Khao Soi

Almost every restaurant we walked by in Chiang Mai had gorgeous, colourful menus outside to look through, so it was easy to decide where we wanted to eat, and what we wanted to order.

But, I'll make it even easier - if you ever decide to visit order the khao soi!

Northern Thai food is different than the Thai food you typically get in North America.  The cuisine is strongly influenced by Burma/Myanmar, and Laos, and the most popular dish is khao soi, which can be found on pretty much every menu.

We actually first tried khao soi in Las Vegas at Lotus of Siam, which was the only Thai restaurant we had ever seen it at.  We fell in love with it, and decided to visit Chiang Mai because of this amazing dish.

The broth is a combination of a Thai red curry with an Indian curry, and then it has noodles, meat (usually chicken, but you can also get beef or pork), and crispy egg noodles on top.  It is served with a plate of pickled veggies, shallot, chilies, and lime, and all of these things need to be added for the full taste experience.  It is the epitome of flavour, and we could not stop eating it.

After eating khao soi at numerous restaurants, we have to say our favourites were from Khao Soi Khun Yai:

And Khao Soi Mae Sai:

Both are little outdoor restaurants that have been there forever, and are frequented mostly by locals.  And at $1.75 a bowl, you might just need to go back for seconds.

I miss khao soi already, but you better believe we'll be working to perfect this dish at home.

How is your week going?

Have you ever traveled somewhere specifically for the food?

If you had to pick one place to travel to, just based on the cuisine, where would you go?

Easy Slow-Cooker Butter Chicken

Last week I made an easy slow-cooker butter chicken.  The flavours are mild, so it would be good for someone who is just getting into Indian food.  It's not the most authentic, elaborate Indian food we've ever made, but it's quick to throw together and fool-proof, and we'll definitely make it again if we need something that's no-fuss. 

You start by throwing 3 T of flour, 1 T of garam masala, 1 tsp cumin, and 1 tsp curry powder into a slow cooker:

Then add 3 lbs of chicken thighs (quartered) and toss to coat:

Add 1/2 cup of ground cashews:

Then add 1 small chopped onion, 4 chopped garlic cloves, 1 seeded and chopped jalapeno (I used a red one), and chopped ginger (I used 3-4 T).

Next add 2 seeded and chopped tomatoes:

2 T of tomato paste:

And 3/4 cup of cream:

I seasoned it a bit with salt and pepper before cooking, but added more later on.  The recipe says to cook it on low for 4 hours, although I turned it up to high for a while, and also probably cooked it for 4.5 hours total. 

A bit more salt and pepper to taste (salt makes a big difference - don't skip it).  Once it was done I stirred in 3/4 cup of Greek yogurt:

We garnished it with cilantro and served it over basmati rice:

The best thing about this recipe is that you don't have to pre-cook anything; you just throw it all into the slow cooker, and ta-da, it's done!

As I mentioned before, this is a very mild curry/butter chicken.  We're usually fans of much stronger flavours, so we'll likely tweak the recipe a bit the next time we make it.  That being said, it's definitely good, and was even better the next day.

You can find the recipe here on the Food Network site.

Do you use a slow-cooker?  Have you ever made butter chicken or a curry in it?  What have you been cooking lately?

Vegetarian Meal #7 of 10, and a LARA bar!!

Good evening! I hope everyone had a good Monday, back at the daily grind! Mine was pretty good - it was nice outside, so that was something to smile about.

Before I forget, last night I ate 2 scrambled eggs with hot sauce on them. I was craving eggs for some reason, so I think it meant I needed protein:

Here are my eats from today ...

Breakfast:

• Blueberry/ Banana smoothie (1/2 cup frozen blueberries, 1 banana, 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze).
• Glo-bar

I didn't have any thing to pack for lunch, so I had to run out. I went to Extreme Pita, and got a pita pizza with black olives, bruschetta mix, mushrooms, and mozzarella:

I also had about 4 pita chips with hummus:

After work I had to run to the university to do some work. I ate my VERY FIRST Lara bar on the way!! I tried the pecan pie flavour:

Now, I am not one to eat a lot of store bought bars ... typically because the ingredient list scares me. I always read the labels of products, and I try to find foods that have the least amount of ingredients with most, if not all of them, recognizable to me. The ingredient list on the back of this Lara Bar blew-my-mind in 1 millions ways. Check this out:

In case you can't read that ... it says "Ingredients - Dates, Pecans, Almonds."
That is insane. And amazing. LOVE it! Now that is a "whole food" bar. I am officially a fan!

It tasted great too :-)

Dinner today was Vegetarian Recipe #7 of 10.

Indian Curry with Chickpeas and Mango

This is seriously the easiest curry dish I have ever made. And it was delicious.

Ingredients:
1 - 14 oz can of chickpeas, drained
2 fresh tomatoes, chopped (or 1 - 14 oz can)
1/2 cucumber, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup coconut milk
2 T red curry paste (Patak's mild curry)
1 mango, chopped
1 T oil



Directions:

• Heat the oil in a large, deep pan
• Add the onions and simmer until translucent

• Add the curry paste and simmer for 1 minute

• Add the coconut milk and chickpeas and simmer for a couple minutes

• Then add the cucumber and tomatoes and simmer another couple minutes

• Add the mango and let simmer until the mango is warm

Serve over rice and enjoy!

My portion:

I cannot remember where I found this recipe - it might have been a blog ... if this is from your blog, please let me know and I will give you credit! I printed it, and now I don't know where I got it. The paper says vegweb.com, so it must have originally come from there.

The hubby is nagging me to come watch TV with him ... he wants to try out my new popcorn maker that I won, and I told him he was to wait for me so that he can share with me :-) I think we will make a small batch with some yummy butter!!!

What do you put on your popcorn?

Tuesday's Eats and Vegetarian Meal #4 of 10

Good evening everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Tuesday! Today was another busy day of work, and then straight to the lab to run participants through my experiment.

This morning I woke up with absolutely NO appetite - I guess I ate too much last night! Breakfast was a single egg on a piece of toasted rye bread:

Mid-morning snack was a small glo-bar:

Lunch today was turkey noodle soup!! My hubby made the broth last night, and then finished it up with the noodles this morning and packed me some for lunch :-)

I also had one of these:

After work I drove straight to the university to work in the lab. I had this on the way there:

Dinner tonight was the 4th recipe of 10 vegetarian recipes this month. I am trying to make things that use a variety of vegetarian proteins (so far I have used kidney beans, black beans, lentils and today, tofu). I am also trying to avoid making pasta, since that often seems to be a fall back "vegetarian" recipe, and basically it is just too easy. I hate when the only veggie option on a menu is a pasta dish.

Coconut Curry Tofu

Ingredients:
- 2 bunches green onions (chop white parts finely, and chop green into 2 inch pieces)
- 1 (14 oz) can light coconut milk
- 1/4 cup soy sauce, divided
- 1/2 tsp brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp curry powder
- 1 tsp minced fresh ginger
- 2 tsp chili paste
- 1 lb firm tofu, cut into 3/4 inch pieces
- 4 roma tomatoes, chopped
- 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
- 1 T dried basil
- 4 cups chopped bok choy
- salt to taste

• In a large skillet, over med. heat, mix coconut milk, 3 T soy sauce, brown sugar, curry powder, ginger and Chili paste. Bring to boil.

• Stir tofu, tomatoes, yellow pepper, and some of the finely chopped green onions into the skillet. Cover, cook 5 minutes, stir occasionally.

• Mix in basil and bok choy

• Season with salt and remaining soy sauce. Continue cooking 5 minutes, or until veggies are tender but crisp. Garnish with remaining green onions.

My portion:

The only thing that would have made this curry better would be if it had been served on rice - I wasn't thinking obviously. All in all ... it was awesome!

Do you like curries? What is your favourite kind?