Kitchen Success & Failure

Isn’t it amazing how one minute, you can make something truly spectacular in your kitchen, then the next, you have an epic fail? That’s been my kitchen in the past 24 hours.

As I had mentioned, last night I was baking biscotti for the BSI – Coconut winner, and it just did not turn out. Oh, it has the look & texture of biscotti, so from a structural standpoint, it gets a thumbs up. But it has ZERO flavour. It smelled great when I was mixing it up and baking it, but now it tastes like nothing. So upsetting. I don’t even think it’s worth saving, just because it tastes like nothing really. I’m not 100% sure where it went wrong, so I’ll have to revisit the drawing board on that one. And make a back up batch tomorrow night while I’m watching the hockey game of a recipe that I know rocks!

But enough of my craptastic biscotti. Let’s look at some good eats!

When I was home for Easter, my mom cooked some jasmine rice one supper, and it just smelled and tasted so good, I knew I had to pick some up next time I went shopping. Normally, I’m a brown basmati rice kinda gal, but it’s nice to mix it up every once in a while.

So, what goes with jasmine rice? How about a fragrant Thai red curry!

I perused my favourite Asian cookbook – The Essential Asian Cookbook (which unfortunately, is out of print!) – to get a feel for Thai curries, and then I went to town with what I had.

Thai Prawn Red Curry

Serves 3 –4

• 1 tbsp oil
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 tbsp red curry paste
• 1 can (400 mL) light coconut milk
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1 carrot, thinly sliced on diagonal
• 1 small orange pepper, sliced
• 140 g green beans, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
• 6 lime leaves
• 250 g raw prawns (peeled & deveined)
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• juice & zest of 1 lime
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• basil to garnish

1. Heat wok & oil. Add onion and curry paste and stirfry for 1 min.
2. Add coconut milk & water, then bring to boil.
3. Add carrot, green beans, pepper, and lime leaves, and simmer for 10 min.
4. Add prawns, and simmer for 5 – 6 min, until pink.
5. Stir in fish sauce, juice & zest of lime, and brown sugar.
6. Serve with rice & garnish with basil.

My house smelled soooooo good! And even though this turned out a little more soupy than I had planned, when you add the rice to the dish, it soaks up alot of that curry, so you can still eat it with the chopsticks! I think if I’d used regular coconut milk, it might have helped it thicken a little bit more. But flavour wise, it was excellent. It had that flavour balance you expect from thai food – spicy, sweet, sour. You could easily mix up the veggies depending on what you had on hand, or use chicken or tofu instead of the shrimp. Definitely a keeper!

After dinner I went to the gym. I got in 32 min on the stationary bike, then 20 min of upper body strength work. You might not have noticed, but I took a little time off from the gym for a few days, and pretty much laid low from alot of physical exercise. I was starting to have joint pain throughout most of my lower body, my back issues were flaring up, and one of my elbows was giving me troubles. I figured a few good rest days, followed by a slower return to my regular gym routine would be a good idea. So far, so good!

After I got home, I cleaned up my mess in the kitchen, then did up a little date sampler snack plate

Three medjools, three different fillings. In the front, we have chunky peanut butter with a little raspberry jam. To the right, vanilla cranberry peanut butter. And in the back, Peanut Butter & Co. White Chocolate Wonderful with a few chocolate chips. I haven’t had medjools in forever! I’m almost all out, and when I went to Costco on the weekend they didn’t have any It makes me sad.

Well, that about sums up this Monday in my world. Time to watch the news and hit the sack. Night!