Thai Style Red Curry with Chicken

Monday.  Back to work, back to reality.  It was particularly hard to get going at work this morning since I had such a nice weekend.  The hubby and I took the dog to the dog park, had dinner with some friends Saturday night and Sunday we went to Teatro ZinZanni in San Francisco.  It's a cabaret/vaudeville/improve/circus acrobatics dinner show.  SO much fun!  We laughed our asses off for 3 hours straight.  If you live in the SF Bay Area and haven't been yet, you should go.  It's a guaranteed fun time.  I was a little nervous about what to expect, since it had some rough reviews on Yelp, but we loved it.  The biggest complaint on Yelp was about the food.  We thought it was good.  Definitely not great, but not bad either.  It was standard banquet type fare, along the lines of what you get at a wedding, or any nice hotel catered affair, but don't go for the food, go for the entertainment, which makes up for it in spades.  If you want an incredible meal, go to Michael Mina, if you want to be thoroughly entertained for 3 hours while eating a good dinner, then ZinZanni is the ticket.  Our tickets to the show were a Christmas gift from my brother & his fiancé, so since we were off the hook for dinner, we splurged on a really good bottle of wine at the show.  A Stag's Leap Petite Syrah which was incredibly delicious and went amazingly well with the the fillet of beef we had for dinner.  Good food, Great Wine, Great Show- it was a night to remember!

The other thing that made the weekend so nice was that I skipped the normal weekend chores- no laundry, no house cleaning, no grocery store shopping, just spending time with the hubby & the dog.  That was all well & good during the weekend, but now that Monday has rolled around, it meant nothing to make for lunch this morning, limited wardrobe options for work this morning, and worst of all- a house that looked pretty darn disheveled when I got home from work tonight.  Luckily, I get off work at 3:30 in the afternoon most days, so after closing up shop I dropped the dog off at home (she gets to go to work with me), went to the grocery store, came home, started some laundry and started cleaning up the house.  This did not leave a lot of time for making dinner though.  Something quick was needed.    

I was tempted to pick up the phone & call for take-out, but even without having to purchase the dinner tickets to ZinZanni, we still ended up dropping a pretty penny at the show last night (Stag's Leap is never the cheapest wine on the menu, by any means).  Once I got take-out in my head though, my desire for Thai food was too much to ignore.  I had all the ingredients I needed to whip up some red curry, and, it's something I can get on the table in 30 minutes.  Well 30 minutes, if you don't count making the brown jasmine rice, which, despite what it says on the package needs at least an hour & 15 minutes to cook.  That's not a big deal though, once the water boils and you add the rice, just turn it down to low and leave it alone for an hour or so.  I started the rice when I started cleaning up the house and then by the time I got to making dinner, it was all ready to go.

Thai Style Red Curry with Chicken

Olive Oil

1 shallot, sliced

2 tbsp fresh grated ginger

1 red bell pepper, cut into strips

1 small zucchini, cut into strips

salt & pepper

1 cup chicken broth

1 13.5 oz can light coconut milk

1 tbsp Thai red curry paste

1 tsp garlic chili sauce

2 tbsp Thai fish sauce

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 to 2 cups leftover roast chicken breast, skin removed & diced or 1 pkg boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders

fresh basil, finely chopped

1 cup brown jasmine rice, prepared according to package directions.
1/4 cup dry roasted peanuts, crushed

1. Cook the Veggies.  Sauté the shallots with some olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes.  Add in the ginger and sauté for another minute or two.  Add the bell peppers and zucchini, season with salt & pepper, and continue to cook over medium heat for another few minutes, until the veggies have softened.
2. Build the Sauce.  Add the cup of chicken broth to the skillet, along with the can of light coconut milk.  Add in the tbsp of Red Curry paste and stir well.  Add the garlic chili sauce, the fish sauce & the brown sugar.  Stir until the curry paste & sugar have completely dissolved.  Let the curry simmer over medium low heat for about 10 minutes.
3. Add in the chicken.  Add the leftover chicken to the curry and continue simmering for another 10 minutes.  If you don't have leftover roast chicken you can use boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders that have been cut into pieces.  Add the chicken pieces to the curry sauce once the curry paste & brown sugar have completely dissolved and let it simmer in the sauce for the full 20 minutes.
4. Serve!  Once the chicken is heated through and the curry has simmered for a good 20 minutes, remove the curry from the heat, garnish with some fresh basil & the crushed peanuts and serve over steamed brown jasmine rice.

My wine choice for this dinner?  A 2009 Hill Family Estates Sauvignon Blanc.  The crisp fruity flavors go great with the spicy curry.  

Bon Apetit!

Broccoli Stir Fry

Pancho and I love broccoli.  We eat it several times a week.  We like it roasted, steamed, grilled, cooked in a pan, loaded into a casserole, it really doesn't matter.  I don't think there is a way to prepare broccoli where we wouldn't like it.  We also love Asian food, and living in the San Francisco Bay area means that there are many many many places to get truly great Asian food.  Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Burmese, Korean, it's all here, and all within walking distance or delivery distance of our house.  Naturally, one of our favorite dishes is stir-fry broccoli, with beef, pork, chicken or tofu.  Only catch is that if we ate our beloved stir-fry broccoli out at these amazing Asian restaurants all the time, or even had it delivered- we'd be unable to pay the rent.  So, I've spent some time trying to come up with a Broccoli Stir-Fry recipe that's just as good as what I can get from China Gourmet or Dragon Village- our favorite Chinese restaurants down the street.

This recipe is sort of an amalgamation of several different recipes I've tried over the years, and you can use pretty much any vegetables or protein source.  It works great with tofu, chicken or beef, but we like it best with thin strips of pork, and of course, with broccoli.  The other great thing about this recipe?  It's super cheap to make.  The thin cut Pork Chops are really inexpensive and so are the veggies.  And, it takes literally no time to prepare (especially if you have the pre-cut bag of broccoli, & pre-sliced mushrooms)-

Cheap, Quick & Delicious... Winner, Winner, Pork Dinner!

Broccoli Pork Stir Fry

Thin cut pork chops (2 or 3), cut into small strips, seasoned with salt & pepper and tossed with some Cornstarch
1 small onion, diced into large pieces
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, grated
6 to 8 mushrooms, sliced
1 large head of Broccoli, cut into small florets
3 Tbsp Oyster Sauce or Fish Sauce (both available in the Asian section of Safeway)
3 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1 to 2 tsp Garlic Chili Sauce, more/less depending on how spicy you like it.  (I use the Vietnamese kind, with the green lid & the rooster on the jar, also available at Safeway)
1/3 cup chicken broth
Salt
Pepper
Sesame Oil
Steamed Brown Rice

1. Make the Stir-Fry Sauce.  Mix the chicken broth, brown sugar, oyster or fish sauce & garlic chili sauce together in a small bowl.  Set aside.  
2. Cook the Pork & Onions.  Run about 1 1/2 Tbsps sesame oil around a large skillet or wok over high heat.  Add the onions, garlic, ginger and the pork strips, which have been seasoned with salt & pepper and lightly tossed with cornstarch (it helps make a thicker sauce for the stir fry).  Sauté for a few minutes until the pork strips are browned and the onions have softened.  
3. Add in the Veggies.  Add another Tbsp of sesame oil to the pan and throw in the mushrooms, cook for another minute and then toss in the broccoli.  
4. Add the sauce.  After a minute or two, pour the stir-fry sauce over the mixture and turn the heat down to medium.  Continue to cook over medium heat for another few minutes, until the veggies are cooked through and the sauce has thickened.  
5. Serve!  Serve over steamed rice.  We like brown rice, but white rice works just as well.

Bon Appetit,

Laura