On this evening's adventure, frankly, we went all over the place.
It was partially inspired by a newly-arrived (Amazon-bought) cookbook (Steamy
Kitchen’s Healthy Asian Favorites by Jaden Hair) and partly by the fact that
it's a 3-day weekend so we threw all caution to the wind and added monkey bread from scratch to
our line-up.
Aside from the monkey bread, the tale of
which we shall tell in due time, we made kimchi(!), curry, and a napa cabbage
salad.
First, for the quick kimchi.
Ingredients:
1 head napa cabbage
4 tbsp salt
2 green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic (we used 4)
1 tsp grated fresh ginger (we used a
tablespoon instead)
2 tbsp hot chili paste
½ cup rice vinegar
2 tsp sugar
We actually halved this recipe and used the other half the napa cabbage for our salad. We doubled the garlic, however, to 4
cloves, and used a tablespoon of ginger instead of the teaspoon. Finally, since
we didn't have chili paste, we used sriracha - and it worked just as well.
Directions:
Remove and discard outer leaves and the
tough inner core of the napa cabbage. Rinse all the leaves. Shred it using a
sharp kitchen knife - don't use a grater.
In a large bowl, toss cabbage with salt
and let it sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. After that, rinse cabbage
(from the salt) and squeeze all the water out.
Toss the cabbage with all remaining
ingredients and let it sit for at least an hour in the fridge (you're supposed
to be able to eat it immediately, hence the quick kimchi, but we really
recommend letting the flavors soak in).
On to the curry.
Ingredients:
1 tsp cooking oil
2 tbsp Thai red curry paste
1 can of coconut milk
½ red bell pepper
½ yellow bell pepper
1 small tomato
8 ounces firm tofu, cut into 1in cubes
8 fresh basil leaves
Cooked rice, to serve
We added all sorts of things to this
recipe and doubled the whole thing. We added some mushrooms, used a green
pepper instead of a yellow, added an onion (who makes curry without an
onion??), added some potato, and threw out the tomato.
Directions:
Although the cookbook didn't tell us to do
this, we definitely drained our tofu first. To drain tofu, cut longways and wrap in paper towels. Put under a
heavy press and let it sit for at least a half hour.
Heat the pan (we recommend a wok) over
medium heat. Add the oil and then the red curry paste, frying it for about 30
seconds. Pour in a few tablespoons of coconut milk and mix. Add the garlic and
ginger, and let cook for a bit. Add the rest of the coconut milk, the tofu, and
all the vegetables.
Simmer until vegetables are cooked, then
add fresh basil before serving.
If you're using potato in your curry, we
recommend peeling, cubing, and then boiling it first. Then add it to your curry
at the very end - that ensures you have thoroughly
cooked potato in your curry.
On another note, we didn't love this
recipe. Aside from the heat of the curry paste there was very little flavor and
it needed salt, at a minimum. We would recommend looking elsewhere for a
spectacular curry.
Napa cabbage salad
Ingredients (these are what we actually
used, not what the original recipe called for, half of which we didn't have)
1/2 head of napa cabbage, shredded
1/4 of a cup of white onion,
julienned
2 tbsp (or more) of sesame seeds
1 cup almonds (it calls for slivered but
we just chopped up some we had whole)
Roughly crushed pita chips (amount to taste - this is your crunch)
Dressing:
1/8 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup white sugar (add more if you like
sweeter dressing)
1 tbsp soy sauce
Directions:
In a pan, fry the almonds and sesame seeds
in some butter (you're supposed to toast them, but to hell with toasting,
butter is better). Combine dressing ingredients in a saucepan and let them boil
for one minute. Set aside and cool until it's no longer too hot to touch (you
should wait until it's cooler, but we didn't and it tasted real good).
Throw together all ingredients and
dressing, and sprinkle pita chips on top in individual bowls (whatever you do,
don't let the pita chips get soggy!!!!)
Deeeeeeeeee-licious.
(Original recipe found here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/napa-cabbage-salad/)
We now come to the epic battle (and
conclusion) of our evening's program.
We did not, in fact, end it with monkey
bread in hand. We ended it with strips of fried dough probably more delicious
(but still not monkey bread) instead.
Basically - our dough didn't rise (at ALL)
even after two poundings so we hit the interwebs which told us to roll it out
thing and fry the hell out of it on the stovetop. We then sprinkled it with a
mixture of brown sugar, walnuts and cinnamon - patiently waiting on becoming
monkey bread - and ate it up. Honestly - we don't think we can ever recreate
this adventure again, so we're going to keep the recipe a mystery and taunt you
with pictures.
