foodiefanatics

We had an unusual combo tonight. I made spicy chocolate thighs (the recipe called for wings but we like thighs better) from RAchel Ray mag (Feb 09, I believe). These were really good if you like mole. Lots of chocolate flavor. I would have liked a bit more spice next time around. Then I also made a green curry soup that we poured on udon noodles (and when the noodles ran out, ate on rice). The sauce was excellent. I invented it (probably not even remotely authentic).

Green Curry Sauce a la Vasudeva
Mix 1/2 t turmeric, 1 T chopped garlic and 1/2t salt in a mortar and pestle until paste. Add 1 T green curry paste and 1/2 T red chile paste (if you have it).  Mush it up.
Heat 1 T canola oil in a large skillet and add the mush. Fry for about 1 minute.  Add one can coconut milk and 1/2 can water and 2t sugar.  Stir until the sauce thickens somewhat (about 5 minutes). Add 1 T fish sauce and 1/2 squeezed lime. Taste for salt. If  too salty, add more sugar until the tastes are balanced. Put your noodles or rice in a bowl (probably could do some quickly steamed veggies as well or tofu) and ladle the sauce over. 
I'm just finished up a turtle ice cream pie so I haven't tried it yet. It's from bon appetit march 09 and features a graham cracker toasted pecan crust with ice cream and home made caramel topped with chocolate ganache (which is what I'm working on right now).  The caramel is made of brown sugar which I'm not sure I favor when making caramel. But we'll see.

I've been cooking cookies. My son keeps asking for cookie dough. So I've made cookie recipes, cooked half and let him have the rest (I know all the concerns about raw eggs, but I've decided not to worry about that).  First, we made peanut butter with peanut butter filling (Martha Steward everyday March, 09). Vive loved the cookies. They are very rich and he even liked the filling which was peanut butter blended with sugar and added to a cooked milk/flour mixture.  Then we made chocolate chip from the NYT. They recently (well, it's probably been over a year) had a feature of three different types of chocolate chip cookies. We did the soft version and they were great as well (but I have to say, I don't like Trader Joe's chocolate chips they are more sweet than chocolate).  Today, we made sugar cookies from the Betty Crocker Cookie book. This is an eggless cookie with corn starch that, when cooked, bakes up light and soft.

This has been a busy couple of weeks.  I've made spicy carrots with parsley and cilantro from food and wine (march, 2005) with my CSA veggies. I actually added broccoli and it was really tasty. I'll make that again. We served it both warm and cold and liked it better cold. 
I made a pea shoot stir fry which was kind of just like green things with garlic. I still haven't found a pea shoot recipe I really like.
Traditional hashbrowns "21" club from gourmet Nov. 1995. These were very yummy. You boil potatoes then fry them with onions, butter and oil. 
German Apple Pancake from Cooks Illustrated (Jan/Feb 2003) which actually wasn't very good. It didn't puff but instead was kind of like a firm custard (sort of). Didn't have a lot of flavor.
Pasta with vodka and cream.  The kids liked this but I found it a bit too mild.  Plus my Parmesan cheese didn't really melt which was strange. 
I made my own Caesar dressing (well, I don't think it's really Caesar) but it works and it uses what's in the fridge. I took mayo, dijon, worcestershire a bit of olive oil, garlic and bal vinegar and whipped it up.  It needed to be thinned with a bit of fresh lime (lemon would probably work too). Very flavorful and everyone loved it.