Recipe: Mulligatawny Soup

Subtle, creamy, comforting. Those would be my top three words to describe this tasty, tasty dish. Perfect comfort food, whether you're sick, tired, or just plain ol' grumpy. I should know. I was those last two items before I made this, and now I am neither. Okay, that's not true. I'm still tired. BUT I'm no longer grumpy. So kudos to the mulligatawny soup. (Added bonus: mulligatawny is just super fun to say!)

This recipe (like all the ones I've been making) was ridiculously easy. It took about an hour to prepare, including chopping time (onion, chicken, apple, etc). But if you did the chopping ahead of time, or you didn't simmer it so long, you could probably cut down the prep time to ~40 minutes.

The thing that I liked a lot about this recipe (besides how easy and tasty it was) was that I had virtually all the ingredients already on hand. All I needed to buy was some curry paste, and now that I have that, I'm pretty much set! Of course, not all of you may keep coconut milk in the pantry, but I highly recommend it. It's delicious in all manner of curries and Asian dishes. Mmm.

My apologies about the blurry picture. I swear the full-size version isn't blurry at all, but something weird is happening every time I try to upload it. Grrr.

Your first step is to throw on some rice. I like to make mine in a rice cooker, because it's much harder for me to screw up that way, but you can always do it on the stove as well. Instead of doing just water though, throw in some of the coconut milk for a deliciously creamy finished product. (Be careful though -- coconut milk can bubble like crazy once it gets going. It can make quite a mess!)

Next, sauté the onion and garlic in a skillet. When they're just beginning to get soft, add in the chicken and apple.

Once the chicken is cooked through, stir in a tablespoon of curry paste. I'm sure you could use pretty much whatever type of curry paste you'd like and it would turn out great, but I myself used tandoori. Yum.

Warning: although you can't really tell in the above picture, after you add the red curry paste, the chicken will turn a rather alarmingly bright pink colour. Like really pink (i.e., the chicken starts to look more like ham). It was a bit disconcerting, but it tasted great anyways.

After about a minute, it's time to add some good ol' chicken broth, cream, and the rest of the coconut milk.

You may notice from the above photo that I've suddenly switched everything to a very large saucepan. If I was thinking I would have cooked everything in there from the start and saved myself another pan to wash, but as it was, it wasn't until I was merrily adding the 3rd or 4th cup of chicken broth that I began to realize I was going to have a very large problem if I didn't switch everything to a much bigger pan. Ah well. C'est la vie.

Also, the soup really isn't as yellow as it look in the above picture. The lighting situation on our stove is really terrible for pictures, so I did the best I could. It's actually much more of a delicate creamy pink than it is the squash-yellow of the above photo.

Bring the whole thing to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes to thicken slightly. Now, if you don't care about presentation, then just dump all of your lovely coconut rice into the soup, along with some chopped green onions, give it a good couple of stirs, and serve. For a more elegant and impressive look, pile some rice in the center of a shallow soup bowl and then ladle the soup around the rice. Top with a sprig of fresh parsley for a garnish, and you're all set!

Here's the full recipe:

Mulligatawny Soup
Recipe from "The Guy Can't Cook" by Cinda Chavich

Ingredients:
3/4 cup long-grain basmati rice
One 400 mL can coconut milk, divided
1 cup water
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 chicken breasts, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and cut into 1/4 cubes
1 Tbsp hot Indian curry paste (or to taste)
4 cups chicken broth 
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 green onions, chopped

Directions:
1.  To make the rice, combine the rice, 1/2 cup of the coconut milk, water and salt in a medium pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 20 minutes or until the rice is tender.

2. To make the soup, in a medium saucepan heat the olive oil over high heat and sauté the garlic and onions for 5-10 minutes or until just soft. Add the chicken and apples and cook until the chicken is almost cooked through, about 5 minutes.

3. Stir in the curry paste, coating the chicken and apples. Cook for 1 minute or until the paste is very fragrant. Add the broth, cream, and remaining coconut milk, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 10 minutes to slightly thicken.

4. Stir in in the cooked coconut rice and green onions and heat through. Or for a special presentation, pile portions of the coconut rice in the center of each shallow soup plate, then ladle the creamy chicken soup around the edge of the rice.

Bee's Notes: 
The original recipe says it makes enough for 4-6 people. While I agree it easily makes enough soup for 6 people, I would definitely suggest making more rice if serving for more than 3 people. The amount of rice in the recipe gave exactly 1/2 cup of cooked coconut rice for each of the 3 of us.

Nerdville: District 9 3/4

I NEED TO GET THIS ON A T-SHIRT. Or printed out poster sized and framed.

Without further ado, I give you [insert drumroll here] .....

District 9 3/4




I first spotted this beautiful marriage of Harry Potter and The Hunger Games here, and couldn't  resist sharing it! Someone should totally make a t-shirt out of this. It would be a perfect addition to my collection!!

Recipe: Sweet & Tangy Orange Chicken

Yum. Yum, yum, yum. This recipe was absolutely delicious! It's largely based on a recipe I found here, but I did tweak it a little bit. It was my first time trying a recipe from that particular blog, and it was well worth the effort. The main reason I picked this recipe was totally in no way related to the fact that it sounds exactly like a meal Katniss eats in The Hunger Games. Nope. Not at all.

Anyways, on to the sweet, tangy goodness that is this wonderful, wonderful recipe. I forgot to take a picture of the ingredients, so we'll just launch right in. Take a couple of chicken breasts and slice them up into fairly even chunks.

Toss them in a bag with some flour, salt and pepper until they're nicely coated. Brown them on all sides in some melted butter in the frying pan.

While they're browning, mix together some brown sugar, white wine vinegar (or just regular vinegar if you don't have any), orange juice, nutmeg and dried basil. I was a little alarmed by the amount of nutmeg in this recipe (I am not nutmeg's biggest fan), but never fear! It turned out delicious, even if the nutmeg smell while cooking was a tad strong.

Once the chicken is browned, pour the sauce over the chicken in the pan. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add in some canned mandarin orange slices 5 minutes before you intend to serve for a sophisticated touch.

Serve over rice with a side of asparagus (or any other delectable vegetable you prefer), and you've got yourself a really amazing looking (and, more importantly, amazing tasting) meal that's done in 45 minutes flat. 

Absolutely delicious! 

Here's the full recipe:

Sweet & Tangy Orange Chicken

Ingredients:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into even chunks*

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Melted butter or olive oil

Sauce:

3 Tbsp brown sugar

3 Tbsp white wine vinegar (or regular white vinegar)

1.5 cups orange juice (with or without pulp, whichever you prefer)

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp dried basil

The juice from 2 small cans of mandarin orange slices

Optional: add some ground ginger

Directions:

1. Combine the flour, salt and pepper in a bag. Toss in the chicken chunks and shake until well coated. In a skillet, either melt the butter or heat the oil. Then add the floury chicken, browning on both sides. Because of the flour coating, they should brown up nice and crisp, should you desire it. Once the chicken is browned, drain off any excess fat. (I didn't find that necessary -- the flour tended to absorb any extra fat)

2. Combine the sauce ingredients, taking care to set aside the mandarin slices once you have added the juice to the sauce. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Cover and simmer for approximately 20 minutes. (If you want a thicker sauce - which I recommend - then leave the cover off to reduce the sauce, allowing it to naturally thicken as it cooks). 

3. Approximately 5 minutes before you are ready to serve, add in as many of the mandarin orange slices as you wish. I say the more the merrier! :)

4. Serve over a bed of rice, and devour eagerly.

Delectable right down to the last bite!

* I was a little worried about how many people this recipe would serve, but it easily made enough for 5. Depending on how generous you want to be with your portions, it could even be suitable for 6. Pretty good for 2 chicken breasts!

Nerdville: Narnia Playroom

Honestly, this may be the coolest thing I've ever seen. In the very near future, when I make my millions of dollars (you know, from teaching ... hahahaha ah sometimes I crack myself up), I'm going to have a room exactly like this in my house. What does a 23-almost-24-year-old need with a playroom? Who cares? This is just that AWESOME.







Seriously, how cool is this? I'm sure you could get an amazing wardrobe off UsedVic or Craigslist. Definitely going to have to arrange to have a secret Narnia-themed room in my house. And I'm going to stuff the wardrobe with old fur coats and boots so it has an added air of authenticity. And maybe figure out a way of randomly sealing/unsealing it so my future children never know when they'll be able to get back into Narnia?

Photos originally seen here: Narnia Themed Playroom

Recipe: Pork Cutlets Cubano

Hey all! It's time for another recipe. This is my first time trying the recipe, which comes from my second favourite cookbook, The Guy Can't Cook (again by the amazing Cinda Chavich. Are you sensing a theme here?)

First of all, the ingredients:

Now, a couple of things right off. That slimy shiny slab of meat in the foreground? That's pork tenderloin. Yum! The recipe calls for 2 tenderloins, but as I'm only cooking for 3 people, I just stuck with one big one. It should still make plenty! Other notable ingredients? Well that hugely long red pepper is called a "sweet tooth" pepper (ever heard of them before? I hadn't). The recipe actually calls for Hungarian or Cubanelle peppers, but since I could find neither, I decided to stick in another random type and see what happens. I'll let you know below!* Oh, and those rabbit ear looking things behind the red onion? That's our pepper grinder. I didn't notice the placement until just now, but I think it's kind of cute. :)

Anyways, on to the actual cooking! The first step was to mash the cut tenderloin until it was a uniform 1/2 inch thickness. Or at least that's what I was supposed to do. I got a bit lazy, so mine weren't exactly 1/2 inch thick. Or uniform. Oh well. They still turned out.

After that lightly dredge the cutlets in flour (if you want - this is an optional step, but I recommend it).

Brown the cutlets on both sides in oil in a frying pan, just lightly. If you're lazy like me and you made the cutlets thicker than 1/2 an inch, maybe brown them a little longer.

Once they're browned, pull them out of the pan and set them aside. In the same pan, throw in the chopped pepper, red onion and minced garlic. Saute for about 5 minutes. 

Then add some white wine, chicken broth and balsamic vinegar and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and add the cutlets back in, making sure to spoon some sauce and veggies back over top of them.

Cover and simmer for approximately 20 minutes. Flip the cutlets about halfway through to ensure that they cook evenly all the way through. And if you, like me, don't have a cover for your skillet, you can always make a ghetto one like this:

*sigh* Oh well. Whatever works, right? When the pork is tender, pile it on top of some rice and dig in!

I paired mine with some honey roasted carrots and parsnips, which were also delicious. And very colourful on the plate!

Here's the full recipe:

Pork Cutlets Cubano

Ingredients:

2 pork tenderloins (about 375g each) [If you only use 1 like 1 did, the recipe makes enough for 4 people]

4 Tbsp olive oil, divided

2 Cubanelle or Hungarian peppers, seeded and sliced

2 bell peppers (red and/or yellow), seeded and sliced

1 large red onion, slivered

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup white wine

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup chicken broth

salt and freshly ground black pepper

flour

chopped fresh parsley to garnish

Directions:

1. Using a sharp, pointed knife, remove any silver skin on the outside of the tenderloin. Slip the tip of the knife under the skin at one end to release it, then lift the skin with one hand as you slice it away.

2. Once the meat is trimmed, cut each tenderloin into slices, each about 2 inches thick.

3. Lay the piece of pork on a piece of plastic wrap, cut-side down. Cover with a second piece of plastic and, using a meat mallet or the back of your chef's knife, lightly pound the pieces to an even thickness of about 1/2 inch.

4. To cook the cutlets, season with salt and pepper on both sides, and dredge lightly in flour, if desired. Heat half of the olive oil in a non-stick saute pan over medium-high heat and when the oil is hot, pan fry the cutlets until just brown (about 2 minutes per side).

5. Remove the cutlets form the pan and set aside. Add the remaining oil to the pan and fry the pepper, onion and garlic for about 10 minutes, until the vegetables begin to soften and brown. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp of flour over the vegetables and stir. Add the wine, vinegar, and broth. Bring to a boil, scraping up the browned bits from frying the meat. Return the cutlets to the pan and spoon some of the vegetables and sauce over the meat.

6. Cover the skillet, reduce heat to low and braise for 20 minutes, until the pork is tender. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and parsley.

* Pepper Update: Sweet Tooth Peppers taste exactly like red bell peppers. Maybe a titch sweeter, but otherwise indistinguishable. Ah well. It was worth a try!

Recipe: Stuffed Chicken Breasts

I gave a lot of thought to what would be the first recipe I posted on this blog. Okay, okay. That's a lie. I took all of 10 seconds to flip through the recipes I've made in the last 6 weeks and picked this one because it was near the top and was utterly and completely delicious.

In future recipe posts I hope to be adding lots of pictures of the different stages along the way, but as I made this  approximately 6 weeks ago I, alas, have none. Oh well. What's a girl to do? Post a ridiculous cartoon about chickens, duh!


 


Anyways, on to the recipe, which I found in my current favourite cookbook, The Girl Can't Cook, by the amazing Cinda Chavich.


Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Red Peppers and Goat Cheese*

Ingredients:
2 red or yellow bell peppers

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

½ lb. (250g) creamy fresh goat cheese

1 Tbsp. (15 mL) olive oil

2 cups (500 mL) chicken broth

½ cup (125 mL) dry white wine

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 Tbsp. chopped fresh thyme

2 green onions, chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Fresh herbs to garnish

Directions:

1. To roast the peppers, grill or broil until blackened on all sides. Place the peppers in a paper bag to steam and cool, then peel off the charred skin and remove the stems, ribs and seeds. Slice the peppers into thin strips and set aside.

2.  Lay the chicken breasts flat on a cutting board. Insert a small paring knife into the thickest part of the side of the chicken breast. Holding your palm over the breast, wiggle the knife back and forth to form a pocket, keeping the entry to the pocket small. Use your fingers to stuff the pockets with the goat cheese and roasted pepper.

3. Heat the olive oil in a heavy, non-stick skillet over high heat and brown the chicken quickly on both sides. This will take about 4 minutes. Add the broth and white wine to the pan. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat and simmer for 6-7 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan and keep it warm.

4. Boil the liquid in the pan hard until it has been reduced by half. Add the cream and cook until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Stir in the fresh herbs and green onion and simmer 1 minute longer. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep warm over low heat.

5. Slice the chicken breasts and arrange on warmed, individual plates. Drizzle with some of the sauce and garnish with more fresh herbs. Heat the remaining sauce and pass separately.

6. Dig in!

Bee's Notes

Something I learned from making this recipe? Roasted red pepper is really slimy. And stuffing raw chicken with slippery peppers and soft goat cheese makes one heck of a mess! Oh well. It was totally worth it!

I also found that the chicken took longer to cook than the recipe indicates. Maybe I stuffed them too full? But when cooking in the broth, I found that flipping them about halfway through helped to make sure they were cooked all the way through. Some of the cheese leaked out into the sauce while cooking, but don't worry about it -- it just made the sauce even more deliciously creamy. Mmmmmmm. 

The other great thing about this recipe is that once it's sliced and drizzled with sauce, the chicken looks amazing on a plate. Like something you got at a restaurant! This is one recipe that will definitely impress.

You could pretty much serve this with anything and have it be delicious, but I paired it with roasted asparagus and baby red potatoes. Yum!

 

* You may begin to notice a bit of a goat cheese theme crop up on this blog. I have no excuse other than the fact that I've recently discovered that goat cheese is freakin' DELICIOUS.

Restaurant Review: Japanese Village

Tonight I went out for dinner to celebrate an old high school friend's birthday. It was my very first time eating at Japanese Village (I know, I know, I don't know how that's possible either) and while driving home I thought, hey, I could write restaurant reviews on my new blog too because a) it's about food, and b) they contribute to making life "flavourful" (horrible pun fully intended), and lastly and most importantly, c) it's my blog and I can do what I want!

I go out to eat about a couple times a month, maybe a bit more, so this won't be a terribly regular feature. But you can be sure that if I find any new gems, I'll be sure to update you!

Anyways, on to more important things. Japanese Village -- what's not to love? Honestly, it was amazing. The service was excellent, the food even more so, and the entertainment? Well, it's been a long time since I was that entertained while eating a meal. They cook all of the food right in front of you, and their chefs are, from my very limited experience, hilarious. (I listened in on several other chefs other than the one at our table. They were all pretty darn funny.) Perhaps the whole gig would get old if you went there every week, but I found it vastly entertaining.



And did I mention delicious? Yum. I had the teriyaki steak (medium rare and sliced super thin) and it was absolutely scrumptious. Plus they have this amazing ginger dipping sauce (the sesame one is also excellent). Plus the meal comes with rice, shrimp (I gave mine to the birthday girl), assorted sauteed vegetables and mushrooms (which, dipped in the ginger sauce, were DELICOUS. And I don't even like mushrooms). Plus your choice of ice cream or sherbert at the end. All for $20.35. Once you add in a drink and a tip and tax it comes to about $30.

In my opinion? Worth every penny.


**The above is obviously not a picture of what my dinner actually looked like. I ate it much too quickly for that, but this is the best facsimile I could come up with off of Google Images!**

Nerdville: Hungry, Hungry, Hunger Games

As today is the world wide launch of the new Hunger Games movie as well as being the launch of my new blog, I thought it only appropriate to do a post dedicated to the film. Well, actually, less to the film than to the absolutely phenomenal book series behind it.

I waited in line last night for far too many hours than I am proud to admit to attend the 12:01am showing of the film this morning. Froze my butt off, ate tons of junk food, and got absolutely zero sleep (I had to start work at 6:30 this morning, so really, what was the point of going to bed?) all in order to watch a movie that from the beginning never really had a hope of measuring up to a) the book, and b) my expectations. Was it worth it? Absolutely! Although internally I am still of course compiling a list of all the ways the book and movie differed (i.e., all the reasons the book is better than the movie), I did quite enjoy it. Which, for those of you who know me, is really saying something when it comes to movies based on my favourite books. For most of the Harry Potter movies it took me 2 or 3 times before I could admit that they were tolerable adaptations of the books. Because, really, how could you even hope to transpose the genius that is J.K. Rowling into film?

Anyways, all that to say that I love love love The Hunger Games. And since this blog is also meant to be partially dedicated to food, it seemed an appropriate place to start. Oooh and also, I found this shirt today online and it took me all of 3 milliseconds to decide that I had to have it! It will go so well with my already (gulp) very large collection of nerdy t-shirts!

Happy Hunger Games everyone!

http://www.snorgtees.com/t-shirts/hungry-hungry-games

Oh, and while I'm talking about The Hunger Games and food, check out this delightfully nerdy post on one of my favourite food blogs:
http://www.confessionsofacookbookqueen.com/2012/03/hunger-games-party-food-ideas