Som Tum (Green Papaya Salad) and Coconut Sticky Rice

During my month long stay in Thailand, and longer stay in Southeast Asia, I lived off street food. This led me to some unique, exotic, and sometimes unidentifiable surprises! My street food diet also led me to my all time favorite salad, Som Tum.  Back home, I sometimes see it on menus in Thai restaurants, but I wanted it MORE often, so I researched and tinkered with recipes until I learned how to make it right at home.  Making this fresh, easy, and healthy meal takes me back to my happy place, on the beach in Koh Tao.

This recipe requires some kitchen equipment and ingredients you may not have on hand, but a trip to your local Asian supermarket will fix you up with one stop, and within a reasonable budget. The first equipment hitch you may run into comes in shredding the green papaya. You can purchase pre-shredded papaya, but I prefer to buy it whole and shred it using a food processor with a shredding attachment.  You may substitute a cheese grater for the shredding, but it will take a bit longer. Lastly, and probably most critical for getting the flavors to come together is a mortar and pestle.  If you don't have a mortar and pestle, I recommend investing. It is an essential kitchen gadget for unlocking the authentic goodness of many spices and sauces, especially for curries (and delicious guacamole).

Ingredients

• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 chili peppers, sliced 
• 2 roma tomatoes, coarsely chopped (or other small sweet/tangy tomato variety)
• 10 long beans, cut into 1 inch pieces (or green beans)
• 1 TBS fish sauce
• 1.5 TBS dried shrimp
• 1.5 TBS coconut sugar (or palm sugar)
• juice of 1 lime
• 4 TBS peanuts 
• 1 shredded green papaya (~3 cups; skin and seeds removed and shredded)

Optional garnishes (I recommend them all!)

• 1-2 cups green cabbage
• 1 chili pepper
• lime slices
• chopped peanuts
• Thai basil

Coconut Sticky Rice... (delicious side that is also a great reliever of the spiciness from the chilies)

• 1 cup rice (glutinous rice is the correct kind for real sticky rice, but jasmine works too)
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1 tsp salt

Shred papaya or place pre-shredded papaya in a large bowl and set aside. 

If making coconut sticky rice, bring water, coconut milk and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan.  Add rice, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes, or as directed on the rice package. 

For the Som Tum, smash garlic in the mortar with the pestle. Add sliced chilies and smash a few times. Add the tomato and long beans and smash a few more times to release the juices of the tomatoes and breakdown the cellulose in the beans. 

Next, add the fish sauce, dried shrimp, sugar, lime juice and peanuts and continue smashing lightly until combined.

Use the spatula to scoop the smashed ingredients onto the shredded papaya and toss until combined. Arrange garnishes on a second plate and serve! Shown below with an extra side of ginger, red curry shrimp :)  Enjoy! 

  

Chicken and quinoa salad with kale, butternut squash and fresh apples

Sometimes it can be really really hard to eat well when you're in graduate school.  There aren't enough hours in the day. Lately, I have been trying very hard to make large batches of something delicious and healthy on Sunday's that I can have for lunch or dinner all week.  This week I had a pantry full of random ingredients, so I decided to toss them into a warm, fall inspired salad.



Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
1 small butternut squash, chopped
half onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch kale, separated from stems and shredded (stems are used too)
2/3 cup dry quinoa, prepared with stock or water
2 honey crisp apples, chopped
2+ TBS Olive Oil
1 TBS apple cider vinegar
1 TBS whole grain mustard
1 TBS agave nectar
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 375F. Rinse, dry, trim, and rub chicken breasts with olive oil.  Sprinkle them with salt, pepper, and 1 clove of chopped garlic. Bake for ~25 minutes. Once baked and cooled, shred chicken using 2 forks.

While chicken is baking, prepare 2/3 cup of dry quinoa as directed on the package.  You can use stock to make it more flavorful, but I just used water.

Also while the chicken is cooking, sauté the chopped onions, 1 clove of garlic, butternut squash, and chopped kale stems until squash is fork tender.  (I was impatient and actually stuck the sauté pan in the oven after 5 minutes of sautéing to roast for an additional 20 minutes).

Once the quinoa is done, add the shredded kale to the pot. This allows the steam to wilt the kale down. Add the chopped apple once the kale has wilted down.

Whisk together the apple cider vinegar, mustard, and agave.  Once all ingredients are cooked, toss them together with the dressing and enjoy.

Makes 4 servings 
nutrition per serving

Calories: 320

Carbs: 40

Fat: 10

Protein: 20

Fiber: 9

Roasted Golden Beet & Carrot Salad

This morning I awoke to a wonderful box of fresh, organic veggies on the front porch courtesy of our CSA. Inside, I found full, leafy bunches of carrots and golden beets.  When you see a carrot or beet with it's full top on, it seems incredibly wasteful to not utilize those beautiful greens, so I got on interest for ideas.  Unfortunately, most of the recipes I found involved too many ingredients I didn't have and too many steps I just didn't feel like doing, so I scanned the ingredient and preparation instructions and concocted my own recipe.  The result… not the quickest recipe but fresh, colorful and blissfully delicious and healthy!

Ingredients 

1 large bunch golden beets

1 bunch beet greens, washed thoroughly

1 large bunch carrots

1 cup of carrot greens, trimmed and washed thoroughly

1 clove garlic, minced

olive oil

red wine vinegar

salt

pepper

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne

parmesan cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 375

Remove the beet greens and set aside.  Remove and discard the beet tops and scrub beets thoroughly to remove dirt. Repeat same process with carrots.  Halve the golden beets and place then flat side down in a baking dish.  Fill the dish with 1 inch of water and cover with tin foil.  Drizzle the carrots with olive oil and place them on top of the tin foil sealed beet dish and roast vegetables for ~50-60 minutes or until all vegetables are fork tender.

When there is about 15 minutes left on the vegetables, boil a large pot of water for the beet greens.  Take the trimmed carrot greens, roll them into a ball and slice/ mince them once through.  After the first chop, drizzle the greens with olive oil, put one half the minced garlic, cayenne, salt and pepper on the greens and continue to mince through until well coated and well chopped. 

Once the water boils, place whole beet green stalks into the water and boil until wilted  (~5 minutes).  Once wilted, pour greens into a colander and rinse with cold water.  Shake out the greens, blot dry with a cloth if needed, and place them in the bottom of a serving dish.  Drizzle the greens with olive oil and set aside.  

Remove the beets and carrots from the oven.  Peel the beets and slice the vegetables how you like (I did carrots on an angle and beets in thin strips). Toss the slice vegetables in red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, cumin, and the other half of the minced clove of garlic, and then pour the dressed vegetables on top of the beet greens.  

Top the vegetables with the minced carrot greens and shave fresh parmesan to top.  

NOM! 

GG

* I didn't take a picture because I didn't think it would be delicious or blog worthy, but I will definitely be making this again soon, so picture to come… 

Banana Yogurt Bread

Your basic banana bread with a healthy twist

Ingredients 
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
1/8 cup golden toasted flax seeds
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup room temp butter (can use 1/4 if you want but Chris and Justin love the buttery taste)
1/8 cup plain greek yogurt (use 1/4 if you use 1/4 cup butter)
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 room temp eggs
2 overripe bananas
1+ tsp vanilla

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F, and prepare your baking pan (9x 5 loaf or 9x13 baking pan as pictured above) with butter and a light dusting of flour.

In one bowl, wisk together dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and flax seed and set aside

In a separate bowl, beat butter and yogurt.  Blend in brown sugar.  Beat in vanilla and then eggs one at a time (eggs and butter don't have to be room temp but it helps keep the bread lighter). Fold in peeled/mashed bananas until just combined.

Add combined wet ingredients in batches into the bowl of dry ingredient.  Fold mixtures together until just combined; be careful not to over mix because that makes the bread bake up heavier.

Spread batter in prepared pan and bake 30-35 minutes for a 9x13 pan or 50-55 for a regular 9x5 loaf pan. Baking can be be variable, so check the bread 5 minutes early to make sure it is cooking evenly.  When a knife or toothpick can be inserted and removed cleanly, remove bread from the oven and set aside on a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy!
GG

Nutrition
(serving size= 1 slice; 16 slices per batch)
Calories:  168
Fat: 7 g
Carb: 24 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sugar: 12 g
Protein: 3 g

Warm Bacon & Brussel Sprout Salad

I like to play the game "can I make something delicious?" using only what is left in the fridge.  Sometimes it's a miss, but sometimes it's a hit, and I think this recipe was a game winner!

Ingredients 
20 brussel sprouts, trimmed and sliced
6 baby bella mushrooms (or any other mushroom variety) sliced
1 (15 oz.) can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 slices of thick bacon, fried and crumbled
2 tsp organic maple syrup (the real stuff)
salt
pepper

Directions 
Pan fry the strips of bacon.  Remove bacon, place on paper towels, and set aside.

Reduce the heat to medium. Using the bacon drippings (or drain and use olive oil), sauté sliced mushrooms until they begin to caramelize.  Add sliced brussels sprouts and continue to sauté until they begin to wilt, about 5 minutes. During the sauté process, add in black pepper to your liking.

Once brussel spouts and mushrooms are cooked, add in chickpeas and crumble or rough chop the bacon and add that to the mix.  Toss ingredients together in pan until heated through.

Transfer to a serving bowl.  Add maple syrup and a few pinches of salt to give it that salty sweet character and serve warm!

Enjoy :)
gg

Key Lime Cupcakes with Pinnacle Whipped Frosting

The Summer sun has me thinking of crazy baking concoctions... 

Cream cheese frosting would be the traditional complement to Key Lime cupcakes, but who wants traditional ALL the time?  A stabilized whipped frosting will be lighter in taste and calories, which keeps in theme with the event at hand... the lovely Kelly Hirschbeck's Bachelorette Party! 

Cupcakes (adapted from Bon Appetit 2008)

*1 and 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
*1 tsp baking powder
*1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
*1+1/2 cups sugar
*2 eggs, room temp
*3 TBS key lime juice
*1 TBS Lime zest
*3/4 cup buttermilk ( or 3/4 cup milk + 1tsp lemon juice, set for 10 minutes)

Preheat oven to 350F, whisk dry ingredients together, cream butter then add sugar and beat in eggs 1 at a time.  Beat in lime+zest (batter may look curdled but don't worry), add buttermilk and dry mix alternately in 3 additions each then spoon a SCANT 1/3 cup into lined cupcake wells.

Bake 18-25 minutes.  My oven cooks things fast.  Overdone cupcakes= heavy and BLA

Whipped Frosting

*1/4 cup whipped vodka
*2 tsp unflavored gelatin
*1 cup heavy whipping cream
*1 tsp lime juice
*1/4 cup powdered sugar

Chill mixing bowl and beater for 15 minutes (while cupcakes are baking/cooling)

In small saucepan on LOW, warm lime juice and half the vodka and sprinkled with gelatin until gelatin is disolved (apx 5 minutes).  If vapor starts to come off the mix remove it from the heat because that is your alcohol being vaporized! 

 Once gelatin is completely dissolved, add the other half of the vodka, whisking constantly.

Whip cream and sugar until beater marks begin to appear in the cream.  Steadily pour the vodka Jello into the cream, beating consistently and continue to beat until soft peaks start to form.  

Icing pipes well if used immediately. Enjoy! 

Tom Yum Goong (Spicy Sour Thai Lemongrass soup)

Authentic Thai food is edible art- unique ingredients and techniques combined to create amazing flavors that are healthy and delicious. Tom YUMMMM is a beginner recipe.  The secret of Thai food is the spices and fresh ingredients, some of which can be hard to find. Everything below can be found at a specialty or asian market fairly easily. 

2-3 Servings

·         2 chili peppers

·         5 sprigs cilantro

·         2 tablespoon fish sauce

·         ½ clove garlic

·         3 kaffir lime leaves

·         1 lemongrass (3 slices~ 2-3 inches)

·         1  lime juiced

·         1 cup sliced mushrooms, cabbage and carrot

·         1 tablespoon Nam Prig Pow/Pad 

·         1 cup shrimp

·         4 cups water

Boil water
 Slice/smash the lemongrass to release flavor and boil for 5 mins

Peel and de-vein the shrimp 

Combine fish sauce and lime juice and divide into serving bowls
Crush chili pepper and set aside

Add de-stemed kaffir lime leaves, garlic, vegetables, and several sprigs cilantro and boil 5 minutes

Add the shrimp and simmer till just orange

Scoop shrimp and liquid into the serving bowls to serve immediately

Add the nam prig pow/pad, cilantro, chili pepper, fish sauce, and lime to taste

**do NOT use stock for this recipe if you want it to taste authentic. The herbs and shrimp make the "stock"