Pad Thai

This is one of my favorite Thai dishes and the one I most want to try some day IN Thailand, bought from a street vender. Compared to traditional Pad Thai, this version is pretty boring. But it's tasty and does have the sweet, tangy, spicy taste that drew me to Thai food.

Pad Thai

Ingredients:

• 1 8 oz. box rice noodles
• 8 Tbs lime juice (juice of 4 limes)
• 6 Tbs fish sauce
• 5 Tbs sugar
• 1 tsp Thai chile paste (to taste - this doesn't make it very spicy)
• 3 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 4 Tbs coconut oil
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed
• 8 green onions
• 1/4 cup chopped peanuts + 3 Tbs chopped peanuts (for garnish)
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup fresh bean sprouts

Directions:  

1. Prepare rice noodles according to package directions for stir fry.
2. Keep one slice from the middle of each lime for garnish. Juice the limes into a small mixing bowl. Add the fish sauce, sugar, and Thai chili paste and whisk together.
3. Slice chicken into bite-sized pieces and toss with soy sauce.
4. Cut green tops off of onions, leaving about an inch of green with white, and save for garnish. Finely mince the remaining pieces of onion.
5. Put 2 Tbs of coconut oil in large skillet (or wok) over high heat. Crush garlic cloves into oil while it is heating. Stir in the minced onions and 1/4 cup of chopped peanuts, and reduce heat to medium high. When onions are soft, add in the chicken and soy sauce mixture. Continue stirring until chicken is cooked through. Push mixture to side of pan and on the other side add 2 Tbs coconut oil and scramble the eggs. When eggs are done, stir together entire mixture.
6. Reduce heat to low and add prepared sauce, a small handful of bean sprouts (optional), and noodles. Toss together until all ingredients are well incorporated.
7. Garnish with lime slices, long slivers of green onion tops, remaining bean sprouts, and 3 Tbs of chopped peanuts.

This was adapted from the Restaurant-Style Pad Thai recipe on the back of Annie Chun's Pad Thai rie noodles.

I thought it was pretty tasty and the family loved it, but didn't think it was quite as good as Siam Thai (their website says they are open on Sunday, but they are not). I don't know if it's possible to make a good pad thai at home without tamarind paste. On my next try I'm going to use Annie Chun's Pad Thai Sauce since it's all-natural and has tamarind, plus use more traditional ingredients (tofu, dry shrimp and fresh bean sprouts to see if it makes a difference.

~ Enjoy!

Shrimp and Avocado Salad

I stumbled upon this recipe playing with my Dinner Spinner Pro app on my iPhone. It *sounded* incredibly tasty and with the teens out of the house today it was the perfect opportunity to give a try. Oh. My. Word. This EXCEEDED all of my expectations! The husband was looking for seconds. :)



SHRIMP and AVOCADO SALAD

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups cooked & coarsely chopped shrimp
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbs cocktail sauce
salt to taste
2 avocados, halved lengthwise, pitted, and scooped out of the skin
1/2 lemon
Boston lettuce leaves
paprika

Directions
In a bowl, mix the shrimp, chives, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, and cocktail sauce. Season with salt.
Line individual serving plates with one leaf of Boston lettuce and sprinkle with paprika to taste.
Place 1/2 an avocado on each lettuce leaf.
Mound the shrimp mixture into the avocado hollow and sprinkle with fresh squeezed lemon juice.

This recipe is modified from a recipe by the same name I found on AllRecipes. The changes are pretty significant, so I'm not going to list them separately.

Although, I will note that the original recipe seems to serve the avocado IN its skin on top of the lettuce. That seemed a waste of a perfectly yummy looking piece of lettuce, so I scooped the avocado out of the skin in one piece and spooned the shrimp mixture into the hollow. One of the reviewers on AllRecipes suggested lining a rectangular plate with the lettuce leaves sprinkled with paprika, placing the wedges in a line, and spooning the shrimp between the avocado slices.

Also, the original recipe uses bibb lettuce. I substituted Boston lettuce only because it was the better looking of the two at my grocery store.

ENJOY!

Penne Franco

I could eat at this place every day! UNFORTUNATELY, there isn't one within an hour of my house.

This weekend the craving hit with a vengeance. I had to have Carrabba's Penne Franco!

Picture from Between Blue & Yellow blog, link below

Okay, maybe it was just the kalamata olives and pasta I was craving, but why stop there, right? Thankfully, a quick google search of 'Carrabba's Penne Franco' gives me 9,690 sites to peruse. Complete with recipes and pictures.

I started with the recipe for Penne Franco at Between Blue & Yellow, but as usual I didn't have all the ingredients on hand (a sad reality of living in the boonies) and I had to improvise.

PENNE FRANCO (Veggie Version)

Ingredients~
1 box penne pasta
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can artichoke hearts, quartered
3 tbsp olive oil
1 pack of mushrooms, sliced
kalamata olives (as many or as little as you want)
5 garlic cloves, chopped
Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
Salt & pepper to taste


Preparation~

• Cook pasta according to package directions.
• Pour olive oil into large pan, and saute garlic for 1-2 minutes over med-high heat. Add in mushrooms, tomatoes, artichokes, and olives. Saute for several minutes, stirring frequently.
• Toss with the cooked pasta. Stir until heated through, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top with grated parmesan.

I'll be completely honest. I would have much preferred sun-dried tomatoes (packed in oil) and GRATED, fresh parmesan, but those would be the two ingredients I didn't have on hand. To make up for the lack of sun-dried tomatoes, I doubled the amount of mushrooms. Actually, I'd double the mushrooms anyway... we're a mushroom lovin' family. :) I also added more garlic and a tad bit less olive oil than the original recipe.

Also, you can add cooked chicken or shrimp into the pasta to make this a main dish. I love, love, love to order it at Carrabba's with SHRIMP! Alas, I'd already promised the hubby beer can chicken, so we had the pasta as a side/vegetable dish.

ENJOY!