Day 361: Best Deal of the Blog

As this blog comes to a close, I find myself reminiscing about the great things I cooked, ate, and discovered over the course of the past year.  One of my best discoveries by far, is Costco's $4.99 rotisserie chicken.  This bird is juicy, succulent, savory, and cheap!!  And, perfect for a night when you can't/don't want to cook.

Tonight was one of those nights.  I had planned ahead that I would go to the gym after work, which means that the earliest I would get home is 7 or 7:30.  So, my husband and I agreed that he would stop off at Costco on his way home.

When we take the easy way out on one piece of the meal, I like to cook another.  Tonight, I sauteed up some sugar snap peas that we had purchased at the farmer's market over the weekend.  I used a non-stick pan so that I didn't need much oil.  After heating up some olive oil, I sauteed the peas with S&P and a little bit of cayenne - I love the combination of sweet and spicy.  I let them cook over medium-high heat for a good 10 minutes, stirring them often.  This allowed them to soften up but still maintain a little bit of crunch.  Yum.

I find that this kind of dinner is a terrific compromise of easy, cheap, but with a homemade touch.  And for $4.99, you just cannot go wrong! 

Day 335: A Mix of Old & New

Tonight's dinner was composed of one leftover and two easily prepared "new" elements.  Last night's leftover rice pilaf served as a bed for chipotle pork tenderloin, with roasted vegetables on the side.

I've made this pork several times before.  It's super easy and nice & spicy.  Slice the pork from end to end lengthwise - not all the way through - just enough to fold it back like a book.  Spread 2 finely minced chipotle peppers throughout the inside of the pork and fold it back over.  Tie it off on each end and in the middle with some kitchen twine.  Pat the outside dry and season with S&P.  Brown it on all sides in hot olive oil in a stainless steel pan and then place in a roasting dish.  Roast at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

Our veggie side dish consisted of 1 fennel bulb and 2 shallots (both cut in eighths, keeping the knot in tact), 1 bunch of asparagus (trimmed), and a few handfuls of sugar snap peas.  All of this was tossed in a little olive oil and S&P and laid out in a single layer on a baking sheet and roasted for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.

An easy and tasty meal.  Why not cook at home when it's this easy?

Day 334: Fab Fruit Salsa

Dinner tonight was grilled chicken breast with pear & jalapeno salsa with rice.  The rice was a Near East mix - the toasted almond rice pilaf to which I added a cup of defrosted peas for color and added nutrition.  I prepared the mix as suggested on the box, substituting chicken broth for the water, and the stirred the peas in after it was finished cooking.

The chicken was prepared simply.  I hammered it relatively thin and seasoned it on both sides with S&P.  After drizzled olive oil over it, my husband grilled it.

The chicken wasn't marinated because I wanted to serve it with some pear salsa on top.  I love making fruit salsas - the possibilities and combinations are endless.  The recipe for tonight's was:

1/2 bosc pear, finely diced

1/2 anjou pear, finely diced

1 small jalapeno pepper, minced (kept 1/2 the seeds to maintain some heat)

1/4 large shallot, minced

Juice from one lime

S&P to taste

It's great if you can allow the salsa to sit and come together for at least an hour before eating.

This whole meal took only about 1/2 hour to pull together and it was healthy and delicious!

Day 328: Perfect Night For Takeout

Takeout was invented for nights like tonight.  I didn't get home until after 8pm and my thumb is still healing from Monday's kitchen accident so cooking was just simply not going to happen.  We hadn't supported our favorite neighborhood Chinese restaurant in a long time, so Country Sky takout it was!

Primarily, I focused on my favorite CS dish, Spicy Prawns with Mango.  In addition to the obvious ingredients, this dish includes mushrooms, broccoli, and zucchini.  Over brown rice it makes for a very yummy, quite spicy dinner.

I also allowed myself a treat in the form of the Singapore Style Noodles that my husband ordered.  These super thin noodles are tossed with curry seasoning, pork, chicken, shrimp, fried egg, and veggies.  It is really amazing.

Of course, there is always a dessert when you have Chinese food - the fortune cookie.  Despite the fact that most of the time these days you don't get a fortune (you get a proverb or a friendly suggestion to do something), these are still tasty treats that I always look forward to.  Hopefully my real fortune  is "your thumb will heal quickly"!

Day 319: A Slaw Free Dinner

I couldn't bare to serve my husband slaw again, for the third day in a row.  So instead, I repurposed last night's leftover guacamole, using it as a bed for some spicy pork tenderloin.

I sliced the pork lengthwise, being careful not to cut it all the way through.  I then folded it back and coated the inside with a finely chopped canned chipotle pepper and sprinkled it with S&P.  I closed the pork back up, tied it up on the end and in the middle with cooking twine, and sprinkled more S&P on the outside.

After browning it on all sides in a pan pre-heated with a thin coating of olive oil, I placed it in a roasting pan and finished it off in the oven at 375 degrees.  It took about 15 minutes, but that timing could obviously differ, depending on the size of the meat.  Ours was just under a pound.

The pork was definitely spicy, but the cool guacamole was a nice compliment.

Alongside, I served sauteed asparagus and sugar snap peas.  I cooked them in the same pan as I had browned the pork, after pouring out the excess fat and liquid.  As usual, I used white wine to deglaze the pan and then cooked the veggies over medium-low heat for about 10-12 minutes.  After plating them, I sprinkled some toasted sliced almonds over the top for crunch and flavor.

So...there's still slaw left in the fridge and I'm kind of out of ideas for how to use it up.  I may have to toss it tomorrow.  Leave a comment if you have any ideas!

Day 314: Where is the Undo Button?

I purchased the most beautiful brussels sprouts at the farmers' market today.  Too bad I kind of ruined them!

Everyone knows that brussels sprouts and bacon are a match made in heaven.  I chopped up four strips of applewood smoked bacon and fried it up in a hot pan.  Once they were crisped up, I removed them and set them aside in some paper towel to remove the excess grease.  

After deglazing the pan with some white wine, I tossed in a finely chopped shallot and a few sprigs of fresh thyme and sauteed them for a few minutes.  After throwing in my sprouts, which I had trimmed and sliced in half lengthwise, I made my big mistake.  I shook in some red pepper flakes which wound up providing too much heat, overwhelming the whole dish.  If there was an "undo" button, I would surely have clicked on it!

Just prior to serving, I pulled out the thyme sprigs, added the bacon bits back in, and squeezed the juice of half a lemon over the whole mixture.  Had it not been for the red pepper flakes, this would have been a great side dish.

Our main course was chicken breasts, hammered thin and marinated in the juice of a lemon, olive oil, 3 smashed garlic cloves, fresh thyme, and S&P.  After about 1/2 hour, my hubby took care of grilling them up.

Not a bad meal, but it would have been great had it not been for my hot pepper mistake.  I feel horrible for screwing up such beautiful and fresh brussels sprouts but at least I learned my lesson.  Next time, perfect sprouts!!

Day 299: Kitchen Sweet Kitchen

I love eating and I dislike doing dishes, but tonight, after a week on vacation, I was excited to be home where I'd have to cook and clean.

I decided to make up for my insanely unhealthy diet of the past week with a meal packed with lean protein, whole grains, and lots and lots of veggies.  That manifested itself in brown rice with shrimp and sauteed vegetables.

Ingredients (serves 2):

1/2 cup brown rice, prepared as suggested on the package

2 T olive oil

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

24 large shrimp, peeled and deveined and cut into three pieces each

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1.5 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced

1 shallot bulb, minced

White wine or chicken broth

1 medium zucchini, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 cup sugar snap peas, halved crosswise

2 stalks of celery, chopped

Zest from 1 large lemon

Pre-heat olive oil & red pepper flakes in a saute pan over medium heat.  Add shrimp, season with S&P, and saute for a minute or two until pink.  Remove, set aside, and cover.

Reduce heat to medium-low and cook garlic, ginger, and shallot until soft.  Turn up the heat to medium-high, add a few splashes of white wine or chicken broth, add all veggies, and saute for 8-10 minutes until all veggies are crunchy tender.  If the pan dries out during cooking, add another splash of liquid.

When veggies are cooked to desired consistency, add shrimp and cooked rice to the pan and mix all ingredients together until it's all heated through.  Turn off the heat, mix in the lemon zest, and serve!

I adore vacation, but I also like getting back to "normal life", especially when it includes homemade, nutritious, tasty dinners like this one!

Day 247: These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Tonight's dinner comprised of two of my new favorite things:  quinoa and a Moroccan chicken recipe from Epicurious.com.

For the chicken, I followed the Epi.com recipe with the following exceptions:  I made my own harissa, I used only chicken thighs and legs, and I used chicken broth instead of water.  This healthy, easy to make dish is full of flavor.  I guarantee you'll love it.  Click this link for the chicken recipe and see entry #227 "Yay!  I Remember How to Cook!" for the harissa recipe.

I strongly recommend you make some rice, couscous, or something else to soak up all the great sauce the chicken cooks in.  I, of course, went with quinoa - my new favorite grain.

I steamed a cup of quinoa (click here for the best method I've found) and then mixed it into a vinaigrette of 2 T olive oil, the zest and juice of 1 lemon, a 1 tsp of sugar.  Into that, I mixed a bag of defrosted frozen spinach, from which I squeezed all of the liquid.  I also added 3 T of toasted sliced almonds.  Served as a bed underneath the chicken, this little salad did a great job of soaking up all of the delicious sauce and adding some additional nutrition of our meal.

This dinner was so good, I may need to make it again next weekend!  Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

Day 237: Spicy, Simple Sausages

A brief inventory of my fridge, which is always pretty empty towards the end of the week, revealed 2 bell peppers, an onion, and some fresh thyme.  What to do?  Homemade reduced fat sausage and peppers!  All I needed to buy was the meat.

My favorite sausage is Diestel spicy turkey sausage, but I was only willing to visit one store tonight and they didn't have it so I settled for the good old San Francisco fallback, Aidells.  I almost always choose a turkey or chicken sausage since they contain a lot less fat than pork.  Tonight I chose the perfectly spicy chicken with habanero and green chile flavor.

Making sausage and peppers is so easy, making it a great midweek meal, especially if you've purchase pre-cooked sausage.  Pre-heat a pan with olive oil and brown the sausage on all sides.  You can use uncooked sausage if you'd like - just know that you'll have to cook it longer.

Once the sausage is browned, remove it from the pan and set it aside.  Deglaze the pan with either white wine or chicken broth and reduce the heat to medium-low.  Add one thinly sliced yellow onion, two thinly sliced bell peppers (red, yellow, and/or orange), and 3 cloves of minced garlic and saute on medium high heat until soft (7-8 minues).  Reduce heat to medium low, cover the pan, and cook until the veggies are cooked to the desired degree.

Slice the sausages in half lengthwise and add them and whatever juices have collected into the pan.  If you have thyme on hand, throw the leaves from 5-6 sprigs in there as well.  Turn the sausages cut-side down and cover with the pepper and onion mixture.  Cook for another few minutes until the sausage is heated through and serve!

If you try this out with a particular kind of sausage and it turns out great, leave a comment and let me know what flavor I need to try next!

Day 227: Yay! I Remember How to Cook!!

It's been over two weeks since I put on an apron, turned on the stove, or washed a pot or pan.  Fortunately (for me AND my husband), I remembered how to do all of those things and I made a really good dinner tonight!

The inspiration for our meal were the baby carrots we purchased at the farmer's market this weekend.  I knew I wanted to prepare them in a way that would bring out their sweetness - so what to pair that side dish with?  I went with something on the spicy side, knowing that the sweetness and spiciness would enhance and balance each other out.

The carrot side dish I went with was based on a recipe from Epicurious.com but I scaled it back significantly:

 

Ingredients:

1 lb of fresh baby carrots from the farmer's market, whole and unpeeled

2 T olive oil

1/2 T unsalted butter

1/2 T honey

1/4 tsp balsamic vinegar

I followed the recipe's instructions otherwise.

I chose another recipe from Epicurious.com for our entree:  Moroccan Chicken.  I followed the recipe other than these tweaks:

- I purchased a cut up whole chicken, disposing of the neck and the organs

- Instead of 4 cups of water, I used one 14 oz can of chicken broth

- I substituted parsley for the cilantro (read my entrees from Costa Rica for my thoughts on cilantro!)

- I made my own harissa, as I couldn't find it pre-made at the grocery store

I went to two grocery stores, in fact, looking for a jar of harissa.  I panicked at first when I couldn't find it, but then I remembered that several years ago, I took a Moroccan cooking class at NYC's Institute of Culinary Education and we were taught how to make harissa.  The instructor of that class was Myra Kornfeld and this is her recipe:

Harissa:

3/4 ounce dried hot red chili peppers

1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes

1 tsp caraway seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 garlic clove, peeled

1/4 tsp salt

1 T water

4 T olive oil

Remove the stems and seeds from the peppers.  Place the peppers and tomatoes in a small pot covered with water.  Bring to a boil, turn off the heat and let the chiles and tomatoes soften for about 20 minutes (I covered the pot).

Meanwhile, grind the seeds in a spice mill.  Drain peppers/tomatoes and placed all ingredients into a food processor.  Blend until you have a thick paste.  This paste may be refrigerated for months.

All of this came together wonderfully and deliciously.  It was one of the best dinners I've made in awhile.  I made some quinoa to soak up all of the yummy sauce and it was perfect - but you could make couscous or rice instead if you prefer.

Happy cooking!!

Day 184: It's Pronounced KEEN-wah

Quinoa has been all the rage for the past year or two.  This protein packed whole grain is totally up my nutritional alley but oddly enough, I had never given it a taste until tonight.

I get the feeling that quinoa doesn't offer up much flavor of its own but that its tastiness depends on how and with what it is prepared.  Luckily, I found a really good recipe on Epicurious.com and my quinoa dish was infused with lots of yummy fresh lime juice and tossed with black beans and tiny, sweet pear tomatoes.  If you try the recipe yourself, note that I replaced the butter with olive oil and skipped the vegetable oil.  This increased the healthfulness of the dish while not decreasing the delish factor.

Our other side dish was fresh spinach, sauteed in butter with freshly minced oregano and half a sliced shallot.

I mention our main course last because frankly, it wasn't all that.  We had purchased a whole whack of limes recently and I was looking for a way to use them and so I prepared tequila lime chicken.  What saved this recipe was that I soaked the chicken in only half of the marinade and reduced the other half into a sauce that added a ton of extra flavor when drizzled over the dish.

So that was our dinner - the highs and the lows.  And while this is not 365 Days of LUNCH, I do want to mention Michael Chiarello's new restaurant "Bottega" in Yountville.  We had an absolutely lovely and memorable lunch there today.  If you find yourself in wine country, I highly recommend you give it a try for lunch or dinner.

Well, I'm halfway through this blog project now and am looking forward to another 181 days of good food ahead!!

Day 166: I Hate When That Happens

I assure you that this meal is approximately 1 billion times tastier than it looks.  That kind of bums me out.  Anyone know of any good food plating or food styling classes in the Bay Area?

This is actually a dish that I used to make quite often but for some reason, it fell out of my mental recipe box some time ago.  It's easy, delicious, pretty healthy, and great on a cold winter night.

Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 links of uncooked spicy turkey sausage, meat removed from casing

1 medium/large zucchini, sliced into 1/2 inch thick half moons

1 red bell pepper, sliced into strips

1/2 onion, sliced thin

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 T chopped fresh oregano

.5 to 1 cup chicken broth

1 can chopped tomatoes, NOT drained

Heat a stainless steel pan coated with olive oil over medium high heat.  Once hot, add chicken breasts and brown on both sides.  Remove chicken and set aside.  Pour off most of oil from pan.

Pour about 1/4 cup of chicken broth and deglaze the pan.  Add crumbled bits of the sausage to the pan and brown.  When nearly done, add garlic, onion, zucchini, pepper, and oregano and continue to cook, mixing from time to time.  If pan is getting too dry, add a few more drops of broth.

Once all veggies are beginning to get soft, add canned tomatoes and another 1/4 cup of broth and mix.  Push veggies away from middle of pan and return chicken to the pan.  Once chicken has been added to pan, cover and surround it with the veggies.  Simmer for another 10-15 minutes, adding more broth if the liquid seems to be reducing too quickly.

Remove chicken and veggies from pot and reduce sauce by simmering on medium-high heat for a couple of minutes.  Drizzle over the top.

We had some leftover cooked whole wheat pasta from earlier in the week.  We added that to the sauce while it was simmering until it was cooked through.  I hadn't ever done this before, but it added a nice extra dimension to the dish.

So, despite an ugly presentation, this was a tasty meal indeed.  Any tips to make it as pretty as it is tasty are welcome!

Day 152: Memories of San Gennaro

I'll give you one chance to guess why I used to love the New York San Gennaro Festival.  Surely none of you think it's the insane crowds, throngs of tourists, or the silly carnival games.  Of course - it's the food!!

I know this falls into the TMI (too much information) category, but generally speaking, pork sausage just does not agree with me.  Therefore, I would allow myself the indulgence (and afterwards, the torture) only once a year in the form of a sausage and peppers sandwich at San Gennaro.  Of course, that was followed up with a nice, hot, fresh funnel cake topped with powdered sugar.  Yep - the whole outing was pretty much just one giant intestinal disaster.

Anyway - for some reason this week I was thinking about San Gennaro and realized that I could make my own delicious sausage and peppers but in a healthier way that wouldn't kill my digestive system.  I'd use turkey sausage, skip the big giant roll, and of course - omit the funnel cake.

Ingredients (serves 2):

1 onion (or, half of a purple onion and half of a yellow onion)

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

2-3 colored bell peppers, sliced lengthwise (use different colors for better presentation)

4 links of spicy turkey sausage (or sweet, if you do not care for spicy)

Approximately 1/4 cup of white wine (broth may work as well)

Olive oil

Pour a thin coat of olive oil into a stainless steel pan and heat on medium-high heat.  Lay sausages in hot oil and brown on all sides.  Remove sausages and set aside.  

Reduce heat to medium-low and pour in white wine to deglaze pan.  As wine hits the pan, it will sizzle furiously.  Use a wooden spoon or spatula and quickly rub at and release the brown bits at the bottom of the pan.  Add onion and garlic and saute until softened (6-8 minutes).

Add peppers and saute until softened, stirring frequently.  If you're afraid that things might start to burn, throw in a another couple of splashes of white wine.  It'll take awhile for the peppers to soften up, unless you have sliced them very thinly.  Mine weren't all that thin and I believe it took 10-12 minutes.  Covering the pan will speed up cooking, but just make sure you keep an eye on it so that the veggies don't burn or stick to the pan.

Once the vegetables are to the desired softness, slice the sausages in half vertically and add them to the pan with any juices that may have accumulated when you set them aside or when you sliced them.  Mix everything together and continue to cook until sausage is heated through.

This is 6 ingredients, 1 pan, and so easy.  A great mid-week meal solution and not unhealthy if you use a natural turkey sausage and limit the amount of olive oil you add to the pan.  Oh yea - and no tourists.  Bonus!!

Day 140: Bi Bim Bap is Fun to Say!

We recently discovered a yummy Japanese restaurant called Umami a few blocks from our house.  Tonight we returned.

After a bowl of salty edamame, we shared some white tuna tataki in sizzling ponzu sauce.  We had think dish last time and it was so good we had to order it again.  The raw tuna slices are wrapped around each other in a spiral and topped with seaweed and frisee salad.  It's served in a hot iron pan and when the sauce is poured over the top tableside, it sizzles away - cool presentation and very tasty, too.

Next we had a couple of sushi rolls and a couple of slices of salmon sashimi.  But the highlight of the meal was the bi bim bap Korean hot pot, pictured above.  The pot contained finely shredded pork, a scoop of crunchy sticky rice, mushrooms, water chestnuts, thinly sliced carrots, brussels sprouts leaves, and a raw quail egg.  The server poured some spicy sauce over the top and mixed everything together for us.

The dish was extremely rich - I would never have been able to eat the whole thing myself - even without everything else we ate.  But it was the perfect thing to share - warm, spicy, and cozy - perfect on a cool evening.  I loved it.

What dishes comfort you on a cool night?

Day 130: Don't Judge a Book by It's Cover

Poor Osha. Their food is SO good and yet my photos always make it look so unappealing. That's because the decision to go there is usual very last minute and we go straight from work - so I don't have my real camera with me and I'm stuck having to use my camera phone. Normally I give major props to the camera function in the Blackberry Pearl, but it just doesn't do food well. Sorry, Osha!

We are leaving for vacation tonight (gotta love the redeye!) and of course - I am not packed yet so we needed some fast, dependable, and of course - yummy.

We ordered our usual: Pork Larb (mild - which is plenty spicy enough!), Pineapple Fried Rice (comes loaded with chicken, cashews, and shrimp and is SO good), and Chicken Panang (coconut milk curry - can you say yum?).

Osha has several locatins throughout San Francisco - this one on Geary is not much to look at, but they sure know what they're doing with the food!

Day 129: The Great Dinner Experiment

Down with recipes!  Down with cookbooks!  Tonight I made things up as I went along and it was pretty damn good!

We recently discovered this jarred salsa verde, made from tomatillos and limes and some other ingredients.  It's just a little bit spicy with a great fresh taste and was the basis of our chicken dish tonight.

I heated the oven to 400 degrees.  I sliced a couple of chicken breasts in half so that I had four thin slices of breast rather than two fat breasts to ensure quicker cooking.  Then, I spooned a thin layer of salsa into a glass baking dish and then placed the chicken over it in a single layer and set the dish in the oven to bake for about 20 minutes, turning the chicken slices over about half way through.

I also improvised a delicious brussels sprout recipe tonight:

Coat a saute pan with olive oil and heat.  If you like some spice in your food, infuse your oil by throwing in a couple of shakes of red pepper at the start.

Once the oil is hot, add a pound of brussels sprouts, sliced vertically in half.  Turn the sprouts cut side down, sprinkle them with salt,  and leave them alone for a couple of minutes.  Check them from time to time and once they are beginning to brown, stir them up.

Pour in some apple juice or cider so that it's about 1/4 inch deep in the pan.  Add 1 T of butter and 3 smashed cloves of garlic, turn the temperature down to low, cover, and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes.  You want the sprouts to be soft, but not mushy.

The sprouts will absorb the sweetness of the apple juice and the red pepper flakes add just the right amount of heat.  This is a great, low fat, healthy recipe - at least compared to some of the bacon heavy sprouts recipes I've been cooking lately.  You could probably leave out the butter - but we all know - butter makes everything taste better.  For that matter, so does bacon!

Day 123: Election Week Special Part 2 (Buffalo Wings)

Left or right.  Blue or Red.  Donkeys or Elephants.  Whichever way you lean, today was an exciting day to be an American.  The air was absolutely electric here in San Francisco and all day I just looked forward to going home to glue myself to CNN and their funky maps (although I could really do without their overly dramatic "Projection" intro and what the hell was that Will.I.Am hologram thing??  Creepy!).

I planned to be so glued in fact, that cooking dinner was really out of the question.  I managed to whip up a simple salad (greens, tomatoes, bell pepper, roasted beets, and sliced almonds) and then as you can see, we winged it.

We haven't had great luck with wings in SF - not meaty enough - not spicy enough - plain old not tasty enough.  Perhaps this is due to our very high standards given the killer wings back in NYC.  We finally did find some damn good wings and lucky us!  They are less than a 10 minute walk away at Perry's, a popular San Francisco joint for yummy sandwiches, pancakes, burgers, and other basic but necessary dishes!  In addition to perfectly spiced, big fat wings, I would like to hail the chunky, delicious blue cheese dressing that comes with.  Yum.

Of course, I downed some good ole Sam Adams beer tonight.  I great night to be an American, indeed!!

Day 115: Cupboard Scavenger Hunt

Every so often, it's a good idea to rummage through your pantry or cabinets.  Chances are, there are some items in there that you bought on a whim and then never used.  If you're in a bit of a rut as far as cooking dinner goes, go on a little cupboard scavenger hunt sometime soon.  You just may be inspired to make something new that requires minimal additional grocery shopping.

I rummaged through my own cabinets this weekend and stumbled upon a jar of red curry paste.  No idea when or where I purchased it - for all I know, this little jar has moved with me to my past 3 or 4 apartments - so tonight I decided to follow the recipe on the label and wound up with a new and very easy mid-week dinner idea.

Thai Red Curry Shrimp (serves 2):

14 oz can coconut milk (we used light)

1 T red curry paste

1 T fish sauce

2 T brown sugar

1 cup frozen peas

1/3 cup water

1/2 lb shrimp (shelled)

Place the coconut milk and curry paste in a large saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes on medium heat.

Add fish sauce, sugar, peas, and water and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in shrimp and continue cooking for about 5 minutes, or until shrimp are cooked through.

Garnish with fresh basil or cilantro, if you desire.  Serve over rice (I used brown rice).

The dish was okay.  I would like to try it again, but substituting chicken for shrimp and adding some thinly sliced red bell pepper.   If you like things extra spicy, add a bit more curry paste - but remember, you can always add more, but you can't take it away!

Rummage through your cabinets soon - let me know if you find anything interesting and what you do with it!