Shrimp and Coconut Curry with Green Beans

Yum! This recipe for Shrimp and Coconut Curry with Green Beans is one of those recipes that you won't believe you can actually make something that tastes this good. It's nice and rich and the green beans are a fun ingredient to have in curry.

Shrimp and Coconut Curry with Green Beans 4 Servings 3/4 pound green beans, trimmed, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces 3 lemongrass stalks 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro 2/3 cup coarsely chopped shallots 1/4 cup coarsely chopped seeded jalapeno chiles 2 tablespoons Indian curry powder (such as Madras) 1 tablespoon coarsely chopped peeled fresh ginger 1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil plus sliced leaves (for garnish) 1/4 cup water 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 cups canned unsweetened coconut milk 2 1/2 pounds uncooked medium shrimp, peeled, deveined Lime wedges

Cook beans in large pot of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Drain. Cut 2 inches from bottom of each lemongrass stalk; discard tops. Thinly slice bottom pieces; place in processor. Add next 5 ingredients, chopped basil, and 1/4 cup water. Blend until paste forms.

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add curry paste; cook, stirring often, until dry, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in coconut milk; bring to simmer. Add shrimp; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until shrimp are just opaque in center, about 5 minutes. Add green beans; stir to heat through. Season curry with salt and pepper. Transfer 2 cups curry to bowl; cover, chill and reserve for quesadillas. Transfer remaining curry to serving bowl; garnish with basil. Serve with lime wedges and Fresh Orange-Apple Chutney.

Fresh Orange-Apple Chutney

This is some tasty chutney, but I probably wouldn't have made it just on it's own. It is used for the Shrimp and Coconut Curry with Green Beans recipe from the December, 2010 issue of Bon Appetit magazine. There's lots of chopping involved in this one and there is tons left over. But it goes great on all kinds of leftovers (see the recipe for Spicy Shrimp Quesadillas).

Fresh Orange-Apple Chutney Makes 2 cups 1½ navel oranges 1 Golden Delicious apple, peeled, cored, cut into ⅓-inch cubes 1/2 red onion, coarsely chopped 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro 1 tablespoon chopped seeded jalapeno chile 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar 1 tablespoon agave nectar or honey 1 teaspoon (generous) garam masala 1 teaspoon minced peeled fresh ginger

Cut and peel all white pith from oranges, following contour of fruit. Cut segments into ⅓-inch cubes; place in medium bowl. Add all remaining ingredients; toss to blend. Season with salt.

Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover and chill.

Cherry Tomato Pizza Margherita

I'm on a quest to make GOOD homemade pizza. I'm also on a quest to use up all the cherry tomatoes growing in my garden. So it was time to try the recipe for Cherry Tomato Pizza Margherita from the April, 2010 issue of Bon Appetit magazine which I have been holding on to for a few months.

I was looking for refrigerated pizza dough at Whole Foods and couldn't find any. Finally one of the employees told me I could get pizza dough from the guys who make the pizza! How exiting is that? So I went over to the corner and had a choice between regular (which I still think is made with whole wheat flour) or multi-grain. I chose the multi-grain. It was only about $2.50 and I got about 22 ounces of dough. I was also advised that I could freeze it if I didn't use within 24 hours.

So home I went all excited with my fresh pizza dough and buffalo mozzarella. I went out back to pick tomatoes off the vine and clip off some basil. I confess that my buddy did most of the work... he wanted to try and flip/spin the pizza dough up in the air so I let him have at it. The dough was foreign for us to work with. We ended up making this recipe three times in one week while trying to perfect it and we learned that adding a bit of flour helped alot! And after watching a few videos about flipping pizza dough, my buddy is becoming quite talented at it.

I worked on the tomatoes. And the tomatoes were so tasty after we finished with all the seasoning, we were drinking the leftover juice!

In this recipe they advise to spread the cheese out all over the dough and then dollop the tomato mixture on top. This seems opposite of what we were used to - spreading tomato sauce on the dough and sprinkling with cheese. But it comes out really well so if you try this, I recommend following their instructions. Yum!

Cherry Tomato Pizza Margherita Serves 4 1 13.8-ounce tube refrigerated pizza dough 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 1 12-ounce bag cherry tomatoes, stammed 1 garlic clove, pressed 1/2 teaspoon fenndl seeds, coarsely crushed in plastic bag 1/4 teaspoon diced crushed red pepper 1 4-ounce ball fresh mozzarella in water (ovoline), diced 4 ounces whole-milk mozzarella, diced 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil leaves plus small leaves for garnish

Position rack in top of oven and preheat to 425° F. Unroll dough on heavy large baking sheet; pull to about 12x8-inch rectangle, pinching any tears to seal. Fold over edge of dough to make border.

Heat large skillet over high heat 2 minutes. Add oil, then tomatoes, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Saute until tomatoes are charred and beginning to break down, about 5 minutes. Transfer to large bowl. Mix in garlic, fennel and crushed red pepper. Using back of fork, crush tomatoes in bowl, leaving large chunks intact. Season mixture with salt and pepper. Toss cheeses and chopped basil in medium bowl.

Sprinkle cheese mixture evenly over dough, right up to border. Spoon on tomato mixture in dollops, leaving some cheese uncovered. Bake pizza until crust is crisp and brown, 25 to 30 minutes.

Loosen pizza with metal spatula and slide onto board. Garnish with basil leaves.

Barley Stew with Leeks, Mushrooms and Greens

I've been trying to make some type of homemade soup or stew every week for a while now - usually vegetarian too. This is because I'm trying to eat healthier and soups/stews are a great way to play with new grains and vegetables. And it's nice to take for lunch once or twice during the week or else just have around the house for a night when I don't feel like cooking. I love the classic barley and mushroom combo and this stew is a traditional take on those flavors.

Barley Stew with Leeks, Mushrooms and Greens Serves 6 1 tablespoon olive oil, divided 1 1/2 cups chopped leeks (about 2 small stalks; white and pale green parts only) 1 8-ounce container sliced crimini (baby bella) mushrooms 2 garlic cloves, pressed 2 1/4 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary 1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice 1 cup pearl barley 4 cups (or more) vegetable broth 1 bunch kale (about 8 ounces), trimmed, center stalks removed, leaves coarsely chopped (about 8 cups packed)

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add leeks; sprinkle with salt and pepper and sauté until leeks begin to soften, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, garlic, and rosemary; increase heat to medium-high and sauté until mushrooms soften and begin to brown, stirring often, about 7 minutes. Add tomatoes with juice; stir 1 minute. Add barley and 4 cups broth; bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until barley is almost tender, about 20 minutes. Add kale; stir until wilted, about 1 minute. Cover and simmer until kale and barley are tender, adding more broth by 1/4 cupfuls as needed for desired stew consistency, about 10 minutes.

Azteca Squash Soup

There's nothing like a batch of yummy and healthy soup when it's cold outside! I found this recipe for Azteca Squash Soup under as "Spa Food at Home" section in the December, 2008 issue of Bon Appétit Magazine. While this is not a quick soup, it feels good because you make it in little parts throughout the day. And roasting the butternut squash makes your house smell great! Save some time and use an immersion blender if you have one instead of transferring batches of soup to a blender and pureeing a bit at a time.

Azteca Squash Soup 8 servings Nonstick vegetable oil spray 1 1½-pound butternut squash, halved lengthwise,seeded 1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil 1¾ cups chopped onion 1 cup chopped celery 2 garlic cloves, chopped 6 cups (or more) vegetable broth, divided 1 tsp. group cumin 1 cup canned black beans, rinsed, drained 1 cup frozen corn kernels 1 cup chopped red bell pepper ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro plus sprigs for garnish 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh thyme 1 tsp. minced seeded serrano chile Coarse sea salt Plain nonfat yogurt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray baking sheet with nonstick spray. Sprinkle cut halves of squash with salt and pepper. Arrange, cut side down, on prepared sheet. Roast squash until tender, about 1½ hours. Turn squash cut side up and cool. Scoop squash out into medium bowl.

Heat oil in a heavy large pot over medium heat. Add 1¾ cups chopped onion and saute until pale golden, about 10 minutes. Mix in 1 cup chopped celery and 2 chopped garlic cloves. Add 1 cup broth. Cover and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add squash, 5 cups of broth, and cumin. Cover and simmer 20 minutes to blend flavors.

Working in batches, puree squash soup in blender until smooth. When finished pureeing all batches, return all soup to pot. Thin squash soup to desired consistency with more vegetable broth. Add 1 cup black beans, 1 cup corn kernels, 1 cup chopped red bell pepper, ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme, and 1 teaspoon minced serrano chile. Cover soup and simmer 10 minutes. Season soup to taste with coarse salt and pepper.

Ladle soup into bowls. Garnish each with dollop of yogurt and sprig of cilantro

Potato, Greens and Goat Cheese Quesadillas

While I was flipping through my stack of foodie magazines I came across this recipe for Potato, Greens and Goat Cheese Quesadillas in the March, 2008 issue of Bon Appetit Magazine. I was looking for something simple and tasty and what is a more perfect fit for that than quesadillas?

This recipe claims to take 35 minutes to prepare but I'm sure I spent more than an hour on it. I might be a bit rusty as I have been out of the kitchen for a bit, but preparing the potatoes and shredding the cheese seemed to take a half hour all in itself.

These quesadillas came out good but hot. They definitely have an interesting taste combination - the mustard greens and jalapeno cheese are spicy and the potatoes and goat cheese are to cool things down. I think I made a mistake though because I used some habanero cheese from Costco and it really flared up the taste of the mustard greens making it all pretty hot. I have never had mustard greens before and they remind me of horseradish! I ended up with alot more of the potato mixture and greens than I could fill the quesadillas with. I think I could have made 8 instead of 4 with this recipe. But it was a nice snack and definitely interesting. I may make them again for a dinner party, but this time I will use jalapeno cheese as suggested!

Creole Sausage and Shrimp

Although this recipe for Andouille Sausage and Shrimp with Creole Mustard Sauce is featured in the February, 2007 issue of Bon Appetit Magazine, it was brought to my attention by Becky from Key Lime and Coconut. She reviewed this recipe and used it as her submission for her Weekend Herb Blogging entry a few weeks ago. I hope Becky knows that imitation is supposed to be the highest form of flattery . . . because I am totally copying off of her. Not only did I make the recipe for dinner tonight, but I'm also going to use it as my entry for this week's Weekend Herb Blogging which is being hosted by Tomatom. I was going to do something else, but I ended up with a thyme story so I figured I'd write about it here.


First of all, the recipe . . . Make this. Go out and buy yourself a pound of shrimp, some spicy sausage, creole mustard and creole seasoning. You will be happy you did. It's pretty easy to make and is nice because it only uses one pot. The hardest part was taking the shells off of the shrimp but you can purchase them without shells to make it even easier. I had one issue with the recipe because my sauce did not thicken in two minutes. It took mine more like 8 minutes and I was worried that the veggies would over-cook but the whole thing came out just perfect. This dish has a bit of spice to it, but it's wonderful spice. The flavors are just amazing and it's super satisfying. Now for the thyme. . .


Thyme is a Mediterranean herb but it grows easily in many parts of the world and has become a standard for various ethnic cuisines. The thyme leaves are tiny and by the time I got mine home, they had folded and looked more like an evergreen than small parsley. This recipe calls for chopped fresh thyme. I have one of those Pampered Chef food choppers so all I have to do is pill up my herbs and then stomp, stomp, stomp . . . it's all chopped. Well, most herbs anyways. This was not the case with the thyme. My normal practice is to chop the herbs stems and all. Those thyme stems are some tough suckers! I kept chopping and chopping and they wouldn't break down fine enough. I brought out the knife but they just weren't cooperating. So my advise is to take the time to pull the leaves off of the stems when working with thyme. This was definitely a learning experience for me with using fresh herbs. But isn't that what this is all about?

Andouille Sausage and Shrimp with Creole Mustard Sauce 4 to 6 servings Ingredients: 1 pound uncooked peeled deveined large shrimp 1 tablespoon Creole or Cajun seasoning* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided 1 pound andouille sausage, cut crosswise on diagonal into 3/4-inch-thick pieces 1 large onion, halved, thinly sliced 1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1/3-inch-wide strips 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme 1 cup low-salt chicken broth 5 tablespoons Creole mustard (such as Zatarain's) 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

Instructions:
Toss shrimp with Creole seasoning in medium bowl to coat. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large skillet over high heat. Add sausage pieces, cut side down. Cook until browned on both sides, about 5 minutes. Transfer sausage to bowl. Add shrimp to skillet; cook until browned and just opaque in center, about 3 minutes. Transfer to bowl with sausage. Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil, onion, bell pepper, and thyme to skillet. Sauté until vegetables are beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Add broth, mustard, and vinegar. Stir until sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Return sausage and shrimp to skillet. Simmer until heated through, stirring occasionally, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.