My Version of Chicken Curry

To be truthful, I had never even tried curry until moving to Hawaii. A friend, who had spent time in both India and Thailand, introduced me to this wonderful dish. She never gave me a written recipe, but I watched her make it enough times to come up with my own version. Here are some of the ingredients I use:

I begin by blanching cauliflower, then shocking it in a ice bath for later in the recipe.

Next, I quickly brown about 1 1/2 - 2 lbs. of diced chicken breast in some canola oil.



I remove the chicken to a bowl, and saute some onion, minced garlic, and a finger of peeled and minced ginger. After they soften, I add about 2 tbsp flour and saute for another 1-2 minutes.

Next, I add one can of low fat, low sodium chicken broth and let it simmer just a few minutes until the flour thickens the sauce, then I add 2-3 scoops of curry paste (can you see I don't like to measure?).

Simmer for just a few minutes, then add the vegetables, chicken and its juices, and 2 cans of coconut milk. For an extra punch, add in a few teaspoons of hot madras curry powder, or for extreme heat, some cayenne pepper.

Serve over Basmati rice - I like brown Basmati, which you can find at specialty and health food stores.

I'm sure it's not very authentic, but I really like the flavors in this dish. I don't make it often since my two youngest don't enjoy this taste, but I try to make it periodically because the rest of us just love it.

Try this dish - it's very easy!

Gingerbread House

I just came across this picture from December. The kids worked together to create this awesome gingerbread house. Isn't it great?

Fire Ninja Sushi and Chinese Bistro

On the recommendation of an acquaintance, I decided to give Fire Ninja a try tonight. I needed to get a quick bite to eat after choir practice, and the family was at our home fellowship group so I was able to come by and sit at the sushi bar.


This is a very nice restaurant, nicely decorated and great service. It was a Tuesday night so I was alone at the bar, and the seating area was only about 1/4 full. My server was very attentive and the food came quickly.


Understand that after almost 7 years living in Hawai'i, which is almost another Japanese home island, anything Japanese here is going to be a disappointment. First off, I did not understand the name of the restaurant; I saw nothing on the menu that would explain the Chinese Bistro. I just gave it a quick once-over, but from what I recall it all seemed to be Japanese food. It was also quite expensive. Where are the simple sushi take-out places here? I really believe a good quality, take out style sushi place would do well.

Since I was alone, and the ala carte portion of the menu was mostly large rolls, I decided to try the Sushi Dinner (10 pieces of sushi and a California roll) and the vegetable tempura appetizer. These standard Japanese dishes should give a good indication of the quality of the overall menu.

First came my hot green tea, a small cup and a whole kettle just for me. However, looking in the kettle I was disappointed to find tea bags instead of the higher quality loose tea I'm used to. It was sort of hot, but not scorching hot like it tends to be served in true Japanese restaurants. The cup was the standard small size, but inexplicably it had an American style handle. Along with my tea I was served a small dish of fresh cucumber tsukemono, a nice surprise.

Next came the salad and miso soup that came with the sushi dinner. The salad was a standard American style, with what I suppose was a Japanese style dressing, just not like anything I've ever had before. Too bad, because I love Japanese dressings. The miso was also not hot enough, and tasted like standard American miso, not high quality Japanese miso, which is what I've become accustomed to.

After that came the vegetable tempura appetizer. I was pleasantly surprised at the quantity and variety of tempura; it included sweet potato, zuchinni, eggplant, and bell pepper. Once again, standard American style tempura - not hot or crunchy enough. Also, the sauce was not quite right - almost watered down.


Finally, my Sushi Dinner arrived:

Not the most appetizing looking selection of sushi I've eaten. In fact, the ahi looked as if it had been treated for color, and the hamachi looked like it was previously frozen. Even the California roll, probably the easiest maki to make, had way too much cucumber and very little crab (imitation, of course). The tobikko looked different, so I scraped some of it off the side of the roll to taste it alone. It had none of the crunch it should have, and no flavor at all.

So, basically, I am still on the hunt for a decent sushi restaurant in the area. Any recommendations?

Guacamole

Growing up in central California, in a Mexican-Portuguese family, you would think that I would instinctively know how to make this. But, this was something we struggled with in my family. Our general recipe always called for lots of lemon and sour cream, and what resulted was a vaguely avocado-y dip of some sort. Not very memorable.

Years ago when we lived in San Diego I fell in love with the local version, which was just an explosion of real, creamy avocado flavor. I began watching local cooking shows, reading local recipes in the paper, and experimenting until I came up with my own version. The kicker? It's incredibly simple.

Basically, when you have good quality avocados, perfectly ripe, all that is needed is a small quantity of minced onion and salt. That's it.

It can also be enhanced with small quantities of minced tomato, onion, cilantro, and even jalapenos. But the quantity needs to be small - it's just to enhance, not overwhelm, the avocado. It has to be the star of the show.

Which is where most people go wrong - citrus. Citrus is a very strong flavor which just competes with the smooth avocado. Seriously, if you always use lemon or lime in your guacamole, try it without. You will be pleasantly surprised. The same principle applies to sour cream.

One of the biggest tricks for good guacamole is learning to recognize a ripe avocado. It should be thick skinned, preferably the Haas variety. The skin should still be mostly green - the blacker the skin, the more likely it will be overripe. It should give easily when you press your thumb into it, but not mushy.

I generally buy unripe avocados and let them sit out on the kitchen counter. Every day I check them, and when they are just beginning to ripen I put them in the fruit drawer in the fridge to slow the ripening process until I am ready to use them. You generally will have 3-4 days until they begin to go bad with this method.

I've always used the side of a spoon or a pastry cutter to mash my avocados. Most Mexican chefs will use a pestle, which is something I've always wanted. I finally splurged recently and bought my first one.

In Limbo

Sorry for the long absence. I've been having some health problems, and on top of that we're currently living in a camping trailer. Long story. Hopefully we will be in the house we bought before the middle of February. I'll have to post pictures of my new kitchen then - it's not huge I'm sure by most standards, but compared to almost all of the houses we looked at in our price range it's practically a mansion!

Cooking on a tiny propane stove with a miniscule oven is quite the adventure. I've resorted to making quite simple meals and relying on the microwave much more than I'd like. I can't wait to get in our house.

Pau!

Quick Weeknight Meal - Veal with Lemon

Once again, I forgot to take pictures of this delicious dish - and C and I inhaled it so fast there was none remaining for a post-meal shot. Jim and the other kiddos didn't like it as much - but I think this one is a keeper.

Anyway, it was late one night last week before I had a chance to go grocery shopping, and I needed a recipe that I could bring home and cook quickly, so I turned to my trusty 30 Minute Meals 2. This recipe looked like one that could be made in as little as 15 minutes, so I hastily added the ingredients to my shopping list and did a quick shopping trip.

When I got home, I was able to whip the veal dish up quickly, along with the sauteed spinach to serve as a bed for the veal and lemon sauce. I also cooked up some whole grain spaghetti as a side dish, which I simply tossed with olive oil, chicken broth, fresh garlic, fresh chopped parsley, and salt and pepper. It was not only quick but really ono!

Anyway, I couldn't find this recipe anywhere online, sorry! It was quite a simple dish, really, with olive oil, butter, flour, and chicken broth whipped together and used to quickly sautee the veal. Then lemon, zest, and parsley are added at the end. How simple can you get? The sauce really complemented my freshly sauteed baby spinach. Loved it!

Sunday Lunch at Red Robin

C has been wanting to try Red Robin since they started their nationwide ad campaign a few months ago - but of course, there isn't one in Hawai'i. There is one, though, just a few miles from our home in Virginia. We were looking for a place to eat lunch after church today, and dh agreed to take us here.





I ordered this Santa Fe Burger, which I liked - mostly because it reminded me of the old Santa Fe Burger that Carls Jr. had back in the late 80's. The sauce tasted very similar. The roasted poblano pepper was even tastier than Carl's canned Ortega chili. However, the rest of the burger was just standard burger fare, not worth $9.79. I could barely taste the tiny amount of guacamole on it, disappointing for this guac lover.



Jim had the guacamole bacon burger. His only comment was, "it was OK." He really liked their steak fries, and thought the fact they there are bottomless refills was cool. I thought they were pretty good, but not even close to knocking off McDonald's and In 'n' Out of the top of my list.

Service was OK, certainly not stellar. We had to ask for additional napkins (come on, when someone comes in with three kids, that should be standard, shouldn't it?) and point out to her that we needed refills and water.



C will have to tell you what she thought of her 5 Alarm Burger, which was what had intrigued her all these months.



Pau hana, folks.