Cranberry Chutney

Still have some cranberries? This is the other holiday recipe I look forward to all year long.

I crave the surprising blend of sweet and tart! It's a delicious addition to meat and fish, but my favorite way to eat is on a cracker with a bit of cream cheese. Get creative!

Cranberry Chutney

In a saucepan, simmer for 5 minutes:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup minced onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced or crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons vinegar
• 1/2 cup water

Then add:

• 1 1/2 cups cranberries

Simmer for another 15 minutes, or till thickened. I mash the cranberries a bit with a fork as they soften. Allow to cool.

This chutney will keep for up to six months in the fridge.

Cranberry Cake with Caramel Sauce

This is one recipe in particular that has been a long-time family favorite, and something that I greatly anticipate making every Holiday season. It just wouldn't seem like Christmas without it.

It is made with fresh cranberries, their natural tartness a perfect contrast to the sweet caramel sauce. Even those who do not care for cranberries reach for a second piece of this dessert!

Cranberry Cake

• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 1 cup sugar (I only use 1/2 cup and prefer dehydrated cane juice crystals)
  
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups fresh cranberries, chopped

Cream the butter and sugar. Stir in water, milk, flour, salt and soda. Mix well. Fold in the cranberries.

Pour into greased and floured 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 until golden brown. Serve with warm sauce.

Caramel Sauce

• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Place all ingredients except vanilla in a saucepan on low heat. Bring to boil and stir constantly. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Serve hot over cake.

Garlic and Chili Green Beans-Not Green Bean Casserole Part 2

Yesterday I ranted about the awfulness of green bean casserole and gave you a simple alternative. As promised, today I'll tell you what I'm doing with my green beans this Thanksgiving. This recipe was inspired by some really amazing green beans I had once in Vancouver at a Chinese restaurant that looked like this photo here. It's tasty, and simple.

Ingredients

1.5 lbs green beans, frozen or raw.

10 or more cloves garlic, minced.

2 tbsp toasted sesame oil (you can use regular oil if you don't have toasted sesame oil. It just provides another layer of flavor.)

1-2 tsp Sambal Oleak (chili paste)  or 1 tsp dried chilies

1/4 cup broth chicken/turkey/vegetable or 1/4 cup water and a bouillon cube.

2 tbsp soy sauce

Method

You will need a large frying pan or wok, the bigger the better if you are making a lot of beans so they cook evenly. Heat the oil and garlic together in the bottom of the pan over medium heat. Both are very easy to burn so watch the temp. Stir frequently.

Once the garlic begins to caramelize and cook through add the chili paste. Saute a few minutes longer and add in the green beans.

You want to get the beans all coated in the oil and garlic so stir it around really well for a minute. Next add the broth. If your pan is hot enough this should steam up a bit and cook the beans while it loosens all the good stuff stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add the soy sauce as well, to taste. Remember, it's salty so don't over do it. Cover and cook, stirring frequently so all the beans cook at the same time. As soon as they are cooked through remove from heat and serve. They should be bright green, not gray.

This is really simple to make, and tastes amazing. Add strips of dried tofu, carrots, or bean sprouts and serve with brown rice for a really interesting main dish. My whole family loves this.

Enjoy.

The photo was taken by P.M.M. and is used under the terms of a Creative Content License.

Not Green Bean Casserole-Part 1

Does anyone actually enjoy that sickly greenish grey concoction that takes up space on many tables in America on Thanksgiving day? I grew up in Canada, so I'm not used to it I'll admit. But why is it there if if doesn't taste good?

Don't get me wrong, I love green beans. They're one of my favorite foods.

The monstrosity known as green bean casserole however bears no resemblance to the vegetable I love. And I intend to rescue it from such shameful treatment and bring it back into the realm of tasty. Ready?

To begin with, nix the canned beans. Look, I understand that long ago, before refrigeration, people need to preserve their summer vegetables to keep them from going to waste, and to have something green to eat in the winter. And though they have less nutrients after the canning process, canned green beans are still better than no vegetables at all and scurvy. But it's the 21st century now. We have a choice. You can purchase them fresh and raw in November, or frozen at peak freshness. Either of these taste much better than the store bought canned version. (I say store bought because I've known some amazing canners in my lifetime and their canned green beans were tasty, crisp, flavorful, and usually also pickled and spicy. MMMM.)

So to rescue this traditional vegetable from mushy, nasty flavor hell we first need to start with fresh or frozen. Already the flavor will be improved 100%. Frozen is actually cheaper than canned these days. I can buy 1.5 lbs of frozen french green beans at Trader Joe's this month for $2. In fact, I just did. It would take at least 8-10 cans at $0.60 each to give me the same number of green beans.

Next, stop with the cans of onion soup! Please! Just back away from the green beans, put your can opener down. I will show you how to serve these.

Simple

Steam them, in a steamer, or pot, but only for a few minutes. Do this less than 10 minutes before you serve dinner. AS SOON as they turn a lovely shade of very bright green remove them from the heat. "I will never ever again eat gray green beans." Say it with me.

As soon as you take them from the heat add a generous amount of real butter to them, as well as sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Cover and keep warm. Serve as soon as you can. (Don't yell at me about the butter. You were going to put canned cream of onion soup on it. Besides, it's Thanksgiving. Also, secret, you can cut a bit of butter and add more salt, which brings out the flavor of the butter and no one will ever know. Since it's sea salt it's not quite as bad for you.)

If you really love those crunchy fried onion things that usually top the casserole, go ahead and sprinkle them on top of the beans just before serving. Personally, I would go with slivered almonds or peanuts to add crunch.

I PROMISE. If all you do is this you will have people saying over and over, "These green beans are really good. Wow, what did you do with them?"

They just taste good if you treat them right.

Now, since this is my go to method of serving green beans, I like to jazz it up a bit for Thanksgiving. Tomorrow I will tell you what I'm going to do with my green beans next week. Here it is.
Garlic and Chili Green Beans

photo by ccharmon Used under the terms of a Creative Commons License.

Saint Patrick's Day Green Mashed Potatoes

Here's a fun idea to serve with dinner for St. Patricks day tonight. As much fun as green beer and cupcakes can be, this way of turning your meal green using parsley actually adds more nutrients to the dish, rather than taking any away. Parsley is a very nutrient dense food, high in anti-oxidants.

Start with 6-8 medium sized potatoes. You can use any kind but I prefer red potatoes because I don't peel my potatoes and the red skins are usually less tough. (There are a lot of nutrients in the skin, vitamin C, folic Acid, minerals, and I like to keep those in the food instead of taking them out.)

Sea salt
2 tbsp olive oil (Extra virgin-it's green :)
6-8 cloves of garlic-minced
4-5 tbsp butter
1/4 to 1/2 cup milk (You can substitute broth for milk with nice results, but it's a little less creamy.)
one thick bunch of parsley
Fresh ground pepper
Goat cheese or cream cheese-Optional and more fatty, but very delicious. The goat cheese adds a nice sharp flavor and protein.

Dice the potatoes. I like to make the pieces pretty small so that the peel is cut up more and there aren't any big chunks in the mashed potatoes.

Place the diced potatoes in a pot and add cold water until it covers the potatoes. Add a generous splash of sea salt. Bring to a boil and simmer over medium heat until the potatoes are soft through and break apart when you stick a fork in them.

Remove them from heat and drain the water. You can save this salty potato water for use in soups and breads, it's full of minerals. Put the butter in the drained potatoes so it melts right away. (If you are using cheese now is the time to add it too.)

While the potatoes are cooking, in a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium low heat, saute the garlic in the olive oil. Be careful not to burn. Stop as soon as the garlic starts to give off a nutty aroma.

Wash the parsley. Coarsely chop the parsley, stems and all.

Place the parsley, olive oil and garlic mixture, and 1/4 cup of milk in a blender or food processor. Blend until the parsley is very small and the mixture is smooth.

Mash potatoes. If you are doing it by hand, mash them and then stir in the parsley and garlic mixture. If they need more liquid add more milk or broth. Add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

Your potatoes will turn out green.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Easy Valentine's Treats

Here's a quick and simple Valentine's day gift, and project with the kids.

Target has heart shaped ice cube trays on sale this month 3 for $1.

You can use any size ice cube tray container that has a pretty or interesting shape. The flexible trays are much easier to extract the finished chocolates from.

Take whatever chocolate you have on hand. Melt it in a double boiler. The key here is to not let the chocolate get too hot or it will become grainy. Keep it just warm enough to melt but no warmer. (If you don't have a double boiler, a metal or glass bowl set in a pot of water above a burner will work just as well.)

I am using 72% dark Belgian chocolate from Trader Joe's, approx $3/pound.

Chocolate chips would work too. This is by no means gourmet, but it's fun and tasty. I'd show you pictures but my battery died during this project so you'll have to use your imagination.

Spray your molds with a light cooking spray so the formed chocolates come out.

Here is where it gets fun. You can do whatever you like with this chocolate. You can add salt free butter and cream to make a ganache, which is softer. You can add flavors; peppermint extract, cinnamon, chai liqueur, Irish cream. The cheaper the chocolate, the funner it is to play with the flavors. Or, you can just melt the chocolate and use it plain.

Then, simply pour the melted chocolate mixture into the molds. Cool and pop out. Wrap individually in cellophane, you can put them in the tiny muffin cups for color, and tie with a ribbon and you have a lot of fun Valentine's to give away.

Fancy tips and tricks

First paint the inside of the molds with melted chocolate using a pastry brush or clean paint brush. Allow to cool.

Next fill the inside of the mold. I like to do a dark chocolate shell with a milk chocolate center. You can also use peanut butter (I would sweeten it if it's unsweetened), macadamia nut and cashew butter, whole nuts, white chocolate, strawberry preserves, or cream filling.

Cream filling is simple to make. Start with a few drops of your favorite flavoring in a bowl. Stir in powdered sugar until the desired thickness. The end, unless you want to add color.

I'm using the leftover cream cheese frosting from my birthday cake for filling some of them.

Once the chocolates are filled, put in the freezer so the centers get firm and then pour a final coat of melted chocolate over the outside to seal it.

Let set and then pop out of the molds.

I you want to get fancy you can do things like paint a picture in one color chocolate on the inside of the mold and then it will show when you pour a contrasting color in over top.

The easiest way to get fancy is to use regular chocolate and white chocolate pour the dark chocolate in first. Then add a dollop of white. With a toothpick quickly swirl, just once, inside the mold and then put it in the freezer. You'll have pretty swirls in the finished product. Don't over stir.

Finally, if using a paint brush seems like too much work for you, you can just make layers. Pour in a bit of chocolate, let set. Pour in a different flavor of chocolate, like milk chocolate, let set. Pour in a third layer of the first chocolate. You get it. It's simple but it impresses your kids.

Updated to add:

Hazelnut, how could I forget the magic of hazelnut spread. It make s great filling and you can even put it in and stuff a real hazelnut in the center for a truly gourmet effect.

Have fun.

Happy Valentine's Day

It's the season..

I know, It is the height of food season, and I haven't posted anything. I've been baking my mom's butter tarts, and making homemade chocolates, and kettle corn, and basically using the holiday season as an excuse to try new recipes since I am giving most of it away as gifts. And by gifts I mean little tokens to neighbors and friend's to let them know that we care about them via large doses of rum flavored chocolates in thrift store tins decorated with ribbon.

I tried making kettle corn for the first time this month using Rachel Ray's recipe. It was fast, simple, and tasted great. I added cinnamon and nutmeg to the sugar as a little flavor twist and we think it tasted quite yummy. Oh, and did I mention inexpensive? I would say though that if you do try this recipe you need to be sure to remove it from the heat the instant the popping slows down. Sugar burns fast we found out.

My snacking on baked goods has been kept to a minimum by insisting that I have to have tea to go with it. This meant that on Christmas day at the grandparent's, I finally ate my dessert a good hour after everyone else since I sat down to eat and found that the tea was all gone and had to brew some more, and keep them from clearing my plate while I waited. But in the end, I really enjoyed that dessert, and didn't really have the opportunity to eat more after since it was all already put away.

And in other news, in spite of a months worth of eating and baking, I dug out the fabulous red dress the other day for the first time this year while looking for party clothes and discovered, to my delight, that it fits again. In fact, the only place it's even a bit snug is in the chest. This is a tailored fitted dress so it's very unforgiving and it looked great. I was so happy and planning what shoes to wear with it when I realized that I couldn't wear it to the party because it's impossible to breast feed in and the Baby would be in attendance, for several hours and I didn't relish the idea of stripping naked in the bathroom in order to feed her. (Sigh. Must get a life soon and go out with just my husband somewhere that a fabulous dress won't be terribly out of place.) I'm honestly not sure I remember where it is that grownups go to have fun without children.

In other good news, I think I am finally thinking like a thin person. I'm not counting calories or feeling guilty about certain foods, I'm just eating sensibly and spending most of my effort trying to get as much healthy food into my family and myself as possible. I try to move because it feels good and my body tells me when I've gone too long without it and my muscles get tight. And I stop when I'm no longer hungry, and have treats in frequently but habitually ritualized, as with the tea thing. I'm not focused on weight loss, or gain, but every so often I look in the mirror and think, "Wow, I look pretty good." (And now you all think I'm a narcissist, but I'm not.) I don't use a scale. I can tell by the way my pants fit if I'm losing or gaining and the measures that keep things steady are mostly instinct now, as are the healthy eating habits. (I can't serve a meal and call it done without a vegetable for instance.)

So, I guess there is a pay off at the end of all that hard work and relearning after all. Make healthy behaviours habits and add habits gradually and one day it will seem like magic, like the weight came off all by itself. If I can do it....I know you can do it too.

Happy Thanksgiving

We have already finished the first leg of our Turkey binge. Tomorrow will be another.

There is a tradition in the Jewish calender before Passover of gathering food and making sure that all of the poor in the community have enough to celebrate the feast also. In our family we tend to go out and find them and bring them home for dinner. In years past we've had a couple who were expecting their first baby and living out of their car join us, and the generous outpouring of our friends on that day made it possible for them to stay in a motel for several months before and after the birth of their little baby. We almost always have a large, multicultural gathering, some people who have never celebrated thanksgiving before, and the Menu is usually eclectic and exotic. I'm looking forward to Indian food tomorrow.

I hope your gatherings with family and friends are full of joy and gratitude.

I wish you all peace.

Gluten Free Pie Crust and and Spiced Apple Tart

My mom invented this crust recipe for my SIL who is gluten intolerant. It works for cheesecakes and pumpkin pies, but my favorite is this Apple Tart recipe.

Crust

1 1/2 cups ground nuts (I usually just grind pecans in the blender, or almonds.)

1/4 cup sugar

3 tbsp melted butter

Combine ingredients and press into pie shell. Add filling and bake.

Spiced Apple Tart Filling

3-4 Medium Apples

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cardamom

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

Peel and slice the apples thin. Combine the rest of the ingredients and toss into the apples until evenly coated. Put apples in pie shell and bake in the oven at 350F for approximately 20 minutes or until apples are soft and crust is browned. If the crust starts to brown before the apples cook, cover it with tinfoil and bake until done.


Then eat it warm with ice cream. MMMMMM!

Black Rice Pudding with Mangoes and Thai Iced Tea

Okay, I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, but Thai iced tea is really not good for you. It's got artificial colors in it. And if you drink it the way they do in Thailand, you mix it with sweetened condensed milk and drink it over ice. The north American version is slightly better, you have it with half and half, or whole milk. But don't by any means think this drink is good for you, or that you should have it every day. I have it a few times a year, when we make fancy Thai meal.
end disclaimer.

Thai Iced Tea


For Thai Iced tea:

Thai iced tea mix


sweetened condensed milk

Brew the tea in boiling water for at least 10 minutes to get really strong flavor. Pour it through a fine mesh strainer to remove all of the leaves. Let it cool and then set it in the fridge to chill. Serve over ice with sweetened condensed milk to taste, stir together and drink. If you want to use cream instead it's fun to pour it in on top of the tea and let it sit in layers until your guests stir it together. The Thai iced tea you get in restaurants is usually 1/3 cream.

For an appetizer:

shrimp crackers



These little crackers are raw and you have to fry them yourself in oil before serving. Their puffy and have a nice texture, and again shouldn't be eaten all the time, just on special occasions.

For dessert: Black Rice pudding with mango

purple sticky rice/ or black glutinous rice


fresh ginger

palm or brown sugar


coconut milk 240mL


coconut cream 120mL


diced mango

Preparation:

Rinse and drain the rice. Put 1 cup rice in a heavy saucepan with 2 1/2 cups of water and 1 tbsp finely chopped ginger. Bring to a boil. Cover, and lower the heat simmer for about 40 minutes, or until the rice is soft.

Stir in 3/4 cup of palm sugar, or brown sugar if you can't find palm sugar, and 1 cup of coconut milk. Simmer another 10 minutes. Cool to room temp and serve with diced mango and a drizzle of coconut cream over the top. Serves 4 unless you're like me and use tiny bowls.

This concludes the menu for Thai Turkey dinner. Our own favorite family turkey dinner. I hope you enjoy it.

Thai Spring Roll Salad with Peanut Sauce Dressing

This is the salad to go with the Thai Turkey Dinner. The shopping list is here in yesterday's post.

But here it is again so you don't have to go looking.

1 pound large prawns-peeled

Napa Cabbage

Green leaf lettuce

Mung bean sprouts

carrots

mint

cilantro

Thai Basil


For the dressing,

1/2 cup natural chunky peanut butter

1 tbsp peanut oil

1/4 cup onion, finely diced

1 1/2 tsp fresh ginger, minced

1 garlic clove, diced

1 tbsp fish sauce

3/4 cup Chicken stock

1 tsp Red Curry Paste


1 1/2 tbsp hoisin sauce


8-12 limes, juiced

Preparation:

It's best to make the dressing ahead, it refrigerates quite well for a day or two and only needs to be returned to room temperature to pour.

Heat the oil in a saucepan over high heat. Saute the onion, ginger and garlic for 1 minute until soft.

Add the fish sauce, chicken stock, curry paste, hoisin sauce and lime juice. Simmer on medium heat until the chicken stock is warm. Turn off the heat and whisk in the peanut butter until it is melted. You only want the peanut butter to be warm enough to mix, you don't want to cook or it will turn into a greasy lump. Learn from my mistake, don't do this.

You want it to be thin enough to pour so if it is still too thick whisk in some more water or broth. It with thicken when cool, but pour again when brought back to room temperature.

For the salad:

Rough cut the cabbage, tear the butter leaf lettuce. and shred the carrot. Add the bean sprouts, and leaves from the basil, mint, and cilantro. You can't really over do the fresh herbs, they are what makes this salad so very interesting.

As I mentioned yesterday, you will flash cook the prawns in the turkey gravy and let cool. (If you aren't making Thai turkey, you can substitute tom yum paste, red curry, tamarind water, and kecap manis for a shrimp marinade.) When you are ready to serve the salad scatter the prawns on top and either serve with dressing on the side, or stir it all in before serving. That is all. Prepare to listen to every one enjoy their salad.

Tomorrow, dessert of black rice pudding, and how to make Thai iced tea.

Thai Turkey Dinner-Shopping list, turkey recipe, pineapple fried rice recipe

As promised, here is part one of how to make a Thai Turkey Dinner. I started with the complete shopping list, and found some of the more exotic items for you online. So I've done all the hard work. :) Below the shopping list is the Turkey recipe and order of preparation for the rest of the meal.

You will need:

For the Turkey

one small turkey- less than 10 lbs is best, for a larger bird you will want to marinate an extra 24 hours but the flavor still won't be as intense.

*Tom Yum paste

lemon grass (Lots, 10 stalks or so)


kaffir lime leaves

galangaal root

Thai red chili

(the lime leaves, galangaal, and chili are all in this handy little fresh mailer package from Amazon, with extra lemon grass. I didn't even know you could get this until today.)


tamarind paste


toasted sesame oil


fish sauce


brown sugar

garlic cloves

For the salad:

Napa Cabbage

1 pound large prawns-peeled

Green leaf lettuce

Mung bean sprouts

carrots

mint

cilantro

Thai Basil

For the dressing,

12 oz natural chunky peanut butter

peanut oil

onion

fresh ginger

1 garlic clove (You already have this for the turkey)

fish sauce (You already have this for the Turkey)

Chicken stock

Red Curry Paste


hoisin sauce


8-12 limes

For the Rice:

brown jasmine rice



dried wood ear mushrooms


green onions

For the rice variation:

1 onion

4 garlic cloves

1 pineapple

For Thai Iced tea:

Thai iced tea mix


sweetened condensed milk

For an appetizer:

shrimp crackers



For dessert: Black Rice pudding with mango

purple sticky rice/ or black rice


fresh ginger

palm or brown sugar


coconut milk 240mL


coconut cream 120mL


diced mango


To make the Turkey:

If frozen thaw in time to marinate for a day before hand.

Make tamarind water:
Put 3-4 tbsp dried tamarind pulp in a bowl and add 1/2 cup of hot water. Let it it soak for about 20 minutes, stir it to break up the lumps. When the pulp is soft strain it through a fine sieve, keeping the liquid. Press on the pulp to get out all of the liquid. Keep the water, toss the pulp.

To the tamarind water add

2 cups tom yum paste

1/3 cup sesame oil

1/2 cup fish sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar or kecap manis

Stir together. This is your marinade.

Put the turkey in a large pot, or clean plastic bag and pour the marinade in. Marinate over night and longer the larger your turkey is. Turn often.

On the day off, follow the instructions for length of cooking based on size of bird. Place the turkey breast down in a large roasting pan. We always roast birds with the breast down so the the juices run into instead of out of the breast and keep it moist. (Trick from my grandma). Inside stuff crushed garlic cloves, kaffir limes leaves, lots of sliced lemon grass, sliced galangaal root, and whole Thai chilies. This is all for flavor, you won't eat any of it.
Pour all of the marinade into the pan as well, don't worry if the bird sits in it a little, that's good. I don't generally baste at all, but with this one we baste once about half way through cooking and keep it tented with foil the rest of the time until 20 minutes or so before we take it out. Cook it on the lowest possible heat, say 250, until it is cooked all the way through, usually 3-4 hours. (Think slow cooker.) Another grandma trick, the turkey is done when you can shake hands with it. The leg moves easily when you try to move it. This turkey will not dry out if you over cook it a bit, so err on the side of done.

Once the turkey is cooked remove it from the oven and place on a board. Tent it with the foil and let it rest. This turkey usually falls apart it's so moist and doesn't usually need to be carved, but you can try. There should be a lot of drippings in the bottom which is great. You will need it for other things.

Brown rice with Wood ear mushrooms

Now start cooking your rice. This takes a while so be ready to go as soon as the Turkey is done, or steal some drippings while it's still in the oven. Break up the wood ear mushrooms into small pieces and add to the dry rice. Then cook the rice according to package directions, but one third of your liquid will be the drippings from the turkey. More if you like really intense flavor.

Slice the green onions and stir into the rice when it is done. Garnish with some fresh cilantro and serve. This is the easy version and it's tasty.

Pineapple fried rice variation

For a variation that is fun turn this into a variation of pineapple fried rice. Cut a pineapple in half and hollow out the shells. Cube the pineapple flesh.

In a wok over high heat stir fry 1 chopped onion until it's soft. Add 4 minced garlic cloves, and stir fry for half a minute then throw in the pineapple and rice from the cooker, as prepared above. Add salt and pepper to taste, and fish sauce with a bit of sugar if it's too dry. Stir in the sliced green onions and cilantro leaves and serve the rice in the hollowed out pineapple shells.

Preparing the prawns for the salad and making gravy

You will want to make gravy from the remaining turkey drippings while the rice is cooking.

In a heavy saucepan, simmer the drippings. In a bowl stir together 1/4 cup of cornstarch and one cup of cold water until the cornstarch is fully dissolved. As you pour the cornstarch mixture into the drippings, use your other hands to rapidly stir them together with a whisk. Pour slowly, stir like crazy, until it's all combined and smooth. Continue stirring until it starts to bubble. As soon the gravy is bubbling, throw the raw prawns into the pan for 2-3 minutes until they turn bright red. Fish them out with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Let them chill and keep them in the fridge until it's time to serve the salad. These will go with the salad, which I'll tell you how to make tomorrow. The sauce for the salad can be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated. The salad greens can also be partially assembled in the morning, or whenever you like on the day of.


*(I just spent a loong time trying to find online the Tom Yum paste that we use that doesn't have shrimp or msg in it. However, I can't remember the brand name and I don't have a jar in the fridge right now. The one on Amazon, I have used before and it tastes right, but it has MSG in it too. You could grab the basic ingredients, Lemon grass, onion garlic, galangaal, lime leaves, Thai red chilies, red curry paste, and blend them all in a mortar and pestle, or food processor and fry them in oil and then store in a jar in the fridge. )

Thai Turkey Dinner

Four years ago I had just given birth to my daughter and spent most of the holidays laying on the couch and watching other people take care of my house, and kitchen. The Genius Husband, who is a fabulous cook, and quite the foodie commandeered the preparation of the tiny turkey I had procured earlier. What followed was the best tasting, and most unique turkey dinner I had ever had. It tasted so good that our new menu for Thai Turkey has become a yearly event. If you are bored with turkey, or never really liked it much to begin with, and you are cooking for people who won't hang you for mixing it up a little bit, you'll like this. I will be posting recipes to go with this menu for the next few days, starting with the turkey and a shopping list. You'll need an Asian supply store.

The Menu

Thai turkey, turkey marinated and roasted in Thai seasonings until they caramelize.

Spring roll and prawn salad

Brown rice and mushroom pilaf

Black rice pudding with mangoes for dessert

When you eat turkey several times in a few short weeks, this is a refreshing variation on an old, old, theme.

**********
Those of you who mentioned more for less haven't been sneaking glances at my reading pile have you? I've got an original copy that I inherited from the GH's grandmother this summer that I'm perusing. I grew up in the large shadow cast by this book, and my Mennonite grandma. Now I finally have my own copy.