Thai Style Curried Tuna with Soba Noodles

You know, the right combination of ingredients can turn the most basic of things into something interesting. Take for instance the lowly can of tuna. I love tuna, and tuna salad, and tuna melts, but sometimes it’s fun to do something completely different with it. Take a little jaunt to the Asian foods section of your grocery store, or go a little farther to an Asian supermarket and you will find everything you need for this tasty variation.

Ingredients

1 Can tuna

1 tsp Thai Green Curry

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

2 cloves of garlic, sliced

2 limes

Kecap Manis (Dark sweet soy sauce)

Soy sauce

Coconut milk

2 packages of fresh soba noodles

In a cast iron skillet heat the sesame oil. Add the green curry and stir for a few minutes until it starts to sizzle. Drop the garlic in and stir fry until it starts to smell really good, about one minute. Add the tuna and continue to stir. Once the tuna started to brown a little bit, squeeze the juice of one lime into the pan to deglaze.

Add about 1 tbsp of the Kecap Manis and a splash of soy sauce. Stir until warm and then add 1 tbsp of the coconut milk. Into the same pan, gently add the Soba noodles and let them warm a little, as they warm they will soften and be easier to stir. I love Soba noodles, they are made from barley flour which contains 2-3 times the same protein as an equal quantity of rice and is often higher in minerals such as potassium and calcium as well.

If you want it wetter you can add more coconut milk and lime juice, curry etc. Add more of the kecap manis to sweeten if it's too spicy, less if you like a little heat. Once the noodles are warm it is ready to serve.

***Add some strips of red pepper and baby corn and sliced green onions if you'd like some vegetables in the dish just before you add the noodles.

Roasted Yam and Onion Soup

I made this recipe for Roasted Yam and Onion Soup the other day and it was FANTASTIC! I could have eaten bowl full after bowl full all night long.

I roasted the onions along with the yams, and then sliced them and sauteed per instructions. And I didn't add any cream or milk, it didn't need it at all. The only drawback to this soup is that it has no protein in it at all. So I would have it as a first course in a larger meal and pair it with roast chicken or well, anything really, it's so yummy.

I like that it makes use of winter vegetables also.

nablopomo, I need your help..

I keep writing down things I want to post here, and I have tons of pictures in my files of recipes that I want to share, and ideas I had, but I've noticed they aren't actually getting here. Perhaps it's my perfectionism that's keeping me from doing it right away. So, this month I am posting every single day. Or I'm going to try at least and who cares if it's on the right day, or a summer recipe, right?

I'm also going to take this time to repost some things I've had up before, but with more specific categories and directions, so they are more user friendly.

If there is anything you'd like to see, let me know.

So check back often, because I've got a lot of backed up stuff to write about.

What to do for a child with a weight problem

I was talking this weekend to a dad who was concerned about his little 3 year old girl being too big for her age, And by big, we mean fat. Granted she's got some extra on her, as do many kids these days, but she's pretty and tall for her age too and she doesn't look like she's in danger yet.

Anyway, he was talking about taking away her plate and limiting how much she eats, and my response was, don't watch how much she eats, watch what she eats. She will not develop a complex if you just make sure the food she eats all the time is good healthy food.

I was all impressed with myself and my wisdom, or ability to coin a phrase anyway, so I'm passing it along.

The only thing I watch to see how much my children eat is sugar, and crackers near to a meal time. I give them small portions of those and let them have all the fruit, vegetables and whole grain foods they want, oh and beans. My kids are so skinny that the pants in their height fall off their little waists. My 3 year old still fits into a pair of jeans I bought her when she was a baby, they look like capris now. Only I know that they have a tag that reads 6 months on the inside. So, it works for my bottomless pit children anyway.

Edible Construction

We do this for Sukkot, the holiday of booth building. The kids get to build their own out of graham crackers and icing and candy. The green licorice is a nice substitute for leaves. You could adapt this for Christmas or whatever else you want.

My children can't believe I'm letting them handle all this sugar, but it's a holiday, and I am not a grinch.
The object of course is to figure out how to pile as much candy as you possibly can onto you booth, because you will get to eat it all. After dinner.


You will need,

Graham crackers

Candy (licorice tape, colored balls, whatever you want really)

Icing.

I don't usually bother with making royal icing with the egg whites. It is the strongest by far but this recipe works just fine, tastes better, and holds things together well enough to look at for a while before eating.

Ingredients

Icing sugar, lots

1/4 lb butter

water less than 1/2 a cup

paper plates

Cream together butter and sugar, add enough sugar so that the mixture is very dry. Slowly add a little bit of water until it reaches the consistency of a thick paste. If it's too thin, add more icing sugar. (This is very scientific.)

Then you can put it in ziplock bags and cut a little piece of the corner off to make and icing bag. Kids can squeeze their own icing out and use it to cement together the graham crackers into little boxes. For younger kids you can give them a small scoop of icing on their plate and they can dip the candies into it before gluing them to the sides top floor, whatever.

This is a lot of fun, you will want to jump in and make one yourself, and of course if you tell them that they can eat it after dinner for several days, they are less likely to gorge themselves all in one night. Mine don't ask for candy again for a looong time. They usually feel ill, which is fine with me, it may help them learn moderation.

Are animal fats unhealthy?

Rose has asked about toxins in animal fats. She has heard that you should avoid consuming them because that's where any toxins would be stored. I still haven't had time to find out about this, but I always thought it was the gizzards that would have that problem.

Of course with clean animals, raised organically, it probably wouldn't matter, but we can't always be certain about that.

Does anyone else know or can direct me to a source?

All I have to contribute to the discussion is this quote,

Between 1910 and 1980 many changes took place to the kinds and amounts of fats and oils that people ate...Fats and oils (shortening, margarine, refined salad and cooking oils) account for 57%, dairy products account for 7%, and meat, poultry, and fish account for 31% of the total increase in our fat consumption. The average intake of trans-fatty acids in hydrogenated products rose from zero in 1910 to close to 10% of all fats we consume today... Our use of butter declined to 1/5 of its 1910 level, while our use of margarine increases 9 times. The use of lard went down to about 1/5 of its former level, while the use of vegetable shortenings almost doubled in the same time span...Our annual consumption of sugar rose from 15 pounds per person in 1815 to about 90 pounds in 1910, about 120 pounds in 1980 and about 135 pounds today. Cholesterol intake from foods has remained essentially constant during the last 70 years... consumption of linoleic acid (18:2w6) increased by 170%. The consumption of w3s (LNA, EPA, DHA) decreased to 1/6 of its level in 1850, while w6 (LA, AA) consumption doubled during that time, resulting in widespread w3 deficiency and serious w3:w6 imbalance. Udo Erasmus Fats the Heal, Fats that Kill

chorizo, now with chicken

"Don't ask, just eat it."

I was sitting in a friend's RV near the beach in San Diego. He was making us breakfast. Chorizo and eggs, and warm flour tortillas. Chorizo is a spicy Mexican sausage that he squeezed from it's skin and cooked up like farmers sausage along with the eggs. It's a favorite breakfast in these parts. But you REALLY don't want to know what's in it. I have heard murmured references to rat droppings voiced around however.

Eating such tasty food, and having a cross cultural experience should be exciting, but perhaps not that exciting. That's what the folks at Trader Joe's seem to think. They have come out with their own version of Chorizo. It's made from chicken, tastes like the real thing, and you can enjoy it without worrying about the rat droppings. So go and try some today. Add eggs and soft warm tortillas and pretend you're on a beach somewhere warm watching the sun rise. At least, that's what I'd do.