Pad Thai

My daughter found this recipe and modified it.  It's pretty quick to make and very tasty.  It needs "instant stir fry noodles", which I found under the brand name Six Fortune.  They are the kind of noodle you get in Ichiban or Mr Noodles, you could use two packages of that.


1-2 chicken breasts, thinly sliced
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 onion, chopped
1 cup chopped red, green and/or orange peppers
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 can coconut milk
1/4 cup cashews (or peanuts)
1 lime, juiced
4 tbsp fish sauce
5 tbsp brown sugar
red rooster hot sauce
3-4 cups water or chicken broth
1/2 package instant stir fry noodles

Marinate chicken in soy sauce and cornstarch while chopping veggies.  Mix coconut milk, lime juice, sugar, fish sauce and hot sauce in small bowl or cup.  Boil water or broth and cook noodles 2-3 minutes. Drain and reserve liquid.  Heat oil in wok or large frying pan.  Stir fry chicken, remove from wok, then fry veggies.  Add sauce, noodles and chicken.  You might want to add some of the noodle-cooking liquid, depending on how soupy you like it, and sprinkle with cashews.

I forgot to take the photo until we had eaten most of it, but it will make enough to feed 3-5 people, depending on if they are growing teenagers or not!

Vanilla cupcakes

This is a nice, simple cupcake recipe. I love making mini cupcakes, this recipe makes 12 regular or 24 mini.

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla, mix well. Combine dry ingredients and add alternately with milk, beginning and ending with dry. Fill muffin cups (lined) 3/4 full and bake at 350F for 22-24 minutes for full size, 12-15 for mini.

You can make these chocolate by replacing 1/2 cup flour with cocoa powder. They aren't as rich as my chocolate cupcake recipe, but are still very tasty.

You can ice these with ganache, or a simple buttercream icing. I sometimes get all fancy and flavour and colour small amounts of icing to have a variety (like a fancy cupcake shop)

Jambalaya

I have this recipe for jambalaya from a Frugal Gourmet cookbook Bruce's uncle gave us years ago. It is very involved and takes pretty much all afternoon to make, as it guides you through making stock and everything. I've modified it through the years, it still takes a bit of time, but is more of a weekend meal when you have time to let things simmer.

Jambalaya

2 tbsp cooking oil
1 onion
2 pieces of celery
½ green pepper
½ red pepper
2 cloves garlic
5 green onions
3 large tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1 tbsp dried parsley (or 1/4 cup fresh)
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp basil
salt and pepper to taste
1/8 cup Worcestershire sauce
3 cups chicken stock
1 lb sausage
2 cups cooked chicken
1 cup ham
1 cup uncooked rice

Chop vegetables into 2cm pieces. Heat oil; add onion, peppers, celery and garlic and sauté until tender. Add green onions and tomatoes and cook until soft. Add tomato paste and spices, heat through, then add 2 cups stock and simmer this gravy for 15 minutes to an hour. Meanwhile, cut sausage into bite size pieces and brown in a frying pan. Discard grease, place sausage into gravy. Deglaze the frying pan with the remaining stock and pour into gravy. Add rice, chicken and ham and simmer 20-25 minutes until the rice is cooked. Stir occasionally and you may have to add a little more stock or water to finish the rice.


This is a great winter meal, very hardy. If you had leftover sausages, it would save you that step.

Ganache

I was reviewing older posts and saw that I said I would post a recipe for a ganache icing. Ganache, for those of you who haven't discovered its silky marvelousness, is simply cream and chocolate. The proportions vary, depending on what you want to do with it. And if you add butter, you have truffles.

You need to start with the best dark chocolate you can get your hands on, and use heavy (whipping) cream.

12 ounces dark chocolate
1 1/4 cups cream

chop the chocolate into small pieces (less than 1 inch). Melt in the microwave at 30-50% power, checking every minute or so (don't scorch it!),it doesn't have to be completely melted. Heat the cream in a saucepan just until it simmers. Pour the cream over the chocolate, let sit for 2-3 minutes, then stir gently. It will take some time for it to come together, just keep stirring. If there are still chunks of unmelted chocolate after 10 minutes, zap it for a minute (med low power). You can pour it over your cake at this time, or let it cool until it thickens and is of a spreadable consistency. You can do this over ice water, stirring constantly, or in the fridge, stirring occasionlly.

You can also make a whipped ganache that is a bit lighter by using:
8 ounces of chocolate
2 cups of cream.

Refrigerate for at least 6 hours, then whip until it starts to thicken. Once it starts to thicken, it sets up quickly, so have your cake ready to ice.

Both of these make enough to ice a 8 or 9 inch layer cake. You can use the first one for a chocolate fondue.

Southwest Quinoa Salad

I am horrible at posting, obviously, but I finally have some inspiration. I just finished experimenting with a couple of recipes for a Southwest inspired quinoa salad. Quinoa is a grain that is being touted as the next great thing and is pronounced "keen-wa". It is an ancient grain and has protein in it, so it's great for vegetarians/vegans. My recipe does have some sour cream, but it could be omitted if you don't do dairy. It also should be gluten free, but I'm no expert on that. I plan to serve it tonight with some leftover chicken.

Southwest Quinoa Salad


- 1 cup of quinoa, soaked and rinsed
- 1/3 cup frozen corn (or fresh off the cob)
- 1/3 cup canned black beans -rinsed
- 2 chopped tomatoes
- 3 chopped green onions
- 3/4 cup chopped red, yellow and/or green peppers
- Sour cream-lime dressing
- one ripe avocado, chopped

Boil the quinoa with 2 cups of water for about 15 minutes, until all the water is absorbed. Let sit in the pot for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork. In a frying pan on high heat, heat the corn for 2-3 minutes to get it sort of "roasted", then lower the heat and add the black beans. When quinoa is ready, pour it into a bowl with the corn and beans, add the vegetables, dressing, and serve with chopped avocado (if you don’t mix it into the whole salad, the salad keeps better)

Sour cream-Lime Dressing

- juice of one lime
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1-2 tbsp fresh cilantro, finely minced
- 2 tablespoonfuls of sour cream
- dash of ground chipotle pepper (or other hot pepper) –to taste

Whisk all ingredients together and mix with salad.