Swimming Rama

The key to making a really fantastic peanut sauce is using real tamarind. I just found a block of fresh tamarind at a nearby store, which is tantamount to winning the lottery.


(Peanut sauce is not very photogenic.)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons red curry paste
• 3/4 cup vegetable stock
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup freshly ground salted, dry-roasted peanuts or peanut butter (I used peanut butter)
• 2 tablespoons tamarind liquid or freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Warm coconut milk in saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a gentle boil. Simmer, stirring now and then, until it releases its sweet fragrance and thickens a bit, about 5 minutes. Add the curry paste and cook for 3 to 4 minutes longer, mashing and scraping to dissolve the paste and mix everything well.


Add the vegetable stock and sugar and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring once or twice.

Add the peanuts or peanut butter and cook for 3 minutes more, stirring as needed to dissolve the peanuts butter into the sauce. Remove from the heat and season with the tamarind or citrus juice and salt, stirring to mix well. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

**When using a block of tamarind, cut off a corner, add 1/4 cup of hot water, and blend well.**



Cook rice. Saute chicken pieces in 1/4 cup broth or 2 Tablespoons oil.



Place layer of rice on plate.

Place layer of washed fresh spinach over rice.

Place chicken over spinach.

Pour peanut sauce over chicken.

Long Grain Wild Rice

This recipe has been shamelessly stolen from Brownielocks, but only because it comes out perfectly every time. If you are associated with Brownielocks and don't want this recipe up here, please don't sue us. Just ask us to take it down.

• Wash the rice thoroughly by running it under cold water in a
  strainer.


• Add 1 cup of raw wild rice to 3 cups of boiling water in a heavy
  saucepan or pot.


• Reduce heat and simmer covered for 35 to 50 minutes.  (I like 45
  minutes myself), or, just until those kernels puff open.  Then, uncover,
  fluff with a fork and simmer 5 more minutes.


• Drain any excess fluid.  If you like chewier rice, cook less
  minutes. 

Makes Approximately:  3 or 4 Cups of Cooked Rice.

(It all depends on how long the kernels are)

Zucchini Casserole #2

This recipe is based on our original attempt at zucchini casserole. This is our second attempt . . . .

* 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
* 3 cloves garlic, minced
* 4 large zucchini, slice & quartered
* 2 cups grated smoked Jack cheese
* salt and pepper to taste
* 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil or I tsp. dried
* 1 cup long grain wild rice

Cook the rice and set aside

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter an 9X13" baking dish.

Melt 1 Tbsp. of the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté. Scrape into a small bowl. Melt the remaining butter over medium high heat in the same frying pan. Add the zucchini and cook, stirring frequently until the moisture has evaporated and the zucchini is tender. Add the wild rice and ~1 cup smoke jack cheese and mix evenly. Pour into the prepared baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes until. Add remaing cheese and bake an additional 10 minutes.

Thoughts
This was a vast improvement on the original. The texture issues were dealt with in the addition of rice and by maintaining larger zucchini pieces.

A suggestion was made for adding bacon. Doing something like this would make this less of a side-dish and more of a main course. Another possibility would be adding mushrooms and sausage (instead of bacon). I'm thinking perhaps some sweet italian sausage or some chicken sausage.

Filet Mignon with Stuffed Mushrooms and Asparagus

This meal was phenomenal. It could improve, but still.


The Stuffed Mushrooms:
For the stuffed mushroomse recipe, please refer to our previous post. Our notes for this recipe are here:

The stuffing needed a bit of salt to bring out the flavor. We used larger button mushrooms (they were portabello "stuffing" mushrooms) this time, which was definitely an improvement. On this round, we put a small amount of butter inside the caps, which solved the dryness issue we encountered on our first attempt. One reaction involved the slight hardness of the texture of the stuffing, which I am fairly certain was a result of the rice. We used long grain wild, which tends to maintain its solid texture. We were using thawed leftover stuffing, which may have contributed to this. In general, wild rice has a more solid texture, which I love, but isn't for everyone.


The Filet:
Filet is actually fairly easy, if you keep an eye on it. First of all, take the meat out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you cook it. It should be roughly room temperature (ask Alton Brown). We don't have a grill, so we did the filet in a high-heat cast-iron skillet. Do a light coat of olive oil on each side, with salt and pepper. Sear them in the pan for about five minutes per side ( this will produce a RARE steak of about 1-1.5"). If you need good timing on a more done steak, butterfly the cut or choose something a little thinner.







I sauteed some oyster and shitake mushrooms with red onion in garlic and butter to go on top of the steaks. This should take about 6-10 minutes. You pretty much want everything to finish at the same time, so it all stays hot. I won't hold your hand. Figure the timing out on your own.

On top of all this, I thawed some leftover red-wine-mushroom reduction sauce from an earlier meal (see previous post). It tasted ok, but I would suggest that you make it fresh. The re-used stuff just didn't have the same flavor. It was a bit more tart, and seemed to lose some of its consistency.

Another variaton tonight involved melting some Blue Stilton on top of the steaks. I don't know that it beats a reduction sauce with mushrooms in general, but it was definitely better than the leftover reduction. It really depends on your tastes. Blue Stilton melted on top of the filet has a very strong flavor, and compliments the meat extremely well.

The meat was just a little bit tough, but this was more a result of the cut of meat than any of the cooking methods. After all, the meat only cost us about eight bucks, but would have been a $30 apiece meal otherwise.

Asparagus:
Asparagus is easy. Chop the ends off the asparagus (or break them... hold the asparagus in your hand and bend the end 'til it breaks- it breaks at the tender part), blanch it in chicken broth for about 3 minutes, dump it in a bowl of cold water for a few minutes. Sautee it in butter and/or olive oil with garlic and parsley about 6-10 minutes. Unfortunately, we had to used some frozen asparagus, which doesn't taste any worse, but tends to be a bit mushier. I always recommend fresh vegetables over frozen. They were still good.

The Wine:

We inspired ourselves during the cooking process with Trader Joes 2006 Vintage Ale (Beer). It was ok, but I think needs to sit a year or two to mature. Right off the bat it just tasted like medium-dark alcohol with a very slight sweetness. 2005 was better.

Pre-dinner drink was Poggiotondo 2004 Chianti Superiore. While very good, it isn't what I would call "eyebrow raising." Very enjoyable.

With dinner we had Amala 2003 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. It's very smooth, but doesn't lose any of the strength one expects from a cab, and is actually one of the better ones I've tried.

Stuffed Mushrooms

So a few weeks ago, we made stuffed mushrooms with dinner. It was the first time we'd done it, as Lisa is just now getting to like mushrooms at all. They were good, but there were a few issues. Well, we're trying again tonight. For reference, here's a rundown on the first attempt:



Original recipe courtesy of Brownielocks
If you are affiliated with that site, please don't sue me. Just ask me to take it down and I will.

1 Cup of Wild Rice
2 1/2 Cups of Water
2 Teaspoons Butter
1 Clove of Garlic
1/4 Cup Minced Onions
6-8 Oz. Crab Meat
1 Egg
1/4 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 Teaspoon Parsley
24 Medium to Large Mushroom Caps
1/2 Cup Grated Cheddar Cheese

Combine the wild rice with the water and cook it according to the basic recipe above. In a saucepan, add butter and melt and then saute the garlic and onions until tender. Add the cooked wild rice and crab meat to the pan and stir until the mix is warmed through (but not really cooked yet). Add seasonings. Mix well. Stuff the mushroom caps loosely. Place on a greased baking dish and sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese (or any cheese you love).
Bake at 400F for 10 minutes.
Serves: 5-6
(We assume one person eats 2 mushroom each!)

*************************

Caine's notes:

So the first time we did this, we used mushrooms that were far too small in general. I don't know how or even if this contributed to some of the other issues we encountered. The rice needed a bit of salt to bring out its flavor. The mushrooms also came out a little bit dry. To fix this I may put a small bit of butter in the caps next time, or perhaps brush the outsides.

Someone will post later with the results and thoughts on our second attempt.


-Caine