Seafood Laksa

This is one of those meals where if you have fresh seafood you should take advantage of it. This Thai meal allows the seafood to have front and center stage.

Allow 200grams of mixed seafood per person (Fresh fresh fresh is all I can say on this) - we used a mixture of mussles, calimari and fish in this paricular batch
Fresh chinese egg noodles or rice noodles if preferred
750 mls coconut milk
750 mls chicken stock
Laksa Paste (allow 1 tbsp per person)
fish sauce to season
1 tsp palm sugar
Laksa leaf (also called Vietnamese mint)
100 gms bean sprouts
crispy shallots
wedges of lime
fresh cilantro leaves
chopped tomatoes

Skim the thick cream off the top of the coconut milk.  Heat the cream in a large saucepan, add laksa paste, allowing one tablespoon per person. 
Fry gently until fragrant, about 5 minutes.  Add remaining coconut milk and chicken stock.  Bring to the boil.

Add palm sugar and fish sauce.  Add seafood, reduce heat and poach gently until cooked. (once it is simmering it is done!)

Blance noodles in boiling water and divide between the serving bowls.
Pour on laksa and garnish with sprouts, shallots, lime wedges, laksa leaf, cilantro and tomatoes. It sounds like alot to garnish but every little ingredients has their part to play in layering flavors and creating this beautiful soup.

Garam Masala

I have recently begun branching out to "Indian" flavors and combinations, I love the new food network star Aarti Sequira. She has great ideas for changing up common foods with Indian enhancements. However in my branching out I discovered that my local food stores do not stock the real Indian spice mix of Garam Masala. Here is the spice blend I have taken to using. You might as well mix up a double or triple batch and store it in a labeled container.

4 tbsps coriander seeds

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp black peppercorns

1 ½ tsps black cumin seeds (shahjeera)

1 ½ tsps dry ginger

¾ tsp black cardamom (3-4 large pods approx)

¾ tsp cloves

¾ tsp cinnamon (2 X 1” pieces)

¾ tsp crushed bay leaves

Heat a heavy skillet on a medium flame and gently roast all ingredients (leave cardamom in its pods till later) except the dry ginger, till they turn a few shades darker. Stir occasionally. Do not be tempted to speed up the process by turning up the heat as the spices will burn on the outside and remain raw on the inside.

When the spices are roasted turn off the heat and allow them to cool.

Once cooled, remove the cardamom seeds from their skins and mix them back with all the other roasted spices.

Grind them all together, to a fine powder in a clean, dry coffee grinder or spice grinder

Store in an air-tight container in a cool, dark place.



Massaman Beef Curry with Potato

Perfect for a cold winter day. It's worth stinking up your house for!  This hearty curry with mild flavors is very kid friendly.  My family gobble it up.

Ingredients
2 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
approx 750 grams of beef
1 large red onion, chopped
4 small potatoes or 2 large chopped to bite size
2 cans coconut milk (Do not shake your can... let it sit and seperate in your fridge before cooking)
1 cup massaman curry paste (See recipe on blog) - variations and ratios may be different depending on your paste. This recipe is based on the flavors in the paste I make myself with the recipe shown below
1/2 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts
half cup of shaved palm sugar (Substitute dark brown sugar if you cannot access palm sugar)
7 Tablespoons fish sauce
quarter cup of tamarind water

Directions
Heat oil in wok and sear meat. 
Add onion, cook about 1-2 minutes.
Add enough water to cover, bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the potatoes, cover and simmer until potatoes are partially cooked.
Strain out meat and vegetables, reserve broth.

Place thick cream from the coconut milk in wok, stir in curry paste, cook for 2 minutes. 
Mix in potatoes, meat and peanuts.  Stir in reserved coconut milk, add sugar, fish sauce and tamarind.
Stir until sugar is dissolved.  If necessary, stir in as much of the reserved broth to thin the sauce to your taste. Simmer until the potatoes are cooked through.
This curry taste almost better the next day, the flavors sit and marry in the fridge. Reheat gently.

Massaman Curry Paste

This mild curry, named after the Muslim people in southern Thailand, is spiced with cardamom, cloves and cinnamon, and used for hearty stew-like dishes.

It is one of the mildest and most fragrant of the Thai curries.

Ingredients

10 gms of dried red chilis -  I used 1 huge pod. Pick your chili dependant on the heat you want.

2 cardamom pods, roasted ( no stores in my area have cardamom pods, I opted to use 1/2 tsp ground dried cardamom).

1 1/4 teaspoon whole cumin seed, roasted

1 1/2 tablespoon whole coriander seed, roasted

1 1/2 teaspoons shrimp paste, roasted

1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

2 cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 stalk lemon grass, finely sliced

1 tablespoon finely chopped, peeled galangal (Substitute ginger root if you cannot find galangal)

1/4 cup fresh chopped garlic

third cup chopped red onion

Soak chilis in warm water.

Line a tray with tin foil. Put spices  cardamom, cumin, coriander, and shrimp paste on tray and roast in oven until fragrant.

Combine peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon and roasted spices, grind in mortar and pestal for best results,... or if you don't have one put them in a zip lock bag and pound with flat side of a mallet until all are ground up and combined.

Finely chop remaining ingredients and transfer to food processor with the ground spices and shrimp paste.

Process to a paste using some of the soaking water if necessary.

Store in the fridge. Keep sup to 2 weeks. Or freeze in ice cube tray.