Lobster in Prik Khing Curry

I don’t know why but I’ve been craving lobster all week. March is not a great time for craving lobster because it ain’t lobster season and I do try to eat what is in season. (I’m eating tons of citrus right now.) Although it is not lobster season, you can still get lobster pretty much all year round at the Asian store. I was not disappointed. They had a tank full of live lobsters. I paid $10.98 a pound. Not the cheapest but not too bad. I asked the guy for one of the larger ones. It was just over two pounds.

Initially, I was planning on making ginger scallion lobster but I wasn’t up for the deep frying part so I decided to cook the lobster in a Thai curry sauce. It is my favorite way to cook crab so I figured it should work well with the lobster. I’m not too fond of the typical steamed and served with clarified butter route. I don’t usually order lobster at American restaurants because they are often prepared this way but I took the bf out for his birthday dinner and ended up adding a rock lobster tail to my entrée.


Lobster in Prik Khing Curry:
2 ¼ lb lobster
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 ounces prik khing curry paste(half of the small can)
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ onion, sliced
7 ounces coconut milk (half can)
2 kaffir lime leaves, torn into smaller pieces
1 stalk lemon grass, cut into 2 inch pieces and smashed
MSG, to taste
Fish sauce, to taste
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
½ red bell pepper, sliced
1 egg
handful cilantro, roughly chopped
handful Thai basil leaves
5 stalks green onion, cut into 1 inch pieces


Mise en Place:
1. Cut lobster into 12 pieces. Using a heavy cleaver cut the body into four pieces, the tail into two, and the claws into three pieces each. Crack each piece.
2. Prep all vegetables.

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a large wok. Add prik khing paste; fry until fragrant. Add garlic and onions; continue to cook until onions are soft. Add coconut milk; fry until fragrant. Add lime leaves, lemon grass, MSG, fish sauce and sugar. Simmer for a few minutes.
2. Add lobster pieces, red bell peppers and egg. Toss to coat lobster with sauce. (Add a little water if the bottom of the pan is scorching.)
3. Cover and cook until lobster is red. Turn off heat, add cilantro, basil, and green onions.

Say hello to Lenny the lobster. I have been trained to quickly and humanely kill lobsters but every time I do it, I still freak out. It's really hard to kill a living thing. Lenny was very much alive and active when I took him/her out of the fridge. I stored the lobster in a paperbag and covered the gills with strips of wet newspaper. I was sure the lobster would die in the fridge. It flopped its way on the counter and even sent the spice container across the room.

I chose Prik Khing Curry Paste but any Thai curry paste will work. The dark green stuff in the lobster body is called the tomalley. The tomalley is considered a delicacy but recent reports show high levels of toxins and pollutants in the tomalley of lobsters from the Maine/New England areas.

Veggies are prepped and the lobster has been hacked into small pieces and the the claws have been pre-cracked.

Cooking method in photos:

I know I've been MIA lately. Many food lovers go through blah periods, where nothing tastes good. I haven't been craving anything until the lobster. I cooked regular (uninspiring and unblog-worthy) meals.

Dinner at Oceanaire Restaurant. I ordered the mahi mahi and I debated between getting it Oscar style or adding a lobster tail. The lobster tail won. The bf ordered salmon. We "shared" the fried green beans with the aoli. I ate two bites of the fish and ended up giving most of it to the bf. I filled up on the yummy sour dough bread.

Here's a picture of baby Jack's first birthday birthday cake. It was Hungry Hungry Caterpillar theme.


And the birthday boy after enjoying the green frosting from his cupcake.

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Vietnamese Chicken Curry (Ga Ca Ri)

I made this before leaving for California. I typed up a recipe but can't find it on my computer. I was a little distracted. I received bad news around 1:00 PM on Thursday afternoon and then spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how to get everything ready so that I could leave for California. When I got home, I was a little numb. I had boneless chicken thighs defrosted in the refrigerator for the Vietnamese Chicken Curry.

As I was cooking, I was making plans on when and how to get to California. I told the bf what to expect. I said I was leaving for California as soon as I can get everything ironed out. I even planed out his meals for the next week.

As I was going through my pictures folder, I realize I did not post this before leaving last week. I had to rewrite the recipe since I can't locate it. I probably saved it under an ambiguous name in my music folder.

I remember an ex-friend's mom used to make this curry. It was very soupy and she served it with fresh baked french baguettes from the Vietnamese grocery store. One Thanksgiving she made it with turkey. She also used pearl onions. The pearl onions made the curry really pretty but I don't think it makes a huge difference in taste.

Below is my version of this curry.

2 tablespoons canola oil
2 pounds boneless skinless thighs
1 tablespoons curry powder (many people recommend D&D Gold Product brand with three bells on the label. I used the Sing Kung brand Ca Ri Ni An Do Madras Curry powder)
4 cloves garlic (chopped)
1 onion, diced (or pearl onions)
4 potatoes, peeled and cubed
I can coconut milk
Water to cover
salt
black pepper
MSG
1 teaspoon sugar
½ stalk lemongrass , cut into 2 inch pieces
1 bay leaf
2 carrots, cut into 1 inch slices

1. Heat a large dutch oven, add oil. When oil is hot, add chicken and cook until browned. Add curry powder and allow to toast for a minute. Add garlic and onions. Cook until onions are soft. Add potatoes and cook another minute.
2. Deglaze pot with coconut milk. Add water to cover. Add the rest of the ingredients except for the carrots. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer.
3. When potatoes are cooked, add carrots and cook until carrots are slightly tender.

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Chicken Red Curry

I have no recipe to share today.

The above picture is of my latest batch of curry. I make a pretty darn good red curry. I really do. It is so good that I've actually had people grab the bowl and drink the leftover sauce. I make red curry at least once a month and it is never the same each time. I vary the ingredients based on what I find in the store and what I am in the mood for. This time I used chicken, butternut squash, potatoes, red bell peppers, bamboo and fresh Thai basil from my little balcony garden.

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Duck Red Curry and Monday Morning Ramblings

I was meeting some friends for dim sum and since I do not usually find myself on that part of town, I was mentally coming up with a list of items I wanted to pick up at the Asian grocery store. I remember the grocery store in the shopping center has a Chinese barbecue section. Their roast ducks are pretty good. I decided to pick up a whole duck. It was a long wait. Apparently this must be the only place in town that sells Chinese roast meats. I also picked up a few other items that I needed around the house.

For this dish I am branching out from my usual chicken red curry. I'm replacing the boring chicken with duck. I looked at various duck curry recipes. They all seem to include pineapple and lychees. I am not too fond of pineapple in savory dishes. I bought some lychees but decided to leave that for snacking instead and make the curry my usual way.

Duck doesn't have very much meat. That is why I only order duck breast when I am at a restaurant. For this dish, I took the time to take all the meat off the bones. I kept the bones for making a stock. You can make this dish by roasting your own duck (a very timely project that involves scalding the duck, coating it with honey, blowing air in between the skin & fat, and air drying) or just purchasing one from your local Chinese barbecue joint.


1 roast duck
4 tablespoons red curry paste
1 can coconut milk
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3 rose gold potatoes, washed and cubed
1 large white sweet potato, washed and cubed (The store posted a picture of white sweet potatoes. I didn't question it. When I got home and peeled the sweet potato, I discovered that the flesh was orange instead of white.)
1 can sliced bamboo
1 stalk lemon grass, cut into 3 inch sections
4 kaffir lime leaves
1 dried galanga root
salt
pepper
msg
1 disk palm sugar
fish sauce
basil
cilantro
green onions


1. Remove duck meat from bones. Cut the meat into small pieces. I use a pair of kitchen shears. Put reserved bones in a small pot and add enough water to cover. Simmer gently.

Bones ready to make stock:
Duck Meat:

2. Prep the other ingredients while the duck bones simmer. By the time you are done washing, chopping, and dicing, your stock should be ready. Take the stock and strain out the bones.
3. In a dutch oven on medium heat, toast the curry paste until fragrant. Add the cream portion of the coconut milk, reserving the liquid at the bottom. Cook the coconut cream and curry paste until thick.
4. Add garlic and onion. Add the duck stock and the rest of the ingredients except duck meat, cilantro, green onions, and basil . You don't want to cook the meat too long since it is already cooked.
5. When potatoes are tender, add duck meat. Garnish with cilantro, green onions, and basil.

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Potatoes and Chicken in a Tikka Masala Sauce

Ever have a cooking failure? As much as I would like to believe that I only know how to create amazing food, it does not always happen. Tonight was such a night. I am venturing into the world of Indian cooking. Indian food is still very foreign territory to me. I can eat it but when it comes to cooking it I am very lost. You see I'm not quite sure how all the various spices come together to make that distinctive Indian flavor. We were not taught Indian cooking in school. It is a cuisine that is probably hard to teach in culinary school where the chefs were all trained in the classic European technique. I don't have any friends of Indian descent and we all know authentic recipes are usually family recipes passed on from mother to child and not posted on the internet.

Despite all this I still wanted to test the waters. After all it was trial and error that helped me perfect my Thai red curry. So I searched and searched through various recipes for a chicken tikka masala. After doing my internet research and reading through such reliable sources as wikipedia, I discovered that tikka masala is not a true Indian dish. It is British in origin. It is said that a Bengali chef prepared chicken tikka for his clients. His clients sent it back and asked for a sauce. How can you serve meat that is not nappe with sauce? In order to appease the British palate, the chef created a sauce using Campbell's Cream of Tomato soup doctored up with a few Indian spices. I'm not sure if this legend is entirely true. Is Cream of Tomato popular in Great Britain?

With so many varying recipes I decided to stick with Savory Spice Shop's Tikka Masala blend as a starting point. I can then work from there. After all it is just a mixture of various spices. A co-worker speaks highly of the spice blends at Savory. Savory Spice Shop specializes in spices for the average home cook instead of supplying the Denver area restaurants. The blend contains: Spanish sweet paprika, cumin, coriander, ginger, guajillo chile, aji amarillo chile, garlic, turmeric, black pepper, black cardamom, charnushka, spearmint, cloves, mace, cinnamon and bay leaves.

The owner of the shop put together a recipe for using his blend. Below is his recipe.

Ingredients:
1lb. sliced chicken breast
31/2 -5 tbsp. tikka masala powder
1 1/2 tsp. honey
3 1/2 tbsp. tomato powder mix into 8 oz. water
2-3 tbsp. olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 cup half & half
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2mcup plain yogurt
12oz bag frozen vegetables or 2 cups of sauted, fresh bite-size vegetables

Directions:
Convert tikka powder into paste by following the instructions on the label and set aside. If using, thoroughly mix tomato powder, honey powder and water into a smooth sauce and set aside. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium/high heat. If sauting veggies, do so now and set aside. If using frozen, pop in microwave for 2-2 1/2 minutes. Next, lightly brown the sliced chicken on both sides and remove to a cutting board. Lower heat to medium, add veggies and stir in tikka paste. Cook for 2-3 minutes stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, cut chicken into bite-size pieces and stir into veggies. Next, stir in lemon juice, sea salt, your tomato choice and cook for 3-4 more minutes. Mix together the yogurt and the half & half in a small bowl. Reduce heat to a simmer and thoroughly stir in the yogurt mixture. Cover and simmer for 5-8 minutes stirring occasionally.

Serving Suggestions:
Over rice with chopped cilantro and pita, tortilla or naan bread. Start cooking rice simultaneously and it should be ready to serve when the tikka masala is complete.

You can use 3 1/2 to 5 tbsp. Tikka Masala powder depending on the level of heat and depth of flavor desired.

Recipe Summary:
Servings: 4
Total time: 1/2 hour

Thanks to: Mike Johnston, Savory Spice Shop Owner

Reflections:
1. I didn't use vegetables because I've never had tikka masala with vegetables before. I did have some purple potatoes that I needed to use. Potatoes and chicken sounded like a great combination.
2. The tomato powder and water mixture made something that looked like canned tomato sauce. Is tomato sauce made from a mix?
3. 3 1/2 tablespoons of tomato powder was too much. It tasted too tomato-ey(?)
4. Since I added uncooked potatoes, I needed to add more water and cook it longer.

I wasn't thrilled about the flavor. Maybe it needs to sit in its own juices and all the flavors will then meld together. I could barely eat my dinner. I didn't finish it. Most of it went into the garbage disposal.

It is just not my cooking day. The second disaster was the rice. I've cooked hundreds of pots of rice and I'v'e never had a bad pot of rice. I put the basmati in my trusty rice cooker. As the water boiled, it created all these bubbles that threatened to lift the lid right off the pot. It looked really dry. I added more water. After the pot switched from cook to keep warm, I got a wet uncooked mess.

Both the rice and the potatoes & chicken in the tikka masala sauce was not entirely disgusting it just wasn't amazing. The rice was edible and the masala was bearable.

Look at the pretty purple potatoes.

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Aloo Chole (Potato Garbanzo Bean Curry)

I made this for soupgroup. I wanted to make the potato dish often served at indian restaurants. I was not sure what the dish was called. Instead of potatoes and peas or potatoes and cauliflower, I decided to make a potato and garbanzo bean combination.

1 lb. garbanzo beans, rinsed
4 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter)
1 large onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
5 lbs Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 teaspoons tumeric
1 to 2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon garam masala
2 teaspoons madras curry powder
2 pinches asafetida
4 green cardamon pods
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 tomato, diced
2 teaspoons tomato powder
2 tablespoons honey
8 cups vegetable or chicken stock
sea salt, to taste
½ cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

1. Bring garbanzo beans to a boil. Cover and let sit overnight.
2. Boil garbanzo beans until almost tender.
3. In a large pot, heat ghee. Add onions and garlic and sauté until translucent. Do not burn the garlic.
4. Add potatoes and sauté a few minutes. Add tumeric, cayenne, garam masala, curry powder, asafetida, and cardamon pods. Saute a few minutes until fragrant.
5. Add ginger, tomato powder, and stock. Bring to a boil. Add garbanzo beans and simmer until potatoes and garbanzos are tender. Add salt. Garnish with cilantro.

It tastes better if you let it sit for a few hours. The potatoes and garbanzo beans will absorb all the yummy spices. The spices (including the asafetida, tomato powder, garam massala, madras curry, and cardamon pods) are from Savory Spice Shop.

All packed in official soupgroup containers.

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Chicken Red Curry

How much do I love red curry? <----------------------------------------------------------> This much. Anyone who knows me knows that I do not eat leftovers. Curry is an exception. Most restaurants take shortcuts when they make curry. They have one big pot and they add the type of meat and vegetables that is ordered. I've perfected this over the years because it was difficult to find good curry. I have to say that mine is the best I've ever had.

I use different ingredients depending on my mood. Ideally I like using a whole chicken and deboning it myself. I get the best flavor when I use a whole chicken. Lately I've been a little too lazy and I use a combination of boneless chicken breast and either thighs or drumsticks. I debone the chicken drums or thighs and use the bones in the broth. I usually enhance the chicken flavor with a carton of chicken broth. Pacific Brand chicken broth is a staple at my house. I purchase the mini-case from Costco.

Although a lot of the ingredients change, some do remain the same. I always make it with potatoes and bamboo. My favorite potatoes are yukon gold or rose gold potatoes. Yukon golds are easier to find than rose golds. I also love using white sweet potatoes. They are firmer than the orange flesh variety.

2 Tablespoons canola oil
3 cloves garlic; crushed
5 Tablespoons Mae Ploy brand red curry paste
4 Tablespoon madras curry powder (This adds more curry flavor without adding more heat from the curry paste. I don't like it too spicy.)
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast; sliced
1 pound chicken drumsticks; debone but reserve the bones
MSG; to taste
salt; to taste
pepper; to taste
1 carton chicken broth
5 cups water (approximately)
4 disks palm sugar (I'm not using red bell peppers or carrots this time. Red bell peppers and carrots add sweetness to the curry.)
1 can Mae Ploy brand coconut milk (The brand matters. I use Mae Ploy for curries and Savoy for desserts.)
2 pieces galanga root
4 kaffir lime leaves (Thanks to grandma. I bring a big bag whenever I go to California. I store them in the freezer.)
2 stalks lemongrass; tied into a knot (Also thanks to grandma.)
1 yellow onion; diced (Yellow is fine. We don't need anything fancy. Save the Bermuda and Vidalias for a different recipe.)
1 can sliced bamboo shoots (I prefer sliced but the thin matchsticks also work.)
1 can quail eggs (This is my favorite thing to add to my curries. I've never seen anyone use quail eggs in their curries.)
4 yukon gold potatoes; peeled and cubed
2 white sweet potatoes; peeled and cubed
fish sauce; to taste

Other optional ingredients:
- Diced red bell pepper
- Sliced carrots
- Thai aubergines; cut in half or quartered (I think I have a post below that has a picture of curry that I made with Thai aubergines. They come either green and white or just white.)
- Butternut squash; cubed
- Sugar snap peas (I had some int he fridge but I had green beans that I needed to use up and it already overflowed the first pot I used. I had to transfer to a big stock pot to finish cooking.)
- Add peanut butter or crushed peanuts for a more Massaman-like curry.


1. In a large pot, heat oil and saute garlic with curry pasts and curry powder until fragrant. Add chicken pieces, season with MSG, salt, and pepper and bones and saute until browned.
2. Add chicken broth, water, palm sugar, kaffir lime leaves, galanga root, and lemon grass. Bring to a boil. Simmer for about ten minutes. Add coconut milk and fish sauce.
3. Add potatoes, sweet potatoes, onion, bamboo, and eggs. Cook until potatoes are tender.
4. Add green beans. Turn off heat. Remove chicken bones, kaffir lime leaves, galanga root, and lemon grass. Discard. They are not edible.
5. Add green onions, cilantro, and thai basil.
6. Serve with hot jasmine rice.

I often make a huge pot. I give some away and I freeze the rest in small portions. It is not as good after it has been frozen but it still makes a delicious quick meal.

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South Beach Curry Chicken w/ Cauliflower "Rice"

This is an adaptation of my yummy chicken red curry. I threw this together one night to be south beach friendly. I will have to post the original recipe another time.










Curry Chicken
chicken tenders
onion
garlic
red curry paste
curry powder
lemon grass
kaffir lime leaves
galanga root
light coconut milk
fish sauce
salt
ginger
bamboo
red bell peppers
snow peas

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