Lemongrass Noodle Soup with Edamame lunch

lemongrass noodle soup-

Ingredients:

5 cups chicken or turkey stock (preferably homemade)
1 stalk fresh lemongrass, broken in half
2 kaffir lime leaves
2 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 2inch piece of ginger, cut in half
1 tsp. fish sauce
1 tsp. hot chili sauce
4 ounces dry rice noodles
1/2 cup shiitake mushrooms
2 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 cup fresh bean sprouts
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1 lime cut into quarters for squeezing

Directions:

1. In a saucepan over high heat, combine the broth, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, garlic, and ginger.  Bring to a boil.

2.  Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.  Discard the ginger, lemongrass, lime leaves, ginger and garlic.

3.  Add the fish sauce, chili sauce, mushrooms  and noodles, cook until noodles are tender (about 2-5 minutes).  Stir in the scallions.  Adjust seasonings to taste.

4. Divide the soup among 4 bowls, top with bean sprouts and basil, squeeze lime juice in to taste. 


Edamame-

Ingredients-

Frozen organic edamame
salt

Directions-

Follow the package directions.  Bring water to a boil, add edamame, cook uncovered for 3-5 minutes, drain and toss liberally with salt.  You eat the beans inside, not the pod (just in case someone has never eaten this!)



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Malaysian Red Curry of Beef

 Red Curry of Beef (or Daging masak merah)

 Very delicious.  Read the directions carefully.  you may wish to have everything measured/chopped and skinned before starting as the recipe is quite involved for newbies.


 Ingredients:
2 tsp. chopped fresh ginger
2 tsp. ground tumeric
1/2 tsp. course sea salt
1 1/2 lb sirloin steak cut into pieces (2 pieces per person)
3 Tbsp peanut oil
3 Tbsp thick tamarind water (1 oz tamarind paste placed in hot water and strained)
6 ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped (blanch them to peel)
1 1/4 cups coconut cream (the thick creamy stuff in the tops of the cans)
handful of mint leaves and cilantro leaves, roughly chopped

Red Paste Ingredients:
3 shallots, chopped
6-8 garlic cloves, chopped
4 large red chilies, seeded and chopped
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 Tbsp peanut oil

Garnish Ingredients:
4 Tbsp deep fried shallots (slice very thin and fry quickly until brown in peanut oil) (drain on paper towel)
2 oz unsalted cashews, fried in a some peanut oil until brown (drain on paper towel)
2 oz raisins, fried very briefly in oil until plump (drain on paper towel)

Directions:

1. Grind the ginger, tumeric and sea salt in a mortar to make a paste. Rub the pieces of beef all over with this paste and set aside for at least 30 minutes.

2. Make the Red Paste- blend all of the red paste ingredients together with 3 Tbsp water until smooth.  Transfer the paste to a large saucepan and simmer over med. heat for 6 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and set aside.

3.  Heat the oil in a fry pan and fry the pieces of beef, a few at a time for 2 minutes per side. Set aside.

4. Reheat the paste in the saucepan, stirring well for a couple of minutes, then add 1/2 cup HOT water and the tamarind water.  Bring to a boil.  Add the beef, stir and cover.  Continue cooking over medium heat for 6-8 minutes.

5. Add the tomatoes and stir to mix with beef.  Cook for a few more minutes, now add the coconut cream and continue cooking, turning meat several times, until the sauce has reduced.  Just a few minutes.  In the final minute add the cilantro and mint leaves. 

6. Serve hot with garnish of fried shallots, cashews, and plump raisins.

serve with coconut rice

Spicy Garlic Rice Noodles with Grapefruit, Tangerine, Mint and Orange

Fav! it's delicious and fresh and spicy and fun and summer in a bowl.

Ingredients: (hot garlic chili sauce)

first you will need to make your own chili garlic sauce (store bought is icky)
to do this -
1/4 cup gluten free fish sauce
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 small red hot chili peppers
6 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. organic Blue Agave syrup (or sucanat)  (or sugar)

take 1 or 2 small red hot chili peppers, seed them and chop them very fine
place them in a bowl with the fish sauce, rice vinegar, garlic and agave syrup. stir well to mix. store in fridge, you can use it for up to a week on just about anything :)

Ingredients for Dressing:

1 tsp. gluten free fish sauce
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
1 Tbsp. hot chili garlic sauce (see above)
2 tsp. honey (melted)
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions for dressing:

1. Combine dressing ingredients in a bowl, stir and set aside

Spicy Rice Noodles ingredients:

125g dried rice stick noodles
1 navel orange
2 tangerines (or small oranges of some sort)
1 ruby red grapefruit
small handful fresh mint, chopped
small handful roasted peanuts, chopped

Directions:

1. Cut way the peel of the oranges, grapefruit and tangerines with a sharp knife. Separate the fruit from the membranes by cutting between the membranes with a sharp knife. Place the fruit in a bowl and set aside.

2. In a large bowl soak rice noodles for 15 minutes in hot water. Rinse and then immerse in a large pot of boiling water for just about a minute (or until the noodles are tender). drain, rinse with cold water and drain again. Cut the noodles into more manageable 4 inch segments and place in large bowl.

3. Pour the dressing over the noodles and mix well to coat. Add citrus fruit to noodles and toss lightly. Serve in individual bowls and sprinkle liberally with mint and peanuts.

Shrimp salad rolls -with Peanut Sauce and Spicy Sweet & Sour dipping sauce

Shrimp salad rolls
Ingredients:
6 ounces vermicelli noodles, softened in hot water and cooked until just tender (a couple of minutes), rinsed under cold water and drained, cut into 3 inch lengths
2 large carrots, peeled and grated
3/4 cup fresh thai holy basil (or sweet basil leaves) finely shredded
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped

Spicy Lime dressing -mix together
3 Tbsp. fish sauce
juice of 2 limes
1 med jalapeno pepper, chopped
2 1/2 Tbsp. sucanat

24 round rice paper wrappers (8 inch diameter)
1 head leaf lettuce, separated, rinsed, dried and tough center bits trimmed
1 pound medium shrimp. poached in boiling water until pink, peeled, sliced in half lengthwise and deveined

we use rice wrapper rolling plates available at specialty asian stores.

Directions:
1. In a bowl, combine the noodles, carrots, basil, and cilantro. add the spicy lime dressing and toss to coat

2. Fill a wide shallow pan with hot water & spread a dish towel out on a work surface. Dip a rice wrapper in the water for about 3 seconds until softened and place on towel . (or use the rice wrapper plates to make things much easier for you if you are a novice. We bought ours in chinatown)

3. Place a lettuce leaf on the lower third of the rice wrapper. spoon a scant 1/4 of the noodle mixture onto the lettuce, arrange 2 shrimp halves next to each other, and roll up into a cylinder, tucking in the ends as you go. Place the roll on a platter and cover with a damp towel to keep from drying out. repeat with remaining wrappers. you will get better at it. :)
serve with the two sauces below:

Peanut sauce-

Ingredients:
1/4 cup gluten free hoisin sauce
(to make hoisin sauce- in a med bowl stir together 4 Tbsp. Gluten free soy sauce, 2 Tbsp. natural peanut butter, 1 Tbsp. honey, 2 Tbsp. rice vinegar, pinch of garlic powder, 2 tsp. sesame oil, 2 dollops of hot sauce and a pinch of black pepper. stir well it will mix eventually)

2 Tbsp. natural peanut butter
1 1/2 tsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. sucanat
1/3 cup water
1 tsp. macadamia nut oil
1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. crushed red pepper

Directions:
1. In a small bowl combine hoisin sauce, peanut butter, tomato paste, sugar, and water and stir until smooth.

2. Heat a small heavy saucepan on high and add the oil and heat until hot (20 seconds). Add the garlic and crushed red pepper and stir for about 5 seconds. stir in the peanut butter mixture, and cook (turn the heat down slightly) for about 3 to 4 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature

Spicy Sweet-&-Sour Dipping sauce

Ingredients:

1 tsp. crushed red pepper
Juice of 3 limes or 2 lemons
1/4 cup fish sauce
3 Tbsp. sucanat
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
2 Tbsp. grated carrots

Directions:
In a medium bowl, soak the crushed red pepper in the lime juice for 3 minutes. Add the fish sauce, sucanat, and garlic and stir to dissolve the sucanat. just before serving, add the carrots. (sauce will keep coverd in fridge for several days)

Spicy Turkey & Jasmine Rice Soup

adapted from a cooks illustrated recipe, see title for link.

Basic Turkey stock (makes 3 quarts)
Ingredients:
1 turkey carcass from 12 pound turkey cut into 4 or 5 large pieces to fit in pot. (try to keep plenty of meat on the carcass when you freeze it for soup)
1 Large Onion, peeled and halved
1 Large carrot, peeled and halved
1 Large Celery Rib, chopped course
3 medium garlic cloves, unpeeled and smashed
2 cups dry white wine
1 bay leaf
5 sprigs fresh parsley
3 sprigs fresh thyme

Directions:
1. Bring turkey carcass, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, wine, bay leaf, and 4 1/2 quarts water to boil in 12 quart stockpot over med/high heat, skimming fat that rises to surface. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered for 2 hours, continuing to skim surface as necessary. Add parsley and thyme; continue to simmer about 2 hours longer.
2. Strain stock through large mesh strainer into a large bowl, remove meat from strained solids, shred into bite size pieces and set aside. discard solids in strainer. cool stock slightly (20 minutes) spoon fat from surface. stock can be refrigerated covered for up to 2 days.

Spicy Turkey and Jasmine Rice Soup
Ingredients:
1/2 basic Turkey stock and 1/2 reserved shredded turkey meat
1 stalk lemon grass, trimmed to bottom 6 inches and bruised with the back of a chef's knife
1 and 3/4 inch fresh ginger, peeled, cut into thirds and crushed with the back of chef's knife
2 large garlic cloves crushed a bit with back of chefs knife
2 fresh jalapeno chiles, halved with seeds removed
3 Kaffir lime leaves
lime juice from 1/2 lime
salt
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 cup brown jasmine rice
2 Tbsp. minced fresh cilantro
1 and 1/2 Tbsp. fresh basil leaves
3 medium scallions sliced thin

Directions:
1. Bring turkey stock to simmer in large stockpot over med/high heat. Add lemon grass, ginger, garlic, chiles, kaffir lime leaves and 1 tsp. salt. cover and simmer until broth is fragrant (about 10 minutes) Add juice from lime and stir.
2. With slotted spoon remove and discard- lemon grass, ginger, garlic, chiles and kaffir lime leaves. Add rice and reserved shredded turkey meat; bring to boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer covered until rice is tender (35 minutes) Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper.
ladle soup into individual bowls and sprinkle with cilantro, basil, crushed red pepper flakes and scallions. serve immediately.

(use the remainder of the stock to make turkey gluten free noodle soup)