2 cans of lite coconut milk (unless you want to go all out with regular coconut milk)
1 lb of chicken diced
Olive oil
Jasmine rice
This is really simple. I brown and almost cook the chicken through first before I dice it. I use a wok, but a saute pan works too. Then I remove the chicken and let it cool a bit. Pour any excess chicken residue out of the pan. Throw in some olive oil (or much healthier: coconut oil), and saute the green curry paste for a few minutes. Then add the 2 cans of coconut milk. Cut the chicken into cubes, any size you like, and throw it back into the pan with the sauce.
That’s it, people. And it’s yummy delicious! Cook as much Jasmine rice as you need for your crew, and then serve sauce over rice. I garnish with fresh basil and slices of hot red pepper.
“Oh, oh, one more thing, before I forget…”* the brains behind this curry operation belong to my good friend, Rory Boothby. We went to undergrad together at Indiana University. We’d have friend dates at his place. He’d make curry, and we’d watch marathons of Columbo. Do you know Columbo? “There’s just one more thing, sir.”*
I know we don’t all love the kitchen, nor do we all live in a rural setting full of farms with fresh produce. BUT if you do, or if you want to invest in peppers from the grocery, you can make this pretty quickly.
I use whatever peppers I have. Today it was Hungarian wax peppers. It doesn’t matter which peppers you use. (I saved all my jalapenos to make some jalapeno soup. . .wish me luck).
Roasted Garlic Hot HOT Sauce
Hot peppers of choice, enough to cover the bottom of a baking dish
One whole head of garlic
Mexican mint
Sea salt
Olive Oil
Here’s the truth: I don’t measure or follow recipes, so if you want to try this, you need to CREATE. Get messy and go for it.
All I do with the peppers is slice off the tops. Mine come from an organic farm, so I don’t even rinse them unless they’re noticeably soiled.
Tip: Getting a large stone makes crushing garlic cloves super simple. You just smash them with the stone, and then quickly peel away the skin. I’ve also heard that putting all the cloves in a towel, pulling the corners together (imagine a knapsack on a stick), and smashing it on a hard surface also removes all the skins. (It makes a big mess of your towel though!) Kids love to smash garlic. (Kids love to smash anything, don’t they?) I don’t get so much help with the hot peppers, but garlic smashing is a hit! Bonus: If your baby is young enough he/she will be so proud to “discover” the perfect garlic smashing rock for you when you’re out on a walk somewhere. Good job!
Mexican mint probably doesn’t matter to the “recipe,” though surely it will alter the taste. It doesn’t taste at all like mint. I’ve no idea how it got its name. I used it today because I have a bunch from my garden. Note: Mexican mint plants make pretty and tiny yellow flowers most of the season, and I use it in all sorts of burrito, taco, and rice dishes. Bonus: It’s easy to grow.
Note: Use only sea salt. Don’t use regular processed or iodized salt (ever).
The olive oil I just sprinkle over the top of the peppers before I roast them.
After cutting the tops off the peppers, lining the bottom of a baking dish with them, throwing on the smashed garlic (no need to mince), the sea salt, and the Mexican mint (if you have it), put the baking dish full of peppers in the oven at 450 for about 20 min or until the peppers start to show signs of roasting (brown or black areas, see middle photo above). Once the dish is cool enough to handle, blend everything up in a blender or food processor. If you need to liquefy it, use some apple cider vinegar (it has great health benefits and will also help preserve your sauce).
I store my hot sauce in canning jars, but I don’t actually can it. I keep my hot sauce in the door of the fridge all winter. It will last for months (unless someone in your household devours it sooner).
That’s it! You might ask how this recipe is good for kids. Well, it may not be. Our oldest (9) loves hot anything. For the others, it’s useless. But this blog is about YOU finding what YOU are passionate about. So if you like to cook, take a day to do it for YOU and not for the rest of the family. (And don’t worry, they won’t starve. Over in my world, lots of them come around to my wacky concoctions.)
I’m so grateful for this Saturday, even though here in the North Country it’s a soggy one. What I do today is a choice. I’m choosing miracles.
“Back in the day” I never thought I’d say this, but I can’t wait to get into the kitchen. I love being in my kitchen. Even when it’s a huge disastrous mess, I still cannot wait to get into my kitchen. I can CREATE there.
So my (delicious) partner asks me: Why didn’t you think you’d ever say you couldn’t wait to get into the kitchen?
Is this not obvious? Maybe it’s not, so here goes: I never thought I’d say that because for so much of my life I was anti-anything that might make me feminine. Have you been through this? I still encounter women who say things like: all my friends are men, or I’m more like a man; I don’t like feelings, or nothing really bothers me, I don’t know why women get so emotional.
Two things about this: if you really do NOT deal in feelings and you really are NOT emotional, then it’s awesome that you’re in alignment and living your life in integrity.
For the rest of us: cut the shit. We can be powerful and strong and still have emotions. We can be career women and still wear aprons. We can love sleeping under the stars and still own hot pink stilettos. We can be artists and still decorate cookies with our kids.
Many of you already understand all of this. For me, it took years. I grew up hearing things like: “You are too sensitive,” or “Toughen up, Crispo.” I lived in a house where a show of emotions wasn’t encouraged (in order to please, I held them in).
I was livid, deep down inside, about what I saw as a double standard between men and women. I was assertive and strong and (dare I admit, controlling), but I also had all of this feminine softness wanting to express. I could look at the mountains and literally cry because the Love I could see radiating from them was too much for my heart to take.
That, of course, is a super long answer to my boyfriend’s question. But the fact is, I fought the damn (and very old) saying that “women belong in the kitchen.” And the truth of the matter is, being in there and getting my hands in the fresh produce and creating new combinations. . . it’s healing me. It’s done so much to teach me that I AM a woman, and I can be in that and love that and quit trying to be something other than what I AM.
So when I realize (as I just did) that I don’t have to work tonight, my first thought is to get into the kitchen. Fall is upon us, and up here in the St. Lawrence Valley winter comes quick. But summer produce is not quite gone. And I have bowls of hot peppers: Hungarian wax peppers, jalapenos, Serrano peppers. I’ve got garden herbs to tie and hang. The lavender I hung this week has already changed the scent in my whole humble house.
Another day, another moment of gratitude. It’s a choice. I am choosing to see miracles.
