Red Curry Chicken Wings

Happy Monday guys!  We had an eventful weekend, indeed!

I spent Saturday morning handing out water and Powerade at the Derby Festival Mini & Full Marathon!  I saw about 20 or so of my friends running their hearts out (and for those of you I missed, good job on the race!).  Maybe next year I'll get out there and run my butt off... but then again, it may end up being the same weekend of my wedding, and I don't think I need that added stress of a race. 

We also spent Saturday night out at the Waterfront seeing Soul Asylum (yeah, the band from the early 90's).  It wasn't half bad - Andy and his friend Ike had a good time, while me and Ike's fiance Becca just talked about wedding stuff.  We're pretty excited about this upcoming Thursday because there's gonna be a free Cage the Elephant concert out at the Waterfront.  Now that's a band I can get into!  And that I actually know more than 1 song of!

Sunday was pretty lazy for us.  I slept in and decided to ditch spinning class.  I can play hookie once or twice, right?

I'm pretty excited, as well, because our CSA starts back up on Wednesday!  I'll definitely be glad to be getting some fresh and local produce on a weekly basis again!

Speaking of local products, I made a trip to my nearest farmer's market (which happens to only be a block away now - SCORE!) and bought some chicken wings from Barr Farms.  I knew I had to do something funky to them, because honestly... Buffalo-style wings are too "normal".  I need a little flair to my wings!

Ingredients:

1 cup coconut milk
1 & 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon red curry paste
1 tablespoon olive oil
small handful of cilantro, chopped
10 chicken wings

In a medium bowl, combine coconut milk, fish sauce, brown sugar, red curry paste, and olive oil.  Mix until sugar is dissolved and curry paste is mixed throughout.  Stir in half of the cilantro.

Add chicken wings to marinade and coat well.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator.  Marinate for about 4-6 hours, turning wings once or twice.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.

Remove chicken wings from marinade, shaking off any excess.  Place wings on baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes.  Brush the wings with any pan drippings and flip over.  Bake for another 10-15 minutes, brushing with pan drippings once more. 

Turn oven broiler to high and broil wings for about 1-2 minutes, or until slightly charred.  Remove wings from oven and let cool for about 5 minutes.

Place on serving platter and garnish with remaining cilantro.  Serve with fried rice or with your favorite dipping sauce.  Honestly, they're absolutely delicious all on their own!

These were some of the best wings we've ever had.  Hands down.  I don't know if it was the Barr Farms chicken wings, the marinade, or just a combination of the two.  But seriously, this is a marinade worth trying!

Enjoy the rest of your Monday guys!

Subjectively Colored Curry Mussels

Many lessons learned this weekend:
1. lonely military wives hate it when you don't take your hat off during the star spangled banner.
2. i don't like it when lonely military wives tell andy to take his hat off during the star spangled banner, and not tell any of the millions of other people to do so.
3. the earth is not one's trash can
4. a funnel cake always makes everything better.
5. chicken on a stick is an abomination... not only disgusting, but disrespectful to chicken.

Needless to say, drinking was involved, and may have escalated certain events. Nobody went to jail, nobody lost an arm... no harm done. Fireworks were sub-par, the night was chilly, but we were in good company and really... that's all you can ever ask for.


Ingredients:

2 lbs. mussels, cleaned and debearded
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 tomato, seeded and diced
small handful cilantro, chopped
1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and minced
2 serrano chiles, seeded and minced
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 onion, chopped
1 can coconut milk
water, if needed
salt and pepper to taste

In a food processor, combine the cumin, tomato, cilantro, ginger, and chiles. Turns out, I had a really big tomato and so it mostly tinted the curry paste red, but the recipe was originally green curry based, so hence the subjective coloring. Set mixture aside.

Heat dutch oven under medium high heat and add oil. When oil is shimmering and hot, add onions and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes or so. Add the curry paste and cook for about 5 minutes longer. Add in coconut milk and stir. If too thick, add water to thin mixture out. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Bring mixture to a boil and add mussels. Mix well, making sure mussels are well coated with curry sauce. Cover mixture, lower heat to a simmer, and steam mussels for about 5 minutes, or until all of the shells have opened. Discard any shells that have not opened.

Serve in a large bowl with pieces of a nice baguette.

The curry broth in this dish is what totally did it for the both of us. It was so flavorful and so different from the usually white wine and garlic liquid that most mussel dishes are steamed in. The bread was great for dipping and soaking up the liquid, and this just have easily could have been served with a big pile of rice. Enjoy!

Curried Flounder & Rice

I'm not gonna lie, this was just okay. Kind of looks like a bunch of mush. Haven't really had anything good come about lately. Kind of depressing, but I guess I'll get back in the game soon... hopefully.


Ingredients:
Adapted from The Taste of Oregon's blog

1 cup spinach, washed and drained
1 egg
1 15 oz can coconut milk
2 flounder fillets, cut up into 1 inch cubes/slices
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 teaspoons red curry paste
1 teaspoon fish sauce
3 dried red chiles
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl, combine coconut milk, curry paste, fish sauce, and egg. Beat the mixture until the curry paste is dissolved and well incorporated.

Add flounder pieces and let marinate in fridge for about an hour.

In a large skillet, heat up oil under medium to high heat. Add the dried chiles and cook until browned, about 1-2 minutes. Add the bell pepper and saute until soft, about 4-5 minutes.

Add fish/coconut milk mixture to pan and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes, when fish is white and mixture is heated through. Add in spinach and stir until wilted. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with rice.

I don't really know how to describe this dish. It had flavors of a thai style curry, yes, but it just didn't have enough punch. The original dish was meant to be a custard-type deal steamed in a banana leaf boat, but I didn't feel like buying any banana leaves so I just heated the mixture up. I should have probably removed the egg since I wasn't planning on doing a custard. That was mistake number one. The curry may have been less chunky and more smooth that way. The rice I made was a little mushy too. Kind of made it runny. It was just sort of a plain jane dish and didn't get much depth of flavor. Oh well, try and try again I suppose.