Pineapple Curry

Tonight we tried another recipe from Quick & Easy Thai Cuisine - this one a Pineapple Curry with Shrimp. Like all the curries we've tried from this cookbook, the list of ingredients is fairly short, and the recipe is even shorter. For this you combine 6 ingredients in a pot, bring it to a boil, add shrimp, and cook until the shrimp are done. One pot cooking at it's finest.

We did adapt the recipe slightly, as Dan & I both enjoy a thicker curry. This one is more of a soup, so I mixed about a teaspoon or two of cornstarch with cold water, whisked it up, and added it to the curry to get it to thicken.

I liked how you smell the curry first, but the sweetness of the pineapple comes through when you taste it, then the heat of the curry. Our batch was fairly spicy, but that all depends on what type of red curry paste you buy, I suppose.

Pineapple Curry with Shrimp
14 oz can coconut milk
1 cup crushed canned pineapple
2 Tbspn red curry paste
1/4 cup fish sauce
1 1/2 Tbspn sugar
2 Tbspn lemon juice
1/2 lb shrimp, shelled and deveined

Combine all ingredients, except shrimp, in a pot and bring to a boil. Add shrimp and cook until done. Serve with Jasmine rice.

Spicy Thai Curry Mac & Cheese

We put Mac & Cheese on the menu tonight, but on my walk home from work I had an idea for a cookbook that made me want to try something new with the recipe.



I'm reading a book called Will Write for Food, which I bought with the aim of improving my ability to write about the food I eat. It covers a variety of areas of food writing, from restaurant reviews to food history journalism, to writing recipes and cookbooks. Since I'm a complete cookbook addict, there's a kernel of desire inside me that would love to self publish a cookbook. A recent chapter I read talked about how to decide topics for writing, including cookbooks, and the bottom line is specificity is key to appealing to a specific demographic and standing out among the thousands of cookbooks on the market.



With that in mind, I was thinking about our meal plan for tonight, and how Mac & Cheese has got to be one of the top 5 classic American comfort foods - and making the same version again and again is a bit boring. So I thought about what international cuisines I could fuse with it to add some spice (either figuratively, or literally), and how a American Comfort Fusion cookbook might be a good angle for me (Steal the idea and I'll hunt you down).

The last batch of Mac & Cheese I made included a bunch of chili powder, which was great, but not very specific. After our great meal from Thai Recipe last night, I was inspired to create a mac & cheese that combined flavors from Thai cuisine (chilis, coconut milk, and curry) with the American classic.

Having spiced up Mac & Cheese already, I wasn't worried about chilies. My biggest fear was combining cheese with curry and coconut milk. Thankfully, Dan bought a variety of cheeses for me to choose from, including white cheddar and gruyere. I hoped the nuttiness of the gruyere would combine well with the coconut milk, and that the curry flavor would be mild enough to let the other flavors shine through. My official recipe tester (Dan) was very pleased with the results, which seemed to successfully meld the two cuisines to create something new. The curry and coconut flavors were fairly mild, but still noticable, and the chilis lended the dish good heat, though not so much as to distract from the gooey texture or the flavor combinations.

Spicy Thai Curry Mac & Cheese
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
2 Tbspn melted butter
8 oz macaroni
2 Tbspn butter
1 clove garlic, minced
6 small dried red chilis, chopped
1 Tbspn all purpose flour
salt & pepper to taste
1/4 tspn curry powder
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 cup white cheddar
1 cup cup gruyere

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 2 qt casserole dish. Place panko bread crumbs into a small bowl and mix well with melted butter. Set aside. Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente. Drain well, shaking off as much residual water as possible, then place into prepared casserole dish. While pasta is cooking, melt 2 Tbspn butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in garlic and peppers and cook until garlic begins to brown (about 2 minutes). Stir in flour, pepper, salt, and curry powder until incorporated, then pour in coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Simmer, stirring constantly until the mixture has thickened (about 10 minutes). Take the mixture off the heat and stir in the cheeses until melted. Pour cheese sauce over the pasta, then sprinkle evenly with buttered bread crumbs. Bake (uncovered) until the top is golden and bubbly, about 20 minutes.

Frugal Fridays: Cafe Zum Zum

For my second installment of Frugal Fridays, I couldn't resist hitting another favorite lunch spot - Cafe Zum Zum, in the food court at 3rd and Marion in Downtown Seattle.

Although the daily special - a combo of one of the veggie curry options with a fountain drink - is even cheaper at around $4.36 with tax, I don't want the empty calories from the soda or the unnecessary paper cup to throw away.



So instead, I get the veggie salad: A generous portion of shredded lettuce, topped with vegetarian curry and a warmed tortilla - for just $4.91 with tax. Besides shrinking the cost, the salad option is much lighter than the normal bed of rice the curry is served on, making it a good lunchtime portion for me. Plus, the owner allows you to get half-and-half of two curries for the same price, so I almost always get the split garbanzo curry (for my protein) and the spinach potato curry (for some veggies and starch).

Another great recent development at Zum Zum is the switch to compostable takeout containers - making getting my veggie curry fix less of a guilty pleasure. I take it back to my office, where I have silverware and a cloth napkin, thus avoiding paper napkins and plastic forks. And thankfully, my company has compost bins on every floor, so I know my container and food scraps are going to good use.

Thanks to the price and great food, Cafe Zum Zum draws a big lunchtime crowd, so I recommend getting there before 11:45am, so you can get in and out quickly and avoid a wait in the cold.



(Frugal Fridays is a weekly series dedicated to finding Seattle lunch spots where you can walk in with a $5 bill and walk out with a fulfilling, preferably healthy, lunch. If you have suggestions of places in the Seattle area with a great lunch for under $5 after tax, post a comment - I'd love the help.)

Green Curry with Shrimp & Potatoes

My coworker Martha graciously gifted me a can of green curry paste (along with other delicious sauces), and I've been eager to try it out. This week we made a special plan to use it, adapting a recipe from my Quick & Easy Thai Cuisine cookbook to use some squash from our garden, and the potatoes I forgot to use last night. It was quick and easy, as advertised, and incredibly flavorful. I also learned that green curry is already plenty spicy without needing to add more spice... a lesson about tasting before seasoning I should've learned by now.

Green Curry
6 Tbspn green curry paste
14 oz can coconut milk
1/4 cup fish sauce
3 Tbspn sugar
1 lb cooked shrimp
6 kaffir lime leaves
1/4 cup basil leaves
6 kaffir lime leaves
red chili pepper flakes
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Yellow Squash,
1/4 cup White Onion, chopped
2 Medium Potatoes, chopped and boiled

Combine curry paste, coconut milk, fish sauce and sugar in a pot and bring to a slow boil, simmering for about 5 minutes. Add Red Bell Pepper, Squash, Onion and lime leaves, and continue simmering for another 5 minutes. Add potatoes, shrimp, basil and pepper flakes, and mix to combine and heat shrimp through (if using uncooked shrimp, add prior to potatoes and allow to cook through before adding potatoes.

Zum Zum

Today was day two of my new job, and without any leftovers for lunch, I decided to treat myself to a little Zum Zum.



Cafe Zum Zum is a Downtown Seattle lunch spot that serves delicous Pakistani/Indian curries for a great price. They consistently draw a line of people out to the sidewalk. Beyond the great food, I think the secret to their success is a simple menu with really only one option - but with endless variations. You can get rice, a warmed up tortilla (a cheap version of naan), and one or two curries for around $5. Or, you can get 'salad' (chopped iceberg lettuce), a warmed up tortilla, and one or two curries for $4.91, including tax - which is what I always go for. Zum Zum has a strong following, including many of my coworkers, and many complain about Zum Bloat: the feeling of overfullness after eating all that rice and curry. I find their salad variation is satisfying without being too much, and the tortilla is plenty of starch. Although they have a variety of chicken and lamb curries, I always stick to the veggie ones (which are also cheaper). My favorites are the spinach potato curry, the split garbanzo curry, and the garbanzo potato curry - though the black eyed peas curry is also great, and often the daily special for $3.99 (plus tax).

Red Curry Chicken

I was reminded as I pulled Quick & Easy Thai Cuisine: Lemon Grass Cookbook of the shelf and flipped to the Red Curry Chicken recipe, that the reason I like this cookbook so much is the simple recipes paired with lots of step-by-step photos... and it struck me that maybe I should aim to do more of the same here. Tonight I took it slow and snapped photos each step of the way, and will do my best to do this more in the future.



Red Curry Chicken
14 oz can of coconut milk
1 Tbspn red curry paste
1/4 cup fish sauce
2 Tbspn sugar
1 lb chicken, cut into 1 inch pieces
4-6 dried red chilies (optional)
5-8 kaffir lime leaves
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves



Combine half the coconut milk with curry paste in a pan over high heat.



Whisk to combine.



Add chicken, fish sauce and sugar.



Add chilies, if using. Bring to a gentle boil and cook until chicken is done.



Add remaining coconut milk and lime leaves. Heat through. Garnish with basil just before serving.

Indian Cooking Class with Ruth

For Christmas, Ruth's boss gave her a free cooking class from his wife, Julie Little, who teaches at the Blue Ribbon Cooking School. Julie told Ruth to bring a friend, and I was incredibly grateful to be chosen as her cooking date for the night.

We met up downtown, walked up to her car on Capitol Hill, swung by Paul's place to drop off some Gatorade and bananas (he wasn't feeling well), then headed to Eastlake to the school. The location of the school is amazing - right on the water, in what was apparently an Azteca some time ago, but is now a perfect space for teaching cooking, and for holding events (they do weddings). One entire wall of every room is windows looking out on the lake, and there's a patio/dock on one end of the space, too.

We were greeted warmly by the staff, met Chef Julie, and were pointed to where we could get an apron and a cocktail. There was beer and wine, as well as two homemade cocktails inspired by the Indian theme of the night - a tamarind drink and a ginger cosmopolitan - both of which were delicious and perfectly refreshing on a hot almost-Summer evening. They also had a strawberry-mint drink and a lavendar lemonade that were non-alcoholic, and equally tasty.



Once nearly everyone had arrived, we washed up and got started making some appetizers - curry puffs (aka samosas) that Julie gave us a quick lesson in making, then set everyone to work trying their hand at rolling out the dough, adding filling, and sealing them shut. Chef Mark (an assistant for this course) set to work himself with a large wok of hot oil, making some spicy corn vada balls, and got some of our classmates up and running frying up the curry puffs. As batches of each were ready, they were passed around for everyone to enjoy.



While we noshed, Chef Julie introduced us to the basics of Indian cooking. We learned that Indian cooking uses primarily spices, not herbs (the reverse is true of many other Eastern culinary traditions), that 'curry' is a word used in Indian cooking to describe any stew-like dish, and she passed around containers of the key spices of Indian cooking. We also walked through how to make the spice mix garam masala, learned why it should be made fresh (ideally) and why we shouldn't bother with the powdered stuff in a jar (the aromatics are all but lost), and were all encouraged to make some for ourselves to take home.

Chef Julie then walked through all the dishes we'd be making, and then asked who'd like to do what. Ruth was excited about the Tandoori fish recipe, so we both pulled an Arnold Horshack ("ooh-ooh-ooh") and got picked for that dish. It turned out all it entailed was peeling garlic and ginger, tossing it in a food processor with spices, oil, and tamarind paste, then marinating the fish for awhile. (Later we laid the fish out on parchment lined baking sheets, and broiled the fish for about 10-15 minutes.)



Since we had so little to do with the fish, we also took on frying up the papadums. We had a lot of fun when we realized we could use the tongs to 'free-form' the softened papadums into shapes before they dried and hardened. The goal was to create a swan, which Ruth very nearly pulled off.




Other students in the class were busy making lamb biryani, curry chicken, raita, chutney, lentil daal, rice, and seemingly countless other Indian dishes. The two kitchens were a flurry of activity.



During our downtime, Ruth and I got a chance to chat a bit with Chef Julie, and she asked what I do for a living... then recanted and asked what I do in my spare time, so I told her I cook and write about food. She talked about how the class is mainly aimed at beginners, but I assured her I was definitely learning new things and having a great time - and took the opportunity to ask some questions. It was wonderful to get to ask a chef questions about terminology and ingredients, and her enthusiasm toward teaching was readily apparent. We went to the back kitchen to get the fish in the broiler, and talked about Thai vs. Indian 'curry' and showed me galangal - a ginger-like root that I've not yet worked with. She also showed me her favorite Indian cookbook, Curries Without Worries, which is unfortunately out of print but still can be tracked down on Amazon and elsewhere.



Somehow, despite a very wide range of experience levels and many people just getting their feet wet with cooking, everything turned out beautifully. It seemed like, all of a sudden, a long banquet table was filled with food and our noses were filled with amazing, rich, spicy smells.



I was only able to capture photos of a few of the finished dishes, but did load my plate up with a little of everything. Ruth and I found a seat and were joined by Dylan, a lawyer who's friends with the owners of the cooking school and lives on a houseboat just down the block. We had a great conversation and ended up invited to swing by his place on Saturday when we're out on the electric boats - even though he'll be away. He assured us his wife, Misha, would love to have a boat full of strangers dropping by.













Just as we were finishing up our meal, Chef Julie brought out dishes of a dessert they'd prepared of ricotta cheese & sugar mixed, then baked, then cut into circles and coated with a mix of cream, spices, and pistachios. The creaminess and richness of the spices made it seem decadent, without being filling, heavy or overtly sweet.



And Chef Mark brought out decaf coffee for everyone - which I normally wouldn't go for, but the presentation and pairing with thick, whipped cream on top was too enticing for me to pass up.



As things wrapped up, Ruth & I got a chance to chat with Chef Julie and our host, Bryce - an old friend from my days up at Western Washington University. They, and the rest of the staff made us feel so at home, and all the little touches made it such a great experience. I highly recommend checking out a class there if you get a chance.

Blue Ribbon Cooking School
2501 Fairview Ave. E
Seattle, WA 98102
206-328-2442

Golden Indian Curry House

A flyer arrived in our mail today for a new food delivery service supporting the South End of Seattle and the Eastside. With so few places willing to delivery to us way out in Seward Park, we were really excited that 2goServices has a huge selection of spots now available to us, mostly from the Renton/Kent/Tukwila areas, and including Golden Indian Curry House.



In addition to some Garlic Naan, we ordered Chicken Makni (butter chicken) and Lamb Saag Masala (a lamb & spinach curry), plus some basmati rice, of course. We ended up with WAY too much rice (we never know whether to order 1 or 2 orders, and erred on the too much side this time), but all the food was really delicious and delivered hot.



For just a $8 delivery charge and an 80 minute estimated wait, we now have dozens of new food choices open to us for delivery to our door. This time of year, when it's cold and wet and after commuting home we just want to get into our pajamas and lounge around, it's gonna be great!