Smoked Fish and Green Mango (pg. 174)

I thought I would try my hand at asian-fusion cooking tonight. I realize you can barely see the photo but I thought this photo would help make my case that this salad is so good even the little one is licking her chops in anticipation. The title doesn't seem enticing but I really enjoyed this one. I may not have made this one quite right. I'm not sure what a green mango is (maybe an underripe one???) ... well, I found a perfectly ripe one so I had to get it instead. I barely used any of the dressing because the mango was so juicy ... it really didn't need much more. The asian fusion comes in because I put this over a bed of arugula. Really, this is a great dish, the contrast of the ultra sweet mango and smoky salty fish and fresh cilantro was a wonderful combination.

Chiang Mai Curry Noodles pg 134

Even thought I knew Mark would hate it, I had to make at least one curry dish. I love the curries! This one looked pretty easy and different to others I had made before. I used ground turmeric, half full-fat half low-fat coconut milk, sirloin steak, and egg fettuccine in this dish. I topped it with store bought fried lo mien noodles and green onions. The results was a very mild curry dish. I liked it, but I think I would like the curries that KAJ made a little more. The flavor is probably a little more intense.

The good news with the mild curry is that my 15 month old seemed to enjoy it!

Mainly he just ate the noodles and the meat with a little sauce.

Our Favorite Noodles with Greens and Gravy

Again, I apologize for the horrible picture quality but we are in the final week of this challenge and there are a few I wanted to knock off my list. This was a really tasty noodle dish. It was really similar to Rad Nah which I posted back a few months ago. I did sub thinly sliced brocolli for the bok choy but kept everything else the same. The flavor was great, the problem I have with these stir-fried noodle dishes is that I can never get my noodles soft enough ... they are always pretty chewy even after soaking for 20 minutes. The couple times I've had success with these type of dishes is when I double the amount of liquids so that there is plenty of broth to let the noodles steep in for 5-10 minutes at the end.

Eggs Scrambled with Tomato with Quick and Tasty Yunnanese Potatoes

Sorry for the poor picture quality but I realized after I made everything that my camera is with my husband on a business trip and I had to resort to my computer cam. Both dishes were great, especially after a week of being a carnivore with the holidays. The potato dish would go with nearly anything ... it was so good. I did not use a wok as the recipe says but got great results with a nonstick saute pan. This time, I backed off the amount of salt they state in the recipe and it was a good idea.

Duck in Green Curry Paste (Pg211)

So, I did buy a duck for this, but it was frozen solid. I went with some pork shoulder. The Green Curry paste is considerably less spicy than the red curry paste...hmmm, I wonder why? I followed the recipe but instead of all eggplant, I include onion, mushroom, red pepper, carrot, shallot, and tomato. I topped it with avocado because that is what they do at the Thai restaurant we go to.

Again, no lime leaves, just zest. We also went with some noodles instead of rice to mix it up!! My husband asked for it and it was delicious. We will be making this and the red curry for years :)

Does this count? Iced Coffee With Sweetened Condensed Milk

So, I was trying to decide which recipe to make for dinner this week, but to be honest, the thought of most of them turns my stomach! Ahhh, the 11th week of pregnancy... I probably would have soldiered on, but with Thanksgiving this week, I just don't need the extra stress. However, I just can't fail in my monthly challenge. I came across this recipe on page 304 and since I had all the ingredients (I'm sure my pumpkin pie can spare 2T of sweetened condensed milk), I thought I would give it a try.

The picture of this one in the book is very impressive, the white milk topped with the black coffee in a glass with ice. When you read the recipe, there is really no way that happens. I don't know, maybe I read it wrong. Anyways, I followed the recipe which is to combine the milk and the coffee and mix well, then pour into a tall glass with ice. I used decaf espresso and a knife instead of a long spoon. I have to say, it was pretty bitter. I ended up adding an extra spoonful of sugar, and all my ice melted, so I added a few more cubes. It was nice little coffee drink, but it really wasn't anything special.

Hui Beef Stew with Chickpeas

Disclaimer: This recipe is not for those who do not like to be tied down to the kitchen. This stew took forever but was great in the end. The anise gave it a truly chinese taste ... it was wonderful. We started putting the stew together around noon and were finally ready to try it around 7pm! I ended up adding a whole extra liter of water during the stewing as I felt it was getting really dry. I would make this again but found two things I might do differently.

1) The recipe does not say to soak your dried chickpeas (if it did, I missed it) ... so I didn't. I never got my chickpeas to "practically melt" as the recipe states after cooking them for 7 hours. I really think I should have soaked them first and I probably wouldn't have had to keep adding so much water if I had soaked them.

2) Again ... I oversalted this one. I thought a whole Tablespoon sounded like a lot ... and in the end ... it was. I would cut the salt down to half and add more at the end if it needs it.

I served this with a Turkish flatbread as the book suggested and it was a nice change from rice.