Category Archives: Meats

{Food Revolution Fridays} Thai Green Curry

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It’s FOOD REVOLUTION FRIDAY, and if you aren’t on board with Jamie Oliver’s campaign to change the way Americans eat, you can read all about it here.  Sign the petition.  Help our children have a healthy future.

This bright and fresh Thai Green Curry recipe is from Jamie’s Food Revolution cookbook (that has a ton of super-delicious recipes like this one).  It’s full of spring vegetables like asparagus and snow peas, and is covered with a flavorful homemade green curry sauce.  It can be made with shrimp or chicken, or even tofu.  Once again, brilliant.

 

Thai Green Curry

adapted from Jamie’s Food Revolution Cookbook by Jamie Oliver

serves 2

Ingredients

  • 2 stalks lemongrass, outer leaves discarded, crushed
  • 4 scallions, trimmed
  • 3 fresh green chiles, halved and seeded
  • 4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
  • 1 (2-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
  • 1 large bunch fresh cilantro, some leaves reserved for garnish
  • 1 teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed
  • 8 fresh or dried kaffir lime leaves (optional)
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce
  • 1 tablespoon peanut oil or vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  • 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined, or 2 chicken boneless, skinless fillets sliced into strips
  • 1/2 cup snow peas
  • 1 (14-ounce) can coconut milk
  • 1 large bunch asparagus, julienned
  • 1 lime
  • Chopped red chile, for garnish (optional)
  • Cooked basmati rice, for serving

Directions

  1. Using the heel of your hand, crush lemongrass and add to the bowl of a food processor along with scallions, green chiles, garlic, ginger, cilantro, coriander seeds, and lime leaves. Process until finely chopped. With the processor running, add soy and fish sauce. Continue processing until a smooth paste is formed.
  2. Heat a large skillet or wok over high heat and add peanut/vegetable and sesame oil; swirl to coat. Add shrimp or chicken and stir and cook until no longer pink;  add curry paste, snow peas, and asparagus and cook, stirring constantly, for about 3 minutes. Add the coconut milk and stir to combine. Cook until heated through, about more minutes. Squeeze lime over curry and garnish with cilantro leaves and red chile; serve with rice.

PRINTER FRIENDLY RECIPE

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Not Your Momma’s Meatloaf {Barefoot Bloggers}

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Meatloaf.  It’s what’s for dinner.  Or so I told my family.  They weren’t thrilled at the idea, the husband having flashbacks of dry, tasteless meatloaf, and the children having flashes of television shows where meatloaf is the enemy of child-kind.

But the rule is ‘you have to taste it’ at my house, so they did.  And guess what, Mikey?  They liked it.  This Ina Garten recipe for Individual Meat Loaves for this week’s Barefoot Bloggers turned out to be surprisingly delicious.

Here’s what I think made the difference:  First, you begin with sauteed onions, cooked until soft so they melt into the meat instead of staying crunchy.  Secondly, chicken broth is mixed in along with the other ingredients which keeps it from being too dry, like meatloaf sometimes tends to be.

Want to hear your husband say “this is the best meatloaf I’ve ever had”?  Click here to get the recipe a give it a go.

Ina’s Pork Loin And Barefoot Bloggers OUTRAGEOUS Brownies

Posted in Desserts, Meats by

BB Picnik collage

Once while in college, my boyfriend and I and another couple had gotten together to grill some steaks for dinner.  After my friend and I chatted and had a drink or two, the guys brought the finished steaks inside.  As I was cutting into mine, I spotted something green on the steak.  “What is this…grass?”, I asked.  After a lot of man-laughing, they told me they had dropped one of the steaks on the ground.  “Why’d you give it to me?”, I said.  Of course, the gentlemanly thing would have been for one of them to eat it.  But what did they do?  They just wiped it off and put it back on the grill and let whoever get that one.  I took my boyfriend’s steak and gave him the grassy one.

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Barefoot Bloggers Chinese Chicken Salad

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bb-chinese-chicken-salad

Today I received an email from my best friend/college roommate saying she joined Facebook and that I should “get my butt on there, girl!”  Apparently, she has recently joined and reunited with all our sorority sisters, her high school graduating class, her first boyfriend in kindergarten – well, maybe not him (yet).

I have other friends who are on it, too, but I just can’t bring myself to put it all out there like that.  I know, I know, you can choose who can see your page, and refuse to be “friends”, but this is a Southern girl you’re talking to and we don’t like to hurt anyone’s feelings, you know?

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Monday Red Beans And Rice

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red beans and rice

Last summer I came across a reference online to a cookbook called Screen Doors and Sweet Tea by Martha Hall Foose, and well, the title had me at ‘screen doors’.  I promptly went to Amazon and ordered it, and it turned out to be even better than I imagined.

This book is full of traditional and contemporary Southern recipes from the author’s native Mississippi and I am slowly making my way through each one.  Since I love to read and to cook, I really enjoy cookbooks like this one that have stories and history along with the recipes. Continue reading →

Muscle Building Homemade Mayo And Cashew Curry Chicken Salad

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cashew chicken salad

I was inspired to make my own mayonnaise this weekend.  Let me tell you, it was TOUGH ON THE FOREARM.  You have to whisk, whisk, whisk, the whole time you are S-L-O-W-L-Y adding the oil.  A cup and a half of oil didn’t seem like a lot to whisk at first, but I think it multiplied while I was working!  The kitchen got a little shower of oil when I found out I’m not quite as coordinated with my left hand.  It makes me wonder whether you could make it work in the ol’ Kitchenaid.  I’m trying that next time.

We don’t really use much mayonnaise in my house, actually, I’m the only one who eats it and not that often.  The husband has sworn it off, along with Chinese fast food and pretty much lunch altogether (it’s a lot like this).  I don’t tell him it’s in the pimento cheese.

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Barefoot Bloggers Real Meatballs And Spaghetti

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meatballs and spaghetti

When I was a new bride, I already had a few dishes in my cooking repertoire, but I wanted to learn to make some of my husband’s favorite dishes, too.  So I asked his mother to teach me to make these recipes, and one of them was spaghetti.

Here’s what she puts in:  onion, ground beef, tomato sauce (sounds pretty ordinary so far, right?), ketchup, tomato soup, thyme, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and 1/3 cup of sugar.  Not that it tastes bad or anything, I mean I had eaten it a few times before and it tasted fine, but not only is it way different than what I learned to make from my mother, but it’s almost like sacrilege to even call it spaghetti sauce, what with all the crazy things it contains.  My brain just can’t seem to accept it as spaghetti sauce.

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Parts Is Parts Venison Stew

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Venison Stew

My husband is a hunter.  It’s his hobby, pastime, passion.  He brings home the bacon in both senses.  And I like the idea of getting some of our meat from the wild instead of a grocery store.

I was raised, however, in the era of the cleaned and washed, plastic wrapped, part-labeled meat package.  Very neat and tidy with no confusion as to what piece of meat you have.  To my dismay, the person who does the packaging of the meat my husband brings him is not too concerned with which part is which, there are no labels at all.  Obviously, to him “parts is parts”.

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Tickle Your Taste Buds Crispy Apricot Pork Chops

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Crispy Pork Chops

I have read that children have a greater number and more sensitive taste buds than adults.  I have also seen it noted that it can take a child anywhere from 10 to 20 tries of a new food before they develop a taste for the food.  Also, around the age of seven is when children begin to be more open to the idea of trying new foods.  Lucky for me, my children have just arrived at that magical age!  Not so lucky for them, I now get to flex my wings and dive into the vast expanse of the produce section.

Gone are the canned green beans and frozen corn.  Today there will be eggplant, zucchini, arugula, butternut squash and even (gasp) turnips!  Beans of every variety and melon and grapefruit.  I might only be able to convince them to taste one bite, but that’ll do for now. Continue reading →