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.

The Surf & Turf Burger

Check back tommorow for the recipe !

Alyses' Super Satisfying Taco Soup

I Have tried many taco soups and this is by far the most family friendly and satisfying. 

Perfect for a cold winter day and it only takes me 15 minutes to cook it, fantastic for a busy day at work or school.

Ingredients
1 pound beef mince (Ground Beef) - I prefer to use extra lean.
1 Cheesy Taco seasoning packet - If you don't have that flavor at your store simply choose the regular taco seasoning with what heat you want.. it's best to go with mild for young families.
1  can corn with liquid
1 can beans of your choice rinsed and drained
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
2 cans cream of potato soup
For Topping
Grated Cheese
Sour Cream
Tortilla Chips

Directions
In a deep frypan or soup pot, brown your mince.
Sprinkle seasoning directly on meat, stir through.
Add remaining ingredients and stir through. Stir while it's on the stove until it's heated and bubblig gently all the way through.
Serve immediately with toppings of your choice. I love to use tortilla chips as my spoon.

BBQ'd Thai Coriander Garlic Lime Chicken

This flavor packed marinade is not for the weak in tastebuds.

Grilled slow and low for perfect juiciness!

Ingredients

3 Tbspoons Finely chopped garlic

4 Tbsp finely chopped coriander (Cilantro)

1 1/2 tbsp Oyster Sauce

2 splashes fish sauce

1 lime

1 tbsp oyster sauce for extra basting while grilling

Vegetable Oil

Create the following marinade for the chicken.

Finely chop all the garlic and coriander.  If you have a mortar and pestal then use it to pound the ingredients into a paste. If not use the flat back of a large knife to press and smear the ingredients together.  Add salt and pepper (if you want it spicy add more pepper).
Once paste is juicy and well smooshed together add in 1 1/2 tbsp of Oyster sauce and the spashes of fish sauce. Mix together.
Using your hands (it's really the only way to do this) smear all the paste evenly over the chicken pieces. I used 2 skinless chicken breasts and 2 drumsticks with the skin on, just for a little variety, and also convenience - it was the only chicken I had in the fridge. You can use whatever you like. Once covered in marinade squeeze the juice from half lime over the top of the meat. (Put other half of lime aside to use later)
Place in an airtight container and store in the fridge for at least an hour.

When you are ready to grill heat the BBQ, and then reduce the temperature to medium low. lightly grease the grill and place chicken trying to keep as much of the marinade on as possible.

Cook for approximately 25 minutes or until completely cooked through. While cooking watch closely and turn and baste with remaining oyster sauce, I also drizzled some vegetable oil over them about halfway through the cooking time . When done squeeze extra lime juice over the top to your taste.

                                           Serve with a salad or side of vegetable stirfry noodles.

Peachy Cream Cobbler

This is my absolute favorite cobbler recipe. Peaches baked with cream cheese, cake and heavy cream - what could be better on a cold winter night.

Ingredients

2 large cans sliced peaches (or approx 5 cups of your own home-canned peaches)

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 8oz package cream cheese

1 box yellow cake mix

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup butter

1/2 pint heavy whipping cream

Directions

Pre-Heat oven to 350 F.

Spray a 9x11 glass casserole dish with non stick spray.

Beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar together until fully combined

Drain the peaches and pour them into the bottom of the greased dish.

Using a spoon dollop the cream cheese across the peaches.

Pour the cake mix evenly over the top of the peaches and cream cheese. This will completely cover the peaches.

Sprinkle the cinnamon evenly across the cake mix.

Slice the butter into chunks distribute them on top of the cake mix.

pour over the heavy cream.

Place in the oven and cook for 40-60 minutes. Until golden brown on top and cake has cooked.

After removing from the oven allow the cobbler to "set-up" for 10 minutes before serving.

Serve warm with Vanilla icecream.

Aussie Trifle Twist

This is a recipe based on the traditional Australian trifle. Growing up trifle always consisted of Fresh whipped (unsweetened) cream, canned fruit salad, and sponge cake. This adaption is a little more elegant looking than the version I had as a child and tastes super fresh. (no canned fruit!)

So far this recipe has been a big hit.

Sorry there is no picture, I will post one when I make this again

Ingredients

approx 3 Butter/pound cake cut into large cubes

(sponge cake if you can get your hands on it)

For Berry Layer

1 punnet blackberries

1 punnet raspberries

2 large (or 4 small) punnets of Strawberries

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

For Cream Layers

2 8oz packages cream cheese softened

1 1/2 cups milk

1 pckg cheesecake flavored jello instant pudding

2 Pints Heavy Whipping Cream (1 of those big

1 cup white sugar

Directions

Prepare your berries the night before you want to put this dessert together.

Slice strawberries thinly, place all the berries in a large container, mixing evenly. Sprinkle half the sugar over the top of the berries, mix through.  Pour in 2 cups of cold water or approximately enough to have them almost submerged. Mix gently .  Pour the other half of sugar over the berries and once again mix. You want to make sure every berry recieve the sugary moisture.

Refridgerate overnight, stirring a couple times to keep covering the berries in the sauce you are creating.

For the cream layers you are going to be creating 2 different mixtures. One is just a plain whipped cream (for that good old fashioned traditional trifle flavor) and the other is a cheesecake flavored cream to kick it up a bit.

Split the whipping cream into two seperate bowls. Beat them both until they are completely whipped. Add vanilla into one of the bowls.

In a large mixing bowl combine the pudding and milk.  Beat in the softened cream cheese into the pudding mixture.  Quickly fold it into the cream with no vanilla, until it is completely incorporated.

In your trifle dish (this is usually just a very large circular glass bowl) layer the bottom of your dish with cake. The put a layer of berries, spooning on some of the juices to help moisten the cake. (just be sure to save enough juices for the other layers)

Smooth on a generous layer of cream cheese/pudding mixture.

Put a layer of cake.  Berries & Juice, and then a layer of the plain whipped cream. Another layer of Cake, Berries, continue in this pattern until you reach the top of your bowl.

Place remaining cream cheese mixture into a zip lock back. Cut the end to form a circular shape for piping.

Pipe large circular dobs of the mixture edge to edge around the outer rim of your bowl working your way gradually in until the entire top of the bowl is covered.

Set in the fridge for 2 hours before serving. The pudding in the cream will make this very firm once it settles in the fridge.

Enjoy.