Coconut Curry Chicken

 

Coconut Curry Chicken

I do love a good curry and this one is one of my favorites. I don’t even remember where I picked up the recipe from. I have it written down on a piece of notebook paper in my file of favorite recipes.

This dish is not only comfort food, it’s a meal in one dish so a definite win in my book.

I normally serve this one over Basmati rice, you can try other varieties of rice if you wish but the combination of the basmati with this particular curry is so good.

If you haven’t made any curry dishes at home before this is a nice easy one to try. This recipe calls for curry powder which most of the major spice brands have available. Each brand is a bit different so try a few to pick your favorite, or do like I do and make your own. I found several recipes online and came up with my favorite blend which I make a few times a year and keep in my spice cabinet so it is ready to use.

Start by cooking the rice, it is going to the longest and if it does finish before you are ready for it, it is very patient and will wait covered in the pan for a while.

As for the curry portion of the meal, start by cooking the kale, I know it looks like a lot of kale for 2 servings but like any green it is going to cook down a lot. Simply cook it in some oil over a medium to medium high heat until it is wilted down and has become tender. Then set it aside while you cook the chicken.

For the chicken I gave a range for the amount because firs this is a very forgiving recipe and I know that chicken breasts come in all sizes. Also you can vary the amount of chicken to suit appetite and or budget in this dish.

Do make sure you blot off as much moisture as possible with a paper towel before seasoning the chicken prior to cooking. This will speed up the browning of the meat.

Cook the chicken pieces over medium to medium-high heat until cooked through. The add the tomato paste and seasonings and allow them to heat up until you smell them. Add in some water to de-glaze the pan and bring everything together.

Then add the coconut milk, a little sugar and some butter and cook the sauce (simmering for about 5 minutes) to slightly thicken it.

Add the cooked kale and sour cream, stir everything together and cook until heated through.

Divide the rice between two large bowls. Top with the curry mixture and enjoy.

You can find a downloadable/printable version of this recipe here.

Coconut Curry Chicken

½ cup basmati rice

¾ cup water

4 oz (about ½ a bunch) Kale, stems   removed and leave cut in bite size pieces

8 to 12 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast cut in bite size pieces

3 Tablespoons tomato paste

1 Tablespoon curry powder

1 teaspoon paprika

chili flakes, to taste

¼ cup water

¾ cup coconut milk (about ½ a regular size can)

1 Tablespoon butter

2 teaspoons sugar

2 Tablespoon sour cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Vegetable oil for cooking

In a small saucepan bring the rice, a pinch of salt, and ¾ cup water to a boil. Cover the pan, turn to low and cook for 15 to 20 minutes until rice is cooked and water is absorbed.

Meanwhile-

In a large skillet heat some vegetable oil and add the cut up kale leaves, sprinkle with a bit of salt. Cook over medium to medium-high heat stirring occasionally until the leaves wilt down and are tender, about 5 to 10 minutes. Move the cooked kale to a bowl and set aside.

 

Pat the chicken pieces dry with a paper towel and season generously with salt and pepper.

 

 

 

Heat some more vegetable oil in the same skillet and add the chicken. Cook over medium to medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until cooked through about 5 or 6 minutes.

 

 

Stir in the tomato paste, curry powder, paprika and a pinch of the chili flakes (use as much or as little of the chili flakes as you desire). Cook for a minute of so until the spices become fragrant.

 

Add the ¼ cup water to de-glaze the pan and thin the tomato paste.

 

 

 

Stir in the coconut milk, butter and sugar and stir to combine with the rest of the mixture in the skillet. Bring to a simmer and cook at a simmer for about 5 minutes to slightly thicken the sauce.

 

 Add the Kale along with the sour cream, stir to combine, cook just long enough to bring everything up to temperature. Taste and season with salt and/or pepper as needed.

Divide the cooked rice between two large bowls and top with the curry mixture.

Sprinkle a few more chili flakes over the top if desired.

Cook the Cookbook Project- week 13

 

This week the menu was a fun one featuring a meat and vegetable pie and a salad.

Overall the menu was excellent.

To start the meal the menu called for a glass of grapefruit juice to be served. My mom used to serve a glass of juice to start the meal off on a regular basis but her go to was always either plain tomato or more often some V-8. I don’t remember her ever serving a different juice than those at dinner. We did have grapefruit juice at breakfast a lot though.

The meat and vegetable pie took a while to make since it was basically just a beef stew (with no potatoes) that was then transferred to a casserole dish, topped with some biscuits and baked long enough to bake the biscuits. My only critic was that in my opinion the gravy portion needed to be thickened to make it a better dish. Over all I really enjoyed the dish and I think I will be working on a version of my own to post on here in the future.

The salad was really good and while I have made similar ones in the past I never think to do so. It was just a very basic green salad with some bacon tossed in. The dressing was then made using the hot bacon fat as the oil portion and poured hot over the salad. Very yummy indeed.

The menu called for more biscuits to be served alongside the meal. The pie recipe called for the cook to use the recipe on a box of Bisquick to make the topping and the rest of the batch to be baked alongside. I did decide to skip the jelly for the biscuit because I wasn’t really in the mood. Especially right after the tart juice.

The dessert this week was called a “Chocolate Blanc Mange” I was very intrigued because the name of the dish was unfamiliar to me. After looking over the recipe and then doing a Google search for more info I now know that it is a very thick pudding that is thickened with just cornstarch. It is very smooth and silky. It was very easy to make with just a few ingredients that are normally in my kitchen.

 

 

So what are my thoughts this week? I have to say this menu did not have the familiar feelings I’ve gotten from a lot of the others. I don’t think that other than the fact my mom did serve juice sometimes and she made Bisquick biscuits pretty often. I don’t remember my mom making the recipes that were in the menu this week. I still am finding most of the recipes to be very bland a lot of the time and these recipes were no different in that respect. Also the biscuits on the side in addition to the ones on top of the pie seemed like a lot, but also much like what my mom served back in the day.

Cook the Cookbook Project- week 12

 

Week 12 was a page out of my mom’s meal planning for sure. I know we ate a very similar menu on a regular basis when I was growing up. The only real difference would have been my mom would have just heated the green beans plain and not made a salad out of them. Other than that small detail this was so very familiar to me and took me back in time.

The macaroni and cheese was made the same way she made hers. I remember that so vividly from my childhood. It is very different from how I make the same dish though. And to be truthful I prefer how I make it. I mean it was cool to eat this version again but I will be sticking with my recipe in the future.

The “Mexican Green Bean Salad” was simply cooked french style green beans with a bit of chopped onion added and marinated in some oil and vinegar dressing. Since the recipe simply stated “cooked” I went with the canned version. My mom always had a couple of cases of canned green beans in the cupboard to serve. She stocked up whenever the grocery store had their case sales so we ate a lot of canned green beans. Back in the day like I said she wouldn’t have fussed with the marinating step she would have just heated them up.

Stewed tomatoes, another item she stocked up on at those case sales. I remember how much I hated those things. I made a discovery this week with this menu- I still hate them. Unfortunately for me growing up my parents loved them and they were on the table at least every other week…..

Of course the menu called for some bread, this time it just states a crusty bread and since I was lazy this week mine came from the grocery store. Mom always had bread on the table, every meal every day.

For dessert this week the menu called for fresh fruit in season. I did pick up a couple of options but by the time I made my way through the rest of dinner I was stuffed so the fruit will go with my meals the next few days.

Since this chapter in the book is all about eating cheaply the meals are fairly plain, even compared to some of the other menus in the book. But at the same time they are very filling. I think to cater to staying on budget and filling bellies. I did enjoy the menu this week (except those stewed tomatoes….LOL) and this I think more than any other menu struck that memory area of my brain. Like is said my mom would have served this same menu on a regular basis. 

Next week it looks like menu features a meat and vegetable pie so I am looking forward to that one too.

I do want to say thank you for reading my ramblings about this adventure in the this cookbook. I am having a lot of fun and I look forward to doing the menus each week and to sharing my thoughts about them with you.

Lazy Lasagna

 

Today I wanted to share a really easy and quick casserole recipe that I’ve been playing with for a while now. It’s called Lazy Lasagna and with this recipe you can get dinner on the table in about 30 minutes. It has all the main parts of lasagna without all the fussy layering. Perfect for a busy day.

To start just boil some egg noodles then mix them with your favorite tomato based pasta sauce and some cheese. Put it all in a greased casserole dish top with more cheese and bake. It doesn’t get simpler than that.

You can find a downloadable/printable version of this recipe here.

Lazy Lasagna

2 cups dry egg noodles

1 cup tomato based pasta sauce

¾ cup shredded Mozzarella cheese

½ cup cottage cheese

2 Tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Cook the noodles according to directions on package.

Meanwhile put the pasta sauce to a microwave safe bowl and heat just until warmed a bit.

Add the shredded Mozzarella cheese and the cottage cheese to the sauce.

When noodles are cooked drain well and add to the sauce mixture. Stir to combine.

 

Transfer noodle mixture to a well greased 4 cup casserole dish.

 

 

Top with the shredded Parmesan cheese.

 

 

 

 

Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until hot and beginning to bubble.

Cook the Cookbook Project- week 11

 

This week I decided it was going to be necessary to move ahead in the book to another chapter. I know I have barely done any recipes from the “Regional Meals” chapter but I have had too many menus in the chapter that I can’t get the things I need to cook them from my little neighborhood grocery store.

I looked at several of the menus and currently key components were not available. Some of them I know will come in as the year passes. For instance one menu is based on a corned beef, my store will have those next month or possibly in a couple of weeks but not now. Same with the ribs from another menu, in summer no problems, middle of winter not a rib to be found.

Then there are the menus that call for things I know I haven’t seen since I moved here. Those I will try to find at larger stores in the area or online. I will probably have to skip some of them though.

I am going to sit down with the book and the notebook I keep in my purse and make a list of all the things I want to track down so I can keep my eyes open for them.

Now onto today’s menu, this is the first menu in the chapter “Pennywise Dinners” and I was so happy to make it. I love a good meatloaf! There was actually a choice to make right off the bat they listed it as meatloaf or ham loaf. Both recipes were on the page and I might have to go back and make the other one some day. But this meatloaf resembled the ones I my mom used to make when I was growing up so I went with it. The big difference from the ones she made and this one was the meat mixture was equal parts ground beef and ground pork. She always used just ground beef, probably because we grew our own beef and that was what was always in the freezer. I other than the meat change it was pretty much what I remember her making. And it was excellent and brought back a lot of memories for me.

The second choice in the menu was either a baked potato or scalloped potatoes. I am very much a fan of a good baked potato so I went that way.

Also on the menu was creamed spinach, something I don’t think I even tasted until I was an adult and yes I do really like it. I haven’t made it in years but I really should.

The menu was missing the bread component of the most of the other menus I have made. However, it did have apple wedges and celery sticks on the menu along with everything else. I admit that confused me a bit, I mean why we already had the spinach for a veggie. Maybe because this chapter is all about saving money and those are/were cheaper than meat and would fill you up to make less food be more satisfying. I’m not sure but that is what I am assuming.

For the dessert I was super excited, I know it is just a jello dessert but it is a variation of one my mom made all the time. For this menu it was made with raspberry jello, vanilla ice cream and frozen raspberries. My mom made the same dish but with orange jello and canned mandarin oranges. I am surprised she didn’t make this one since she loved raspberries so much. I know she would have loved it.

This menu was so much a trip down memory lane in flavors, some of these dishes I do make on a fairly regular basis but I have my way of making them that I have evolved over many years of cooking. The versions that I made for this menu could have come out of my mom’s kitchen back in my childhood. It was a wonderful way to revisit a simpler time when things seemed to make a lot more sense than they do right now.

I peeked at the next page in the book and one of my all time favorite dishes is the star of the show, Macaroni and Cheese, but the again the way mom made it and not the way I make it. So I am excited to eat that one next week.