buy oodles of it at the farmers' market.  And then I have to take a break because it gets a little monotonous after awhile.  We have another head of cauliflower in the fridge right now (romanesco cauliflower to be precise) so I was trying to come up with two very distinct recipes for the cauliflower.  I picked this one because it seemed interesting and it was very different from all of the other recipes that I was considering.  I'm hoping that the other cauliflower recipe turns out better than this one because truth be told, I was a little disappointed in this dish.  The cauliflower was mushy and the balance of flavors just seemed off to me.  Alex thought it was missing something, whereas I thought the flavor of the coriander was a little overpowering (I would definitely reduce the amount of coriander seeds) and the dish tasted really sweet.  I actually asked Alex if he added sugar, but it was just the sweetness of the onions and the cauliflower itself.  All in all it tasted a little... uneven?  I don't think the flavors melded as harmoniously as I thought they would.  Anytime you use cumin seeds and coriander seeds rather than the ground variety you run the risk that some bites will have a surplus of spice, while others will have little to none.  This recipe suffered a lot because of it.  So you would have some really sweet bites, others with a burst of floral/peppery coriander flavor and others with a hint of smokeyness from the cumin.  But I didn't have a single bite that successfully blended all of those flavors.  And then there was the texture, which I found slightly off-putting.  Note to self - roast cauliflower is way more my speed than stewed cauliflower.  I love the crunch of roast cauliflower and the richer flavor of the caramelized florets, whereas I don't particularly love the mushy texture of stewed cauliflower.

P.S.  I have been a little swamped at work the past couple of weeks so I am a wee bit behind on my posts.  More will be forthcoming as soon as I have time to put them up - I promise.  I have some new Vietnamese and Thai recipes to post about, as well as a few others.  So stay tuned.

Recipe after the jump!

Cumin-Coriander Beef Patties and Green Tomato Curry

There are very few dishes that I am instantly completely and utterly enamored of.  Dishes that I never want to change in any way.  Dishes that are completely perfect as is.  I had a good feeling about this meal, but I thought it had the potential to go wrong in a big way.  I was fairly certain the Cumin Coriander Beef Patties would be good because those flavors are ones that we are pretty familiar with.  We use a lot of cumin, cayenne and coriander in the apartment and we know they taste marvelous together.  And let's be honest - ground beef is a pretty forgiving medium.  How often have you had a truly bad hamburger?  And they were very tasty - with a nice crust on the exterior and tender and aromatic interiors.  If you look at the picture above you can see the flecks of cilantro and onion in the patties.  Yum.  But the Green Tomato Curry made me a little nervous - I figured it had the potential to either be surprising and delicious, or just plain weird.  But I think Alex's word's said it all, "This... is awesome."  And I concurred.  It was amazing.  The Green Tomato Curry had the most amazingly vibrant combination of tartness, heat and sweetness.  I loved it.  It was funky and delicious.  It had a lot going on, but everything just worked together so... perfectly.  I think this is the first Sri Lankan recipe we have ever attempted at home and it was a smashing success. Yay!  I knew Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid wouldn't let me down.  Strangely enough, earlier this week I had decided to do both of these recipes this week on different nights before I realized that the cookbook actually suggested serving them together.  Pure genius.  They really worked together, although I suppose you could serve the curry with a number of different kebob recipes or serve the patties with a number of different side dishes.  They don't have to be served together; they just worked very nicely together.  We served everything with frozen garlic naan from Trader Joe's, but I think the recipes would also work with basmati rice or roti.  Anyway, I wish there was more to say about these recipes but there really isn't, except to say that if you like spicy dishes, you should make this one ASAP.

P.S.  I know that neither of these dishes look all that impressive, but don't let that dissuade you from making them because they really are stunning.  They just aren't very pretty.

Recipes after the jump!

Grilled Lime-Curry-Rubbed Hanger Steak with Fresh Melon-Cucumber Chutney

Since we just had Korean Bulgogi Tacos (Alex had them for dinner on Saturday and I had the leftovers today for lunch), it seemed a little weird to make steak tacos, which is what I usually do with hanger steak.  My other initial thought was to make a traditional French hanger steak with a shallot sauce (aka onglet aux echalottes).  But I decided that sounded boring.  Then I saw this recipe from Gourmet, which sounded really interesting and not at all boring.  So we went for this one.

I wasn't sure how I felt about the individual components when I first tasted them.  The lime-curry rub is quite intense.  Delicious, but I wasn't sure that I could eat an entire steak rubbed in it.  And the chutney was good, but on its own it felt like it was missing something.  I thought about adding more jalapeno and more spices, but I wanted to wait and see how the steak tasted before doing so.  I'm glad I did wait because when you put them together the sweetness and freshness of the chutney really complements the intense curry and lime flavor of the hanger steak.  And the rice soaks up the juices from the steak, combined with the juices of the chutney.  It's a really fresh, flavorful and savory dish.  I actually started thinking about what other types of dishes the chutney would work with.  And the success of this dish made me even more interested in a recipe for Jamaican Jerk Salmon and Mango Pineapple Salsa that I recently saw in the April issue of SELF.  I think both recipes share a similar combination of a sweet fruit salsa/chutney with an intensely flavorful protein.  Hopefully that recipe turns out as well as this one did.

Recipe after the jump!

Green Beef Curry with Thai Aubergines (Eggplants)

As our last Southeast Asian meal before heading off to Colorado, I thought it would be a good idea to use up the remaining Thai ingredients - the Thai basil, Thai eggplants and kaffir lime leaves in particular.  The only recipe that I could find that used all of the ingredients, including the Thai eggplants, and didn't require yet another trip to the grocery store was this one.  So we made it.  I know it's a pretty lame reason for choosing a recipe, but sometimes I am lame.  I just can't help it.  And considering we will be leaving tomorrow for an entire week, I really didn't want to go out and buy more ingredients and more groceries.

I guess it is no surprise that this recipe was my least favorite of the six Vietnamese and Thai recipes that we have made over the course of the last week.  I thought that it was the least flavorful, which is kind of surprising considering the punch that our green curry paste packs.  I also thought that the beef got a little tough and didn't absorb much of the curry flavor.  Neither did the eggplant.  I wish that we had lightly salted the eggplant or something before tossing it into the curry.  If the eggplant had simmered in the curry for longer it would have absorbed more flavor.  And if we had used a different cut of beef it would probably have been more tender (and potentially also absorbed more flavor).  I thought that while the recipe was perfectly fine, it was no better than the curry you could find at any of a thousand Thai restaurants around the country.  We have certainly made better curries before and I hope that make even better curries in the future.  I just purchased Mangoes and Curry Leaves: Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontinent and I think that it has some Sri Lankan and Indian curries for us to try.  Seeing as the cookbook is by the same authors as Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia (a cookbook we love and have had some real success with), I have high hopes!  I also just bought Asian Dumplings: Mastering Gyoza, Spring Rolls, Samosas and More, so get ready for some more dumpling recipes after we return from Colorado! 

Recipe after the jump!

Thai Extravaganza: Corn Fritters and Chicken Red Curry

Tonight we went to pick our produce up from the CSA and when we got home I had to figure out what to do with the massive amounts of produce and the defrosted chicken fingers that as of 6:30 pm were residing in our fridge.  The first thing that came to mind for the chicken was a Thai red curry.  Afterall we had some Thai red curry paste in the fridge too.  Not to mention all kinds of canned and fresh vegetables.  To go with the Thai curry, we decided to make corn fritters.  Luckily our old school Thai cookbook had a recipe that we could adapt.  Somehow I always like the idea of curries more than I like the curries themselves.  The same held true for our curry this evening.  It was fine.  But the corn fritters were by far the star of the evening.  They were absolutely and astonishingly delicious.  I have had a version of these corn fritters at a Thai restaurant here in NYC and I remember them being doughier (but still good).  But these fritters consisted mostly of corn and more corn with very little filler - just like the very best crab cakes are mostly crab with very little filler.  Sure there is a little all-purpose flour and two eggs to bind the fritters together, along with scallions, garlic, cilantro, and a chili for flavor.  But the fritters are definitely all about the fresh, sweet and summery corn.  Dipped in some store-bought sweet chili sauce these fritters were sweet, savory, and just a little spicy.  Poor curry didn't even stand a chance.

Recipes after the jump!

Thai Red Curry Mussels

Alex has been in charge of dinner the last few nights so I thought it was only fair that I be in charge of dinner this evening.  So I hit Whole Foods after work today and picked up some mussels.  I love mussels, but we rarely cook them because the whole process of cleaning and debearding them is annoying, plus the fact that you should really cook them the day that you purchase them doesn't always work for me.  But tonight it did!  And the mussels were lovely.  They were very flavorful - it isn't often that the mussels can stand alone without their broth, but these totally could.  Alex and I both thought our mussels were better than the mussels I had a month or two ago at Fatty Crab (which I consider to be incredibly high praise since that is one of our favorite restaurants).  Our mussels were plump, juicy and full of flavor.  The red curry broth had a nice level of heat and flavor - if you don't like things spicy I would cut back on the amount of red curry paste, but I found the spice level to be perfect.  

We served the mussels with some coconut rice.  Generally I like some nice crusty bread to dip into the mussel broth, but since we were making Thai-inspired mussels, I thought rice would be the ideal accompaniment.  The rice added another level of flavor and texture, and was delicious when drizzled with the red curry broth.

Recipe after the jump!

Tofu with Vegetables in Green Curry Coconut Sauce

Since Alex and I are talking about going out for BBQ for dinner, I only felt it appropriate that I eat vegetarian for lunch.  I had a package of tofu in the fridge, as well as an assortment of vegetables and an open container of green curry paste.  More than half of the lunches I make are usually an experiment in fridge shopping - open up the door, see what's inside and hope for the best.  Sometimes it works out, but sometimes it's an unmitigated disaster.  Recently I have been very busy with work so I haven't had the time to whip up anything more gourmet than a simple omelet or reheated leftovers for lunch.  But since I have the free time and the inclination to make lunch today, I am going for it - particularly since I am already planning on stuffing my face with ribs this evening.

I served my tofu over the leftover coconut rice from last week so it was a very coconut-y meal.  You could also serve the tofu over regular steamed rice, or solo.  I really liked doubling up on the coconut, but it's probably not for everyone.  My thoughts on this meal are best summed up by saying that if there is a meal that could turn me vegetarian, this isn't it.  It was good, but not amazing.  The tofu wasn't quite as flavorful as I had hoped for, nor did it crisp up as much as I intended it to.  I probably didn't pat it dry well enough after marinating it in the soy sauce.  But all of those criticisms aside, I liked the meal.  It made a nice lunch.  In the future I might play with the ingredients a little more to give it a bit more kick - perhaps a little more green curry paste, more lime juice, or the addition of cilantro.  I would also toss the cashews in with the sauce when I sprinkle in the lime juice so that they get coated in the green curry coconut sauce.

Recipe after the jump!

Green Curry Coconut Banana Bread

So after baking a loaf of Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Banana Bread the other day I had a few bananas left over for yet another banana bread baking experiment.  I thought about returning to an old fave, but decided to just go nuts instead.  Momofuku Milk Bar has this green curry banana bread that I tried a bite of once upon a time, and since I had bananas and green curry paste I figured I could whip up a batch of my own.  I always think that coconut and curry go wonderfully together, plus I wanted some extra sweetness to balance out the heat of the Maesri green curry paste (which is pretty fearsome stuff), so I also threw in some sweetened shredded coconut.  I didn't have any sour cream or unsalted butter left, but I did have some leftover creme fraiche, eggs, buttermilk and vegetable oil, so I decided to use what I had to throw together a batch of banana bread.  I decided against the buttermilk because I thought the slight tang of it might not go well with the coconut and green curry paste, but I figured that eggs, creme fraiche and vegetable oil wouldn't clash with my vaguely Southeast Asian flavor profile.  I was a little hesitant about the creme fraiche at first but I love adding dairy products like creme fraiche, sour cream and buttermilk to baked goods for the richness and moistness that it produces, so I decided to just go for it and try it with the creme fraiche.

While the bread was baking I could only get the faintest whiff of the green curry paste, although the aroma of something banana-y and delicious wafted through the whole apartment.  Actually, I'm not even sure that I smelled the green curry paste so much as I might have imagined myself smelling it, but what can you do.  When I tasted the batter there was a subtle kick of heat and spice to it that I thoroughly enjoyed.  I thought about adding more green curry paste, but decided that I didn't want the taste of the green curry to completely overpower the taste of the banana and coconut.  And in the end I think I used the perfect amount of green curry paste.  This bread is fantastic.  The taste of the green curry is subtle, but definitely there.  It lingers on the tongue and gives the bread a savory quality lacking from most banana bread recipes.  It's definitely not in your face, but it's impossible to miss (even if you can't quite figure out what it is).  The sweetness of the coconut is subtle as well, but I think it really adds something.  The crumb is wonderful as well - super moist, with a nice crust that formed on the top.  Unlike the Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, this banana bread is more bread and less cake - both in terms of sweetness and the crumb itself.  I only baked the Green Curry Coconut Banana Bread today, but at the rate we're eating it I might have to go bake another loaf!  It's really that good.

Recipe after the jump!

Red Curry Duck

There are a few things that I consistently order at Thai restaurants - tom kha gai soup, tom yum soup, soft shell crab, and duck in red curry.  I love a nice piece of duck in a nice spicy, yet somewhat sweet curry.  I try to mix it up sometimes, but those are my favorites that I return to time and time again.  Even though I have a serious thing for duck in all of its many forms (Peking duck, Cantonese roast duck, crispy duck, five-spice duck, etc), I rarely cook it at home.  I'm not really sure why that is, because duck is fairly easily available in NYC, but somehow it rarely makes it into my shopping cart.  I really need to fix that.  I also need to make more curries at home, so when the idea struck me to make duck I figured why not go for a Thai curry and kill two birds with one stone.  The recipe for Red Curry Duck is one of the least complicated recipes in my Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges cookbook, but I still had to modify it a lot.  I wasn't about to start pureeing red Thai chilis and fresh pineapple.  As much as I love this cookbook, it really is meant for the restaurant chef and not the home cook.  So I tend to steal ideas and flavor profiles from it, but not cook entire recipes.  This is as close as I have ever come to actually following a Jean-Georges recipe and I'm still not that close at all.

My favorite thing about this curry was the bright sweetness of the chunks of pineapple.  The curry itself had a nice flavor, with a nice lingering spiciness to it, although our Thai chilis weren't as hot as I had expected them to be.  I could have done without the carrots, but that is a personal thing since I'm just not a huge fan of cooked carrots.  All things considered, they didn't hurt or help the dish.  The duck itself was fine, although it would have been a little better if it had a little more flavor to it.  Next time we might try this recipe with duck legs so we can simmer them longer in the curry without overcooking them.  Or perhaps we will create more of a spice rub on the duck breasts.  Since this is the first time we have ever tried this recipe, or any variation on it, we will have to tweak it a bit in the coming year to perfect it.  But this was a very good start.

Recipe after the jump!
 

Indian Lamb Chops with Curried Cauliflower

After this weekend we have been on an Indian kick.  A few weeks ago I came across this recipe in the January issue of Bon Appetit and decided that I had to try it.  I rarely get the chance to cook lamb, and this looked too good to pass up (with a few modifications of course).  Seeing as we finally have all of the necessary ingredients (our lack of mango chutney had been holding me up), I decided to pull the trigger on the recipe.

I have never tried cooking lamb shoulder blade chops, and in the future I might substitute lamb rib chops, or even a rack of lamb for the shoulder blade chops.  The shoulder blade chops were a little fatty and had lots of bone and other undesirable chewy bits.  Even with the somewhat strange meat choice, this dish was really nice.  The curried cauliflower is seriously delicious.  Alex said that he would serve the curried cauliflower over, or with, any kind of meat, including chicken, beef or lamb.  I think it tastes great with the rich fattiness of lamb, but would also be delicious as a side dish on its own.  This dish would be lovely served with spiced rice.

Recipe after the jump!

Thai Green Curry with Shrimp, Bay Scallops and Calamari

After this weekend's epic grocery shopping trip to the Indian and Korean grocery stores I have been dying to make some green curry.  I had a bag of frozen seafood mix from Trader Joe's in the freezer and all kinds of wonderful Asian produce to throw in.  The one thing that I wanted but didn't have was Thai basil, but regular basil works fine in this too.  So after looking through all of my ingredients I realized that I didn't have a recipe to follow.  The Thai Green Curry with Seafood recipe from a recent issue of Bon Appetit looked ok, but I wanted to use different vegetables.  I wanted to throw in some of the beautiful produce I had purchased yesterday along with a few other things that I found in the pantry and the fridge.  So I looked at a few other curry recipes that I had bookmarked over the years, including this recipe for Jungle Curry with Pork and Thai Eggplant from Gourmet and Nigella Lawson's recipe for Thai Yellow Pumpkin and Seafood Curry.  None of them were really what I was looking for, but as always, I stole things I liked from each recipe and ignored everything else.

This curry has a great spice level to it.  It isn't "Thai spicy", but it is spicier than I know a lot of my friends would be able to eat.  The rice does a lot to soak up the spice on your palate but this curry isn't for wimps.  I would actually be perfectly happy to leave the seafood out of the curry because the vegetables were my favorite part as they soaked up the most flavor from the curry broth.  Next time I think I will try it with fresh shrimp, scallops and mussels and see if that changes my mind at all.  I am glad I decided to use the Asian eggplant, zucchini and baby corn in the recipe because they were all delicious.  If I had been in the mood to use red curry paste instead of green, I might have thrown in a few cubes of fresh pineapple for a little sweetness.  My one complaint about this curry is that it did turn out rather soupy.  I have changed my recipe to cut down a bit on the amount of liquid.

Recipe after the jump!