Fruit & Nut Curry

This is one of the first recipes we made at home straight out of college.  At the time we remember thinking it was so expensive and complicated.  Now it doesn't really seem that way. :)

Makes: 6 servings (1 serving = 1.5 ladles)

Cost per serving: coming soon

Calories per serving:  ~283 (excluding rice)

Ingredients:

•  half a large onion, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½" piece ginger, minced or grated
• 2 Thai chilies, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
• ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
• 3 medium tomatoes, chopped
• ¾ cup mixed nuts, coarsely chopped 
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• ¾ cup water
• 1½ tablespoons butter or ghee
• 4 dried apricots, chopped
• ½ cup raisins or sultanas
• 1 teaspoon salt (can omit if nuts are salted)

Saute onion in oil until it starts to brown - about 7 minutes.  Add garlic, ginger, and chilies, and saute another 3 minutes.  Add spices and saute until aromatic, about 2 minutes.  Add tomatoes and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.  Try to mash them up a bit as you go. 

Pour mixture into a container. Mash the tomatoes more depending on desired chunkiness. Very finely chop 1 tablespoon of the mixed nuts.  (Maybe you have a whole tablespoon of nut dust already just from the coarse chopping!)  Add this plus the yogurt and water to the mixture. Set aside.

In the same skillet, melt butter.  Add the remaining nuts and toast for 3 minutes.  Add apricots and sultanas and saute 1 minute.  Add the tomato/yogurt/etc mixture and salt.  Simmer 10-12 minutes to thicken.  Serve with rice.

Pad Thai

Probably not authentic, but easy and delicious nonetheless.

Sauce:

• Juice from 1-2 limes
• 2 Tblsp. soy sauce
• 1-2 Tblsp. fish sauce (I use 1 1/2 Tblsp.)
• 1 Tblsp. dried shrimp, finely chopped
• 2 Tblsp. brown/palm sugar

Rest of the ingredients:

• 1 Tblsp. cooking oil
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 Thai chili, finely chopped
• 1-2 chicken breasts, sliced thin
• 1/2 package (200 g) 5mm-wide rice noodles
• 1 cup soy bean sprouts
• 2 green onions, chopped into rings
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup peanuts (preferably unsalted), chopped

Put noodles in a bowl and pour boiling water over them to cover. Break apart the noodles a bit with a pasta spoon to keep them from sticking together. Let noodles sit in hot water until they are soft (about 10-15 minutes, which should be about enough time to slice/chop/prepare the other ingredients). Mix the ingredients for the sauce in a small cup or bowl. Heat oil in a wok or deep pot over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, crush garlic into it and add chopped chili. Immediately add chicken breast and fry until cooked through. Drain noodles and add them to chicken, stir briefly, and then add the sauce ingredients. Cook sauce until sugar is dissolved and the sauce begins to stick to the noodles. Add green onions and bean sprouts and stir to mix. Lower heat to medium. Then, push the noodle mixture to the side, and break an egg into the free space. Scramble egg, cook until semi-solid, and cut into strips with a spatula. When the egg is cooked through, stir it into the noodle mixture. Finally, stir in the chopped peanuts.

Makes two large servings.

Variations:

• to add shrimp to the basic recipe, omit one chicken breast. If shrimp is cooked, add to noodle mixture with bean sprouts and green onions. If shrimp is uncooked, I would probably fry it with the chicken (but I've never done this).
• if noodles are too spicy, omit the chili.
• if noodles aren't spicy enough, either add more chilis at the beginning or top finished noodles with ground dried red chilis.
• For more color and/or vegetables, add tomato slices to finished noodles and/or add sliced/shredded carrots or leeks to frying chicken when it is not quite cooked through. Alternatively, top with a few sprouts or sprinkle on some chopped peanuts.

Corn & Zucchini

This is a great side dish when you're having Mexican food!

Makes: 4 servings

Cost per serving (Heidelberg): ~€0,96

Calories per serving: ~97

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 large zucchini (yield about 2 cups when chopped), cubed
• 1 small can (140g dry weight) corn, or fresh corn if you can get it!
• 1 jalapeño, fresh or pickled, seeded or not seeded depending on how spicy you want it, finely chopped
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• salt
• pepper

Fry the onion and garlic in the oil for one minute.  Add zucchini and cook covered for 5 minutes.  Add corn and jalapeño, stir while cooking for 3 minutes.  Add tomato.  Cover and cook until zucchini is tender.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Kung Pao Chicken

Makes: 4 servings

Cost per serving (Heidelberg): €1,63 (excludes rice)

Calories per serving: 386

Ingredients:

Marinade:

• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons rice wine
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1½ teaspoons cornstarch

Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice wine
• 1 teaspoon sugar

The rest:

• 2 chicken breasts
• 8 small dried hot chili peppers, halved and de-seeded
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 scallions, cut into 1"/~2cm pieces
• 4 bunches baby bok choy, stalks cut into 1"/~2cm pieces
• 4 tablespoons cooking oil
• 1 teaspoon Szechuan peppercorns
• ½ cup cashews

Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and combine with marinade ingredients, adding the cornstarch last.  Marinate 25 minutes.

Mix the sauce ingredients and set aside.

Fry the chicken in 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high/high heat.  After it is almost done, remove it from the pan and set aside.  Add 2 more tablespoons oil.  Fry garlic until aromatic, then add chilis and peppercorns.  Fry briefly (until chilis have a redder color).  Add sauce, then chicken, peanuts, onions, and bok choy, in that order.  Stir together and remove from heat.

Eat with rice.

Basil Chicken

Makes: 2 servings

Cost per serving: ~€2,12 excluding rice, ~€2,26 including broken rice

Calories per serving: 440 excluding rice, 646 including one cup cooked rice

Ingredients:

• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 4 green onions, chopped
• 4 Thai chili peppers, finely chopped
• 2 chicken breasts, slivered
• ½-1 bunch Thai basil
• 1½ tablespoons fish sauce

Fry garlic and onions in 1 Tblsp. olive oil over medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Add the chili peppers and fry for a further minute. Add the chicken and cook until done. Remove from heat and stir in basil and fish sauce. Serve with rice.

Thai Red Chicken Curry

Makes: 4 servings

Cost per serving (Heidelberg): ~2,11€ (excludes rice)

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts, thinly sliced
• 2½ tablespoons red curry paste (we use the stuff from the Asian grocery, but you can make your own)
• 1 400-ml/14-oz can coconut milk
• 1½ tablespoons fish sauce
• 3 Thai chilis, sliced diagonally
• leaves from 1 bunch Thai basil
• a few kaffir lime leaves, torn (in frozen section at Asian grocery)
• 1½ teaspoons palm sugar (I recommend the solid kind - can substitute brown sugar)
• 1 can bamboo shoots

 Heat half the coconut milk over medium heat, then add curry paste.  Mix until even and the curry paste starts to form an oily sheen on the surface of the mixture.  (It will be bubbling.)

Add the chicken and stir until cooked through.  Then add the remaining coconut milk and the bamboo, followed by the chilis, fish sauce and sugar.  Stir until boiling.

Add basil and torn lime leaves, stir, and serve with rice.  You may want to pick out the lime leaves and chilis depending on taste.

* Red curry paste is somewhat spicy on its own; if you want limited spiciness you may want to omit the chilis.