quick

Thai Curry

This is one from the archives! Mom and I made this Thai curry frequently for an easy, quick, and incredibly delicious weeknight dinner. The whole family craves this; I have many memories of aching for it in the hours before 6pm, when mom promised dinner would be ready. Well, 6:15, to be more precise, as mom often was.

A couple of notes:

  • Curry paste is cheaper and tastier if you buy it at your local Asian market.

  • Looks like mom topped it with basil here. While not required, it looks fun!

Picture taken by mom

Thai Curry

INGREDIENTS

  • 1.5 tablespoons yellow curry paste

  • 1 can coconut milk

  • 3 tablespoons fish sauce (or vegan alternative)

  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar

  • ⅓ cup chicken or vegetable broth

  • 1 package extra firm tofu

  • vegetables of choice (peppers, onions, eggplant, tomatoes, carrots, celery,

    zucchini, chard, spinach, whatever you like—HBs like:

    • 1 onion, 

    • 1 sweet potato 

    • 3 long carrots 

    • 1 red pepper

  • Salt to taste

  • Rice prepared to your liking

INSTRUCTIONS

Prep: Place the tofu on and cover with paper towels and let sit for at least ten minutes to remove some of the liquid. Chop vegetables into uniform, bite-size pieces.

Start: Stir together curry paste and coconut milk in a large sauté pan over medium heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Then add fish sauce, brown sugar, and chicken broth to the coconut and curry mixture. Stir until combined. Add chopped vegetables, add some pinches salt, and cover the pot. Simmer for fifteen minutes or so, until tender crisp or to your taste. If using, you might want to add the red pepper 7 minutes later than everything else. 

While everything is simmering, cut the tofu into 3/4-inch squares. Once the vegetables are cooked, add the tofu to the pot for a few minutes, just long enough to warm it. Taste and add more salt if needed. Serve hot over rice and savor the deliciousness.

Mom’s notes: This is a convenient dish for when the refrigerator is overflowing with vegetables, or there is a meat shortage, or your beloved vegan cousin is coming over for dinner. Even before the girls left behind their “I hate vegetables stage,” they loved to eat this. 

Winter Festival Salad

Winter Festival Salad

As it turns out, Winter is one of my (Amelia) favorite seasons for produce.

Yes, Winter, not Summer.

The cold season where everything is supposed to be dead. But everything isn’t dead, and I see that now! Cabbage makes crunchy salads, cauliflower has buttery potential, pomegranates are truly edible gemstones, and my heart dances a little whenever I smell the fragrance of quince or taste a sweet persimmon.

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Lemon Blueberry Oven Pancake

Happy blueberry season everyone!

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To celebrate blueberries’ arrival, I (Amelia) thought we should all make a giant pancake. I adapted this from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe, adding lemon and vanilla, swapping the white sugar for brown, and using kosher salt instead of table for a more present flavor. The result was a perfect weekend breakfast, one that does not require individual flipping, scooping, and burning and feeling bad about yourself because you can’t even get pancakes right. Instead, you can enjoy the weekend with something delicious and simple.

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Lemon Blueberry Oven Pancake

Serves 5 

  • 3 tablespoons butter, melted

  • 3/4 cup (3.75 ounces) regular whole wheat flour

  • 3/4 cup (3.75 ounces) all-purpose flour

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

  • 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar

  • Zest of 1/2 medium lemon

  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • 1 1/4 cups buttermilk

  • 1 large egg

  • 1 1/2 cups blueberries

  • White sugar, for sprinkling


Heat the oven to 350 degrees, melt the butter in a medium bowl (doing this earlier will give it time to cool before it meets the egg), and grease a 9x 13-inch baking pan.

Mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt together in a large bowl. Whisk the brown sugar into the melted butter in a medium bowl, followed by the lemon zest, vanilla, buttermilk, and egg. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir with a spatula until just combined. Carefully dot the batter in blobs with the spatula over the pan (pouring it all in at once will make it much trickier to get an even layer) - it’s VERY thin! It will make you a little nervous, but just do your best to get all of the surface area covered and trust in the power of leaveners. Sprinkle the blueberries on top, followed by about 1/2 tablespoon of white sugar, and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Serve warm with your favorite syrup!

Chocolate chip oven pancake: Replace the blueberries with 1 cup of chocolate chips and omit the lemon zest, sprinkling the chocolate chips on and baking it just like the original.

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I would try to eat this within the first day. Leftovers look a little sad, though toasting helps.

Green Salad with Strawberries and Goat Cheese

Green Salad with Strawberries and Goat Cheese

My (Kate) friend Linda Eastley first introduced me to these flavor combinations at one of many happy meals I enjoyed at her home during those formative years when I was newly married and then starting to have children. I was thrilled a couple of summers ago when I made this salad for Amelia and saw how much she liked it.

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