Thai Yellow Curry

If there is one type of food the Fish Fam loves it's curry. 

Whether it be Thai, Indian, or Japanese.

It's all so amazingly good.

I worked at a Thai restaurant while in college. The family was from Bangkok and they made the best Thai food in town. Seriously, Thai Ruby is the best! If you live in Provo, Utah area check them out! Here's their menu.They used lots and lots of fresh ingredients. Their mom was very traditional and I loved that she grew her own basil plants out back. They would go to different grocery stores to get the best quality fruits and veggies. Again the mom was very very particular about only picking the best mangoes for their Thai Mango with Coconut Sticky Rice dessert. Oh my, so incredibly good! That being said, it was only a seasonal dessert, so you better believe my husband and I went all the time when it was in season. Which, actually, when my husband and I were first married we ended up living right below this restaurant. I forgot about that! 

The family would make yearly trips back home to Thailand during Christmas Break, which we were always sad to see them closed because we loved going there. They would bring back plenty of their specials ingredients and spices. I specifically remember always picking Thai Ruby to go out for my birthday dinner in January because can you tell I really love Thai food?! Plus when you get a bigger group to go you can do family style and share lots of incredibly good Thai dishes. 

Well, onto the curry, I remember for the most part Thai Ruby used Mae Ploy curry paste, "O" the son who manages the place, said it's the best kind. He also said for Americans they had to make it sweeter and add more sugar. Lol!! But of course, Americans can't really enjoy other cultural foods without adding lots of sugar. Smh. 

Anyways, while shopping I always read the ingredient labels and Mae Ploy has the shortest list and best ingredients. Being that we live on a military base in Japan, my options are slim. So I was happy they have this brand of curry paste. Really though, I ought to make it from scratch, but I have yet to try that!!

Check out the awesome ingredients with NO msg, preservatives, or artificial color added. Looks great to me compared to the super cheap and awful ingredients in the other curry pastes with things like, ya know...MSG, Sodium metabisulfites, #40 yellow yaddah yaddah #5,6 and 7 coloring, etc.! You'll want to stay away from these and other ingredients like them. 

Okay, onto the recipe. I use this recipe on the carton as a guide.....

Directions: 

- I first start off infusing up to 3 minced garlic cloves in the pan. Infuse means to cook on med.-low heat garlic in oil. This will bring out the flavor of the garlic in a very good way. Then I add some chopped onions and sprinkle some salt on top and cook for a few mins. 

- Then I stir-fry 50g about 3.5 Tbsp of Yellow Curry Paste with 1Tbsp oil, then add 1 cup coconut milk. This is also letting the curry paste infuse in the oil to bring out the flavor of the curry. Yum, it's starting to smell sooo good!

-Add 200g of cubed or shredded chicken, which is about 1.5cups and add another 1/2cup coconut milk (which should be the rest of the can) and heat until boiling. 

-Add about 1 cup of cubed potatoes, 1/2 of diced onion, and I add carrots too, then add 1/2 cup water and cook until the vegetables soften. You may want to add the potatoes a little bit later because they cook faster than the onions and carrots.

-Lastly, add 2tsp sugar or to taste.

*I use this recipe as a guide and always double it and add as much curry paste, potatoes, onions, and carrots as I think best. Also, something that makes a huge difference is NOT using water. I use my homemade bone broth or the broth left over from cooking my frozen chicken breast in my instant pot. I also add fresh basil in the end and let it simmer. For more flavor I'll add some Red Boat Fish Sauce. 

*I am also very choosy about the coconut milk I use. Cheap coconut milk brands have some pretty bad additives and preservatives as well. Thai Kitchen is good, but Native Forest Organic Coconut is better. I order mine from Vitacost here. I also love that the can inside is BPA-free. Did you know canned foods are lined with BPA? Fresh is always best. 

*Also, if want more flavor in your meat I would recommend using chicken thighs. Chicken thighs are dark meat and fattier and hold more flavor. 

*So because of my Instant Pot or rather Incredible Pot or now formally named Mr. Incredible...

I can take out my organic frozen chicken breast from the freezer and have it cooked in 30ish mins! I'm tellin' ya this thing is incredible. It has made things so much easier. All you do is put 1.5 cups of water in the pot with 1lb of frozen chicken breast and put it to a manual time of 10mins. After about 10mins it reaches high presses, cooks for 10mins, and then with a natural release pressure of 10mins the chicken is mostly cooked, depending on its thickness. Which I use thicker chicken breast and don't want it cooked all the way through because I'm going to continue cooking it on the stove. So there you have it Mr. Incredible comes to the rescue!

Ok, now go enjoy that curry!!

But wait, don't forget to serve it over white rice or even better Jasmine rice. 

Yum. Yum.

Instant Pot: Pot Roast

Dinner in an instant. Even a pot roast! 

After picking up the kids from school we went to the grocery store at 3:30 and bought some groceries for dinner. Next, homework from 4-5pm. Finally, at 5:10pm I started prepping dinner and the roast went in the IP at 5:20. By 6:30pm dinner was served. 

The Fish Fam loved it!

Sounds to good to be true right? Well, you can only see for yourself!

I highly recommend this Instant Pot pressure cooker. You won't be sorry!

Love my Incredible pot :)

Baked Corn Dogs & Purple Potato Salad

The kids love it when I make Homemade Corn Dogs!

With my youngest, we whipped up the batter, rolled out the dough, wrapped up the hot dogs, and stuck 'em in the oven.

Then before you know it their sitting on a stick ready to eat. 

Yum!

Baked Corn Dogs

By Meagan "The Baker Mama"

Ingredients

• 1 cup Gold Medal® white whole wheat flour
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground mustard
• 6 tablespoons butter
• ½ cup non-fat milk
• ¼ cup honey
• 7 lean beef hot dog franks, cut in half
• 14 wooden sticks
• mustard & ketchup, for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and ground mustard. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two forks until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the milk and honey with a wooden spoon or your hands until well combined.
3. Place dough on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper. Sprinkle some more flour over the dough and top with another piece of parchment paper. Roll dough to ¼-inch thickness.
4. Push a wooden stick up the center of the cut end of each hot dog half. Place the dog on the dough and cut a square that is big enough to wrap around it. Form dough around each dog sealing both ends and any open areas. Place corn dogs on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes or until they start to brown. Serve with mustard and ketchup for dipping.

*I use Applegate's Organic Uncured Grass-fed Beef Hot Dogs which I prefer, or National Hebrew: Kosher Beef Frank Hot Dogs. 

I also whipped up some Purple Potato Salad and had it sitting in the fridge from the day before ready to go.
Because you know Potato Salad is always better the next day!
:)

Navajo Breakfast Burritos

My Shimasani (Grandma) came for a visit and she made some Naaniskadi, Navajo Tortillas, for breakfast burritos!

All the kids gathered around her, just like I did with my other cousins when we were little, and she let them help her make the Naaniskadi.

I cooked the potatoes, eggs, and of course spam!

Top it off with some salsa because my kids like it with salsa and I had to get a picture fast before they were all gone!

Grandma's Naaniskadi is the best. I definitely can't get mine anywhere near hers yet!

Stew & Frybread

The Fish Fam sure enjoyed this meal...

Navajo Frybread & Stew

I'm Navajo and growing up I always enjoyed helping my grandma, mom, and aunties all make or rather "flap" the dough, to get it stretched and ready to fry in the pan. Unfortunately, I never learned how to make the dough. Sad I know. But, I sure can flap out the dough. But, getting the dough just right so it's nice and soft and easy to flap is an art that doesn't include measurements! It's all about watching your Masani (grandma) and learning.

But, in the last few times that I've made my own dough, and yes did have to use measurements, it's came out pretty good. The thing that might be funny is this is an all organic fry bread. Lol! It's even fried in organic shortening from mechanically pressed palm oil. A much healthier option than the usual crisco or vegetable oil.

Seriously, read this article here why vegetable oils and margarines are so toxic for our bodies.

You can use this recipe for a general idea and try at making your own dough...

Navajo Tortillas or Frybread

3 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/3 cups warm water

Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Add 1 cup of the water and mix, adding more water as needed to make dough soft but not sticky. Knead smooth. It's best to let it sit on the counter with a towel over it to let it soften up, makes it easier to work with. When ready tear off a chunk about the size of a small peach. Roll in a ball then flatten out to about 1/8 inch. And flap and stretch it if you know how or just use a rolling pin. Put in pan or cast iron skillet or in hot oil to fry (carefully do so dipping the dough in the pan closest to you and slowly laying down the dough away from you until it is all in the oil, be so carefully to not drop the dough in or it will splash oil all over). Watch it closely and turn and cook on other side.

Serve with Navajo mutton stew. Yum!

Or in this case beef stew. They didn't have any mutton this time at the store.

Beef Stew

Meat:

1- 1 1/2 pounds stew beef

Vegetables:

1 onion, chopped

2-4 cubed potatoes

2-4 carrot, chopped

2-4 celery stalks, chopped

1 zucchini & yellow squash each

*All to your liking or add different veggies.

Seasonings:

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoons dried sage

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried parsley

*All to your liking

Flour Mix:

½ cup flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

10-12 cups beef broth

2 tablespoons oil

The broth for our beef stew was made out of beef bones that we cooked in our pressure cooker, an Insta Pot, so amazing! Then I coated the beef chunks in 1/2 cup gluten free flour, 1/2 tsp of salt, and 1/2 tsp of pepper....mixed and shook meat and flour in a ziplock bag until it was well coated. Then added the oil to the pot and cooked it until it was browned all all sides, took a few minutes. Then I took it out and placed it on a plate. Next, add a little beef broth, maybe a little bit more oil to sauté the onions until caramelized and soft. Add in all the beef broth, meat, and chopped up vegetables. Cook until veggies are soft and ready!

You can make this stew in the crock pot or pressure cooker (find a good recipe and follow instructions exactly).

Also, add more sea salt (prob more of this) and pepper to taste.

While it's cooking get your dough ready and whalla, enjoy!

Brussel Sprouts & Sausage

While we were food shopping I asked my should we get Brussel Sprouts?

My oldest exclaimed, "YES! I love Brussel Sprouts."

Haha, there was a lady standing next to us that looked over with a surprised look.

I threw together this dish by chopping up...

Fresh Garlic, minced

Onions, diced

Potatoes, peeled and cubed

Brussel Sprouts, bottoms cut off

and cut in half

I started to pre cook the sausage in a pan on the stove, but didn't cook all the way.

I put everything in a big bowl and added sea salt (I like Redmonds), peppercorn (from the pepper grinder), and Italian Herb Seasoning, and then drizzled plenty plenty of oil all over and mixed it all together.

Preheat oven 400 deg or so for 30-40 mins.

While the food was baking I rinsed and washed the quinoa and cooked in on the stovetop.

To get the Quinoa to turn out good I always add 2 cups water to 1 cup quinoa on high heat and bring it to boil, then once it starts boiling, immediately turn it down to med-low, a tiny bit on the low side put a lid on it and set the timer for 15 mins. Take the lid of and stir it around a bit. It should come out really great and fluffy.

I also made some yummy cornbread.

Recipe here. My hubby says it's too moist and to try less liquid.
Instead of butter milk, we cow milk alternative.
Coconut, Rice, or Soy Milk. The coconut and soy are thicker.

I like that this recipe has very little sugar 1T, but I added honey.
We buy this super good kine for many healthy reasons.

My kids like to go and dip their little finger in the jar all the time!

I love that the kitchen is the heart of our home and that...

:) Happy Tummies = A Happy Heart <3 

Homemade Potato Salad

Have you ever read the ingredients list on store bought potato salad? Wow, this list is long and scary, well at least I think so. It has been awhile since we've enjoyed homemade 'tater salad. It's really simple too...

Boil

Diced Potatoes

Eggs

Chop up

Red Onions

Celery

Pickles

Boiled Eggs

Mix Together

 Everything above

Organic Mayo

Fresh squeezed lemon juice

 Dijon Mustard

It was really really good, especially after it sat in the fridge to chill!

土豆丝 Tou Dou Si

This was one of our favorite dishes in China. 土豆丝 or shredded potatoes. Our friend from China also made it and brought it over today. So good!