Massaman Chicken Curry

Posted on May 20, 2012 by mschro

Massaman curry is a Thai dish that is influenced by Indian spices. It can be made with beef, chicken or tofu but I settled on trying the chicken version. I had this dish once at a Thai restaurant in Chicago and I have been dreaming about making it at home for a while. This recipe turned out to be quite similar to the restaurant’s and I was really happy about that! Massaman curry is a stew made with coconut milk, potatoes and served with rice. I tried to make this as authentic as possible so I avoided substitutions the best I could. The spicy and sweet flavors of this curry perfectly blended together and the finished product was really tasty! Feel free to substitute the protein for tofu, beef or pork.

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Thai Red Curry Paste

Posted on May 19, 2012 by mschro

One of the most important steps in making Thai dishes is preparing the chili paste. The paste is a concentrate of aromatic ingredients that provides a lot of flavor for the dish. There are many variations of chili pastes but this particular one is used in Massaman Curry. It could be used in a variety of dishes as well, not just for Massaman Curry. If you have a food processor making it would be easy, but without one it will take some time to prep. You can find the paste in stores but it goes without saying that it won’t have the same amount of flavor and freshness that making it from scratch provides. It can be tough to find the authentic ingredients but if you live near or in a city there is likely a Thai or Asian market that can provide some of the harder to find ingredients.

My favorite part of making this was roasting it for a few minutes in a pan. By heating it up the flavors were released into the air and the whole kitchen smelled so good! It’s an important step since it intensifies the flavor of the paste as well. The result was a really versatile concentrate of flavors that can be used in a ton of different Thai foods. It should last for a week or two in a sterilized jar in the refrigerator.

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Roasted Butternut Squash Pizza with Pancetta and Balsamic Caramelized Onions

Posted on May 18, 2012 by mschro

Butternut squash is a food that can be surprisingly versatile. So far I have enjoyed it in a variety of recipes but this pizza is by far one of the best. The squash is coated in olive oil, sage and rosemary and baked until soft. The onions sauteed in balsamic vinegar and brown sugar provide a nice balance of sweet and tart. Those flavors work really well with the squash and smoky pancetta. As for the cheese, I used Mozzarella but I would guess that Fontina cheese would be fine too. I also scooped some of the seeds out of the squash to roast in the oven which I used as a final topping. They taste just like pumpkin seeds and it was a really nice last minute addition on the pizza. I wouldn’t use a lot of salt on this recipe as the pancetta is naturally on the salty side and roasting the seeds with salt provides enough flavor for the rest of the pizza. The result was a great pizza with flavors that complimented each other really well.

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Rhubarb Crisp

Posted on May 13, 2012 by mschro

For Mother’s Day I wanted to post my mom’s rhubarb crisp recipe I enjoyed every summer as a kid. In the backyard there was a big rhubarb plant and once the stalks were ripe she would cut some off and make rhubarb crisp! Her recipe is easy and not including the rhubarb you probably already have the ingredients at home. Oats, butter, brown sugar and cinnamon cover a layer of chopped rhubarb. Then it’s baked in the oven and the result is soft and melty on the bottom with crispy oats on the top. I topped the crisp with fresh whipped cream. Mom’s recipe is a winner!

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Moroccan Chicken Sandwich with Manchego Cheese and Preserved Lemons

Posted on May 11, 2012 by mschro

After making Moroccan Chicken I had some leftovers that needed to be used. As I have said in previous posts, I make that dish pretty often so I am always trying to come up with new, tasty recipes for the leftovers. I decided to try the chicken on a grilled cheese sandwich along with Manchego cheese, caramelized onions and preserved lemons. The preserved lemons and caramelized onions are sauteed together with honey so their flavors can mingle. Manchego is a Spanish cheese that has the consistency of mozzarella and has a slightly tangy flavor. I had it once at a mexican restaurant and I was looking forward to having it again. It melts great so I thought it would work nicely on a grilled cheese sandwich. This sandwich was simple to make and the flavors were so good together.

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Tofu and Wakame Miso Soup

Posted on May 9, 2012 by mschro

Whenever I go to a Japanese restaurant I usually pick up a bowl of miso soup. I am a fan of soups of all kinds but this is one of my favorites and I’ve always thought about trying it at home. It turns out making miso is easy and the only trouble I ran into was finding a few of the ingredients. Luckily a local asian market carried the miso paste, seaweed and rice noodles. The other ingredients were easy to find at the grocery store. Making the soup was really easy and took less than 30 minutes to prepare. An important part of this recipe is not boiling the broth as it changes the flavor of the diluted miso. The result is a really great soup that is actually quite versatile–you can add tons of things and it would turn out great. Some examples could be cooked/shredded chicken, potatoes, carrots, bok choy, snap peas, spinach, etc.

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Corned Beef Sandwich On Rye with Cider Caramelized Onions

Posted on May 6, 2012 by mschro

After baking a loaf of rye bread, what better way to put it to use than making corned beef sandwiches? This sandwich is similar to the Reuben but with a few notable differences. I decided to use sharp cheddar and caramelized onions instead of Swiss cheese and sauerkraut. Since corned beef pairs well with more bitter ingredients I used cider vinegar to caramelize the onions instead of something sweeter like brown sugar or honey. I also mixed some horseradish and Dijon mustard together which tasted great with the corned beef. All the flavors worked really well together and I can’t wait to make it again! I served the sandwich with a side of Irish coleslaw.

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Irish Coleslaw

Posted on May 5, 2012 by mschro

This Irish styled coleslaw is a simple vinaigrette based mixture of cabbage, apples, chives, and carrots. The vinaigrette is composed of rapeseed oil, cider vinegar, grainy Irish mustard and sugar. It’s an easy process of grating the ingredients and tossing them in the vinaigrette. The result is fresh with flavors of sweetness and tartness from the apples and vinegar. I’ve always wanted to try coleslaw without mayo and I really enjoyed it. It’s a lot less heavy than mayonnaise based coleslaw. It worked really nicely as an accompaniment for my Corned Beef on Rye sandwich.

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Caraway Rye Bread

Posted on May 4, 2012 by mschro

It’s hard to find decent rye bread at grocery stores. That is part of the reason why I undertook this rye bread recipe. When I say ‘undertook’ I mean that it takes about 8 hours to complete so it is kind of an all day project. I enjoyed the process of making the starter, kneading, and watching the dough rise. It is neat to watch the yeast in action and at some point you realize that the bread is a live organism. The amount of yeast in this recipe is less than what I normally use for yeast bread. This is why the rye has a longer prep time than other recipes.

This recipe also uses a neat trick of tossing in a few ice cubes into the oven to create a more humid environment while the bread bakes. Even though the oven is humidified, the outside of the bread is golden brown and crusty, almost like a baguette crust. The inside is soft and the aroma of caraway and rye in the kitchen is fairly intoxicating!

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Roasted Jalapeno and Avocado Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Posted on May 3, 2012 by mschro

Grilled cheese sandwiches are a great way to use up leftovers from other dishes. I had some queso fresco, jalapenos and avocados from previous meals and I didn’t want them to go to waste. I decided to make a sandwich out of them and what better sandwich than grilled cheese? I never realized queso fresco was such a great melted cheese since I had only eaten it crumbled. It turns out it slices really well and melts perfectly on sandwiches. I was worried that all those jalapenos would overpower the other flavors so I roasted them in the oven until they were just starting to char. This mellowed the heat but concentrated the flavor of the peppers. To make things easier I added the avocado slices after grilling the sandwich because they tend to fall out. The sandwich was really tasty so I might have to start buying the ingredients instead of waiting until I have leftovers!

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