Serving Up {Soup}: Coconut Curry Soup

I know that I have mentioned before my family's love of all things curry.  It stems from my husband living in the West Indies for two years while he served a mission for the LDS church.  I consider his taste for curry to be authentic and so he gets the final vote whenever I make a curry dish as to whether we keep the recipe or ditch the recipe.

This soup comes from Mel's Kitchen Cafe, one of my very favorite food blogs, not to mention the source of our family's favorite curry dish of all time (here).  I love to find new curry dishes to surprise my husband with and it is all the better when the end product tastes as good as this one.  The verdict - my husband gave it an "absolutely" when asked whether we keep the recipe or not.

I had already filed it away to make again...soon!

COCONUT CURRY SOUP      Pin It
(recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe)
printable version

2 Tbs. olive oil
1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
salt and pepper
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 cups chicken broth
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
1 Tbs. fish sauce
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 Tbs. brown sugar
1/2 Tbs. curry powder
1 lime, juiced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro

3-4 cups cooked rice (for serving)

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the chicken and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the onion and red pepper and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes or until the vegetables have softened. Add the chicken broth, coconut milk, fish sauce, cayenne pepper, brown sugar and curry powder. Stir all to combine. Bring the soup to a gentle boil and reduce heat to simmer, cooking for an additional 10-15 minutes. Stir in lime juice and cilantro.
Serve the soup by ladling the soup over a scoop of rice and garnish with additional cilantro if desired.

Serving Up {Entree }: Whole Bowl

Portland is such a cool city for food!  Case in point - we are the city of food carts.  Seriously!  The last number I read was that Portland has over 200 food carts, and more are popping up everywhere!  Most of the food carts are organized into "pods" which are gatherings of food carts, usually in empty lots.  Upon my moving here last summer I took the train downtown to meet my sister-in-law at the public library and we went to a pod for lunch.  I looked to my SIL for direction since it is almost overwhelming to choose from so many options.  She directed me to the Whole Bowl and she changed my life :)

I knew she was onto something when the line for this food cart was two or three times longer than any other line in the pod.  It is truly nothing more than a rice bowl but the key ingredient is the sauce.  It's called Tali sauce, but it has nicknames including Yumm sauce and Crack (as in addicting) sauce.  I searched online to find a knockoff for the sauce and have been making our own "whole bowls" at home ever since.  I set it up buffet style and everyone creates their own bowl.  We have added meat before, just in case you can't imagine a meal not consisting of meat.  Let me just reiterate - it really doesn't matter what is in the bowl as long as it is all topped with a generous helping of the Tali sauce.  Yum!

WHOLE BOWL     Pin It
(recipe from here)
printable version

Brown rice

Red & black beans
Tali sauce
Salsa
Cheese
Avocado
Cilantro
Black olives
Sour Cream

Layer the desired ingredients in a bowl. Enjoy!

Tali Sauce:
1/4 cup Olive oil
1/4 cup Almonds (soaked)
2 Tbsp. Nutritional Yeast
1/4 cup Garbanzo Beans (soaked and cooked - I use canned)
1/4 cup Water
1/4 cup Lemon juice, fresh
1 clove of garlic
1/2 tsp. Sea salt
1 tsp. Curry powder
1 tsp. Cumin
1/2 tsp. Onion powder
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard

Combine all the ingredients together in a blender until smooth and creamy.

Serving Up {Salad}: Savory Wild Rice Chicken Salad

You have got to just trust me on this one.  Seriously so good!  I take comfort in the fact that this is a relatively healthy dish because I eat the biggest portions of this meal when I serve it!  Really, it's almost embarrassing.

The first time I was served this salad was when I got together with two close high school friends to catch up after we had all lived in separate states for a number of years.  I was immediately hooked and was bold enough to dish up a meaningful second serving!  Shortly thereafter I served it at a Mother's Day luncheon that I hosted in my home and I had to follow up the luncheon with an email to all of the guests with the recipe because every single person requested it.  It's just one of those dishes.  The ingredients are basic enough, but something happens when they are all combined - let's just call it magic and leave it at that.

SAVORY WILD RICE CHICKEN SALAD     Pin It

(recipe from Kim F.)

printable version

2 Long Grain & Wild Rice Boxes (Uncle Ben’s) *cook as directed with seasonings-cool
2 large chicken breasts *cooked, chopped and cooled
Juice from 1 lemon
4 green onions, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 yellow pepper, chopped
2 avocados, chopped
1 cup chopped pecans (in large pieces)

Make rice and cool completely. Add all other ingredients for the salad except the pecans and avocado.

Dressing:
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp. salt
¼ cup sugar
¼ tsp. pepper
1/3 cup Seasoned Rice Wine Vinegar-regular flavor

Mix the dressing in a blender and pour over the rice mixture.
(Be careful not to over mix the rice mixture because it can make it mushy.)
Refrigerate 4-8 hours.

Serving Up {Side Dish}: Cilantro Lime Rice

I am in Utah this week and by now ought to have satisfied my craving for Cafe Rio's Pork Barbacoa burrito - a real Utah favorite.  I posted the pork recipe yesterday and today we are moving on to the rice.

Whether you take your Pork Barbacoa burrito style (like me) or salad style (like my mom) you will want some of this delicious Cilantro Lime Rice.  It's become a staple whenever I make burritos - regardless of whether I'm going for the Cafe Rio copycat or simply using one of my other chicken or beef recipes.  It's just a great flavor combination and can even be served as a side dish.

CILANTRO-LIME RICE     
printable version

3 cups cooked rice, white or brown ***
1 Tbs. lime zest, minced
3 Tbs. fresh lime juice
3 Tbs. finely minced fresh cilantro

Cook rice according to directions package directions.
*** replace water (all or part) with chicken broth when making rice for a more flavorful end product

Immediately toss lime zest, lime juice and cilantro with the cooked rice. 

Can be servee warm or cold.

Delicious served in burritos with shredded meat and black beans.

Serving Up {Dessert}: Raspberry Rice Pudding

Rice pudding may not be everyone's cup of tea.  I don't know that it was even mine until six years ago when my best friend and I went to NYC to celebrate our (milestone) birthdays that year.  While we were scouring the town for good deals and good eats, we stopped in one afternoon for a treat at Rice to Riches - a Rice Pudding "parlor" near the downtown shopping.   Be still my heart!  It was like an ice cream parlor with a dozen or more different flavors of rice pudding to choose from.  And then there were the toppings!  Everything from granola to crushed candy to fresh fruit.  I was hooked.  Since then, I happily order Rice Pudding whenever it's available and relish in it's delightful goodness!

Although I haven't had a chance to master a dozen different flavors (a goal I will someday accomplish), I did stumble across this recipe for Raspberry Rice Pudding on a local television morning show a few years back.  It keeps my cravings for rice pudding in check and the raspberry/almond combination wows when I take it to a summer picnic potluck.

Be warned... as written, this recipe makes a LOT!  You either need to be feeding a large group or you need to REALLY like rice pudding :)

RASPBERRY RICE PUDDING     
printable version

8 cups half & half
4 cups cooked medium grain rice
2 cups sugar
½ tsp. salt
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries

Pour 7 cups of half & half, as well as cooked rice, sugar and salt into a 4-quart stock pot. Stir at medium heat with a wooden spoon constantly until the mixture thickens (it should take about 45-55 minutes). After the mixture has thickened, remove from the heat.
In a separate bowl, add 2 eggs that have been whipped and acclimated to room temperature. Slowly add one tablespoon at a time of the thickened pudding to the eggs while whisking to bring the eggs to the pudding temperature. Then add eggs to the pudding and fully incorporate.
Add the final cup of half & half, the vanilla and raspberries to the mixture.
Transfer the pudding to a large bowl. Cover pudding immediately with plastic wrap to prevent a skin and serve warm or cold.