Recipe: Fresh Pear and Curry Pasta

Bonjour! It's been awhile, but then I haven't been cooking much. Or at least not cooking anything new and different. And I didn't want to bore you with repeated recipes. Also, I've been trying to sort out my life the last couple of days, because I just got a new job! No, not a teaching job. But still, it's a pretty huge promotion. I'll even have my own assistant. Yay me!

Anyways, I got this absolutely 100% totally delicious recipe from my aunt, who made it for me a couple of weeks ago. I figured now was the perfect time to try it, because with just me and my dad in the house, I could feel free to make it as spicy as I liked.

Not only is the recipe really quite easy and super scrumptious, it is also vegetarian! Now normally I am all about the meat (and to be honest I was quite tempted to throw in some chicken or pork in this recipe, which you totally could if you're not into vegetarian), but I decided to stick with the original intention. Plus I knew from when I had it at my aunt's house that it was super filling, even without any meat.

But on to the actual cooking! First step is to saute up some onions. I used a red onion because that's what I had (plus it adds some more colour to the finished dish), but you could do whatever you like. Next, throw in the garlic and curry paste (I would recommend spicy over mild for this dish, but that's just me) and mix together for a couple of minutes. They should look something like this:

Next comes some tomato paste and honey. Once you add the honey, be prepared for it to start bubbling like mad. I totally didn't expect that, although I suppose I should have. Anyways, it was quite startling. After a few minutes, add some chicken broth and bring to a boil. Keep it boiling until you've reduced the liquid to less than 1 cup (depending on how saucy you like your pasta, you can reduce it less that this. It's up to you!). Since this will take about 15 minutes, now's a great time to start cooking your pasta.

When the sauce is reduced, throw in some thinly sliced pear wedges and cook for 1 minute. Then add in chopped Roma tomatoes and cream. At the last minute stir in some fresh chopped cilantro.

When the pasta is done, pour the sauce over the noodles and toss gently. Serve immediately!

Here's the full recipe:

Fresh Pear and Curry Pasta (Recipe from Joanne Christensen)

Ingredients;
1/2 small onion, chopped
2 Tbsp oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp curry paste (Patak's in the best! And I would definitely recommend spicy, not mild)
1 tsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp honey
2 cups chicken broth
1 unpeeled ripe pear, sliced in thin wedges
2 Roma tomatoes, chpped
2 Tbsp cream
3 Tbsp chopped cilantro
Pasta for 2: rotini, bow ties, or shells

Directions;
1. In a frying pan over medium heat, saute onion in oil until soft.

2. Add garlic and curry paste and stir 2-3 minutes.

3. Add tomato paste and honey and stir another 2 minutes.

4. Add chicken broth, increase heat to medium high and boil gently, reducing liquid to less than 1 cup. Start cooking your pasta while sauce is reducing.

5. Add pear slices to sauce and cook for 1 minute.

6. Add tomatoes and cream and stir another 2 minutes.

7. Stir in chopped cilantro.

8. Pour sauce over pasta and toss gently.


Enjoy :)

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.