My New Year’s Day Menu Friday, Jan 1 2010 

Food and Recipes and Vacation , tiedyefor 9:21 pm

Okay, I gave a little thought to our New Year’s Day menu – since I was able to stop by an open Publix after I went to see New Moon.  I already had two pork tenderloins (next time I buy from Costco, I am going to open the little vacuum sealed packages of two and separate the loins out), but I had no greens and no black-eyed peas.

I didn’t even try to find fresh black-eyed peas – 5:00 PM on New Year’s Eve is not the time to be picky!  I got two cans of the Publix brand.  I was able to get my hands on the last bag of Glory brand Collard Greens, and I was set.  Here is what I fixed:

First, I made the Cornbread.   I used this recipe from Celiac.com.   It calls for ground corn meal (I used the Bob’s Red Mill Medium Ground Corn Meal that has been in my freezer for a while) and masa harina (or, Harina de Masa – I used Maseca) as a flour substitute.  I didn’t have any buttermilk, so I substituted SaCo Cultured Buttermilk Blend (I checked the ingredients, and they look to be gluten-free).

The only part of the procedure that needed to change in the recipe was to add the Buttermilk Blend (which is dry) to the dry ingredients.  Then I added the water to the eggs and stirred them up.

I decided to write down my recipe and procedure, since I substituted and didn’t use a cast iron pan.  Try it:  It is a good recipe – my mother found the original last year and used it to make a great cornbread dressing.

Corn Bread #2.1 (Gluten-Free)

2 cups cornmeal (Bob’s Red Mill Medium Ground)
1 cup Masa Harina (Mexican-style corn flour used for tortillas)
8 Tablespoons SaCo Cultured Buttermilk Blend (4 TBSP. per cup of water)
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon soda
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs, beaten
2 cups water
Canola oil spray for the glass pan

In one bowl, combine dry ingredients and cut in oil with a pastry blender (I used a fork). In another bowl, crack 3 eggs and beat with a fork.  Add 2 cups of water and beat with a fork until the eggs and water are mixed.  Then stir the egg mixture into the dry mixture and blend with the fork.

The original recipe calls for a cast iron pan, which I don’t have.  I used a glass pan, about 7 or 8 inches square.  I sprayed it with Canola spray and tried to melt butter in the bottom of the pan, but ended up dumping most of the butter out.

Bake at 425F degrees for 25 minutes, then turn and bake 15 minutes more or until done.

While the cornbread was baking, I made the Collard Greens.  I chopped and sauteed 1/2 red onion, 5 mini yellow bell peppers, 3 cloves of garlic, and 15-20 slices of Hormel Pepperoni (the Original kind – the Turkey is not gluten-free) in 1/4 cup of olive oil and a dollop of dark sesame oil.  When the veggies were soft, I added 4 cups of Organic Chicken Broth, 1/2 Tbsp. of Better than Bouillon Ham base, a couple of shots of balsamic vinaigrette and Wheat Free Tamari sauce.  After the liquid came to a boil, I added the bag of Glory Turnip Greens and tossed them in the liquid.  Then I lowered the heat and simmered the mixture until greens looked done.

Last night, I massaged the pork tenderloin with Williams-Sonoma Coffee and Spice Rub.  Then I added a little olive oil and lime juice and salt and rubbed that in as well.  I put it in the fridge overnight.  Today, I cooked the tenderloin in the oven – it only took about 20-25 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 425 degrees.

Since Williams-Sonoma seems to have discontinued this item (even with a recipe on their website that calls for it), I found someone on Recipezaar who made his own version:

Ancho Chile and Coffee Rub -

1 Tablespoon French Roast coffee beans
1 teaspoon dried ancho chile powder
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
2 teaspoons cumin seeds

To prepare the rub:  Place the ingredients in a heated heavy skillet.  Shake the mixture over the heat and allow to toast for 1 minute or until mixture begins to release a strong aroma.  Pour into a spice or coffee grinder and grind to a coarse powder.

Finally, I strained and dumped two cans black-eyed peas with a can of chopped tomatoes and mild green chiles, one cube each of Dorot garlic and cilantro, and a cup of chicken broth with some of the collard green drippings.

It all came out great and there are plenty of leftovers, since there are only two of us here.

The only New YAmbrosia: A New Year's Tradition?ear’s Meal traditional item that I compromised on was the Ambrosia Fruit Salad.  Ambrosia is a fruit salad made with orange sections, coconut, and maraschino cherries (some people add pineapple).  My family used to have it for dessert – whether we wanted it or not – becaus it represented happiness in the new year.  I didn’t want to make Ambrosia, mainly because my husband avoids oranges for his gastric reflux and I didn’t want to eat that much salad myself.  So I came upon a compromise.  My husband downloaded a song or two from the band Ambrosia.  Clever, huh?

Then, while I was looking up links on New Year’s traditional foods, I could find nothing about having ambrosia on New Year’s Day.  It was mentioned as a dessert item on Thanksgiving and Christmas, but none of the sites I found required it for a New Year’s meal. I didn’t find it under “lucky foods“, either.  When I mentioned this omission to my husband, however, he asserted that his family also ate it as a New Year’s tradition.  Does anyone else have an opinion?

Well, it sounds like my husband is dismantling the Christmas tree, so I guess that signals the end of the holiday season.  I still have two more days of vacation, then two days of inservice at school before the children come back.  They come back on Three Kings’ Day, so I may have to find a Rosca de los Reyes to serve.

 

Aguas Frescas with Alcohol Wednesday, Dec 30 2009 

Recipes and drinks , , , tiedyefor 11:33 pm

Of course, I looked for aguas frescas that were used as alcoholic drink

Tamarind Margarita

mixers. In downtown Norcross, a Mexican restaurant called Zapata served me a tamarind margarita that was pretty good. And, in looking for a recipe for that, my search turned up with recipes for a Gitatini (a Ginger Tamarind cocktail), a Tamarind Martini (from Cooking Light), a Tamarind and Vodka Cocktail (served in a pitcher), and Tamarind Borracho (drunken tamarind). Oh, here’s a Tamarind Margarita with a Chili Rim… Quite a few of the recipes call for Tamarind Concentrate, which I just found in an ethnic grocery.

Of course, since aguas frescas are basically fruit juices, you can just add alcohol to them, and Boom! – you’ve got a drink.  But I thought that I would look to see if anyone had purposefully created a cocktail using aguas frescas as a base.

Here are some more cocktail ideas:

Aguas at the Loteria Grill

I found an Australian company called Sunbeat that makes condensed syrups in exotic flavors.  They have PDF files of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks using all sorts of unusual ingredients, such as dragon fruit, hibiscus, rooibus, lemongrass and ginger.

I came across that site while looking for a Hibiscus version of a Sea Breeze coctail, which is made with Cranberry Juice.  I also found a New Orleans restaurant called The Green Goddess which has a very unusual food and drink menu.  I found this description: Organic Tru Vodka, Hibiscus from Sudan on the Nile River, Acai Juice from the Brazilian Rainforest,  finished with Jamaican Pink Ting.

Okay, I am sure that there are other recipes out there, but I need to wrap this up.  I have a tendency to search things to death – does anyone else do that?

 

Aguas Frescas – other than Horchata Tuesday, Dec 29 2009 

Mexico and Recipes and Restaurants and drinks , , , tiedyefor 11:24 pm

My first experience with trying to make aguas frescas was in the interest of my Spanish Exploratory class -  I developed this day where we ate “Crazy Mexican Sweets.”  The Klass mixes were the first I tried and it was horchata.  First thing I learned after mixing it in a bottle was that sugar MUST be added.  I had some Mexican children in Spanish Exploratory (which cannot be avoided in the scheduling world) and someone politely tasted it and shared that info with me.

So, yes, there are mixes for aguas frescas that are little more that Kool Aid.  Here is a link so you can see all of the Klass mixes.  I think that the tamarindo and jamaica are passable, but skip the limon – it is very VERY acidic.

Next on the  list are bottled aguas frescas – which are a pretty good substitute if you don’t want to take the time to make them yourself.  They are also good to bring to a tasting – for example, if your Spanish students wanted to have a food day.  Bonadea Drinks offers 11 flavors, including pepino (cucumber?) and has very clean, slick packaging.  It is sweetened with agave for you health nuts out there.  Morela Aguas Frescas has many flavors as well.  Cañita  Brands offers only jamaica and tamarindo.  Even Kern’s Nectars is getting into the act with jamaica (full of antioxidants!), tamarindo and limon.

Okay, if you don’t know what an agua fresca is, it’s basically a drink made of pureed fruit, sugar and water.  The mixture is blended together and strained to make a refreshing beverage.  For further enlightenment, here is a Los Angeles Times article on aguas frescas – and another from the L. A. Times on where to find freshly made ones.  Apparently, they take their A.F. (aguas frescas)  seriously in L. A.

Here is a Guide to Mexican Fruits from MexConnect.com.  This is for your reference.  After you have read all of the enticing and creative recipes here, you may want to personalize your own fruit!  To get you started, here is a Basic Agua Fresca Recipe with variations.  Here is another page with the basics – they call them Mexican Coolers.

What follows is basically a collection of recipes and variations I have found on the internet through hours of research…

While I was researching, I came across Rachel Laudan’s blog.  She has a lot of posts about exotic foods, but if you click on her Aguas Frescas tag, you can find several unusual drink recipes.  Here is one for Agua de Viernes de Dolores which I think is colored from beet root but it has all sorts of fruit and even shredded iceberg lettuce in it!  Another unusual agua is made with Apricot Leather – it actually has Middle Eastern provenance.

Finally, I did an Amazon.com search to see if anyone had a book out yet on aguas frescas.  I found Cool Waters: Refreshing Homemade Thirst Quenchers by Brian Preston-Campbell – This looks like a really good book with recipes for flavored waters and ice cubes.

P.S. – I did find an interesting variation on Horchata from a restaurant called Guelaguetza in Los Angeles.  It has chopped prickly pear fruit (tuna) and pecans (nueces) on top.  Yum!

 

We have horchata! Sunday, Sep 13 2009 

Recipes and drinks and milagro , , , tiedyefor 9:14 pm

Well, something I did not realize in my eagerness to write about horchata is that it is not an immediate gratification drink.  I went out and bought a coffee and/or spice grinder, white rice, almonds, and stick cinnamon.  I was ready!   I guess it would have been a good idea to read the INSTRUCTIONS…

All of the instructions I found said that the pulverized rice and cinnamon and almond mess needed to soak in water overnight.  I wanted my horchata NOW!  But, I did as I was told.  Then, I looked at the printout of the recipe for Smoked Horchata and noticed there was a cheat there.  They suggested using rice milk, almond milk and coconut water with cinnamon, brown sugar, toasted almonds and unsweetened coconut to make something that would be ready sooner.

I couldn’t find unsweetened coconut, and I fudged a bit on the almonds, using some roasted ones my husband had.  I also added white sugar and a tad of molasses to substitute for the missing brown sugar.  I strained it several times through my inadequate strainer, and it came out pretty good.  I could not find the ingredients for the Smoked Horchata, but I bought some rum and a tiny bottle of Frangelico to make something like the Squirrel Horchata.

I tasted my overnight horchata this evening, and it was good.  I think that I need to invest in some cheesecloth, though.  Paper towels are not good filters.  And, since we don’t drink coffee, there were no coffee filters hanging around.

 

Aguas Frescas: Horchata, Pt. 2 (Rated R…) Saturday, Sep 12 2009 

Latino and Mexico and Recipes and Restaurants and drinks , , , tiedyefor 10:36 am

The Smoked Horchata

The Smoked Horchata

Now, let’s talk horchata and alcohol. I found a couple of interesting general articles on using horchata as a mixer.  Of course, there’s the great Squirrel Horchata recipe at Chowhound. But here are some excerpts from a Horchata Cocktails Article on HalogenLife.com:

“Traditionally, forward-thinking citizens have spiked horchata with rum, Cointreau, Grand Marnier or brandy, but finding formalized cocktails has been rare (in California, some Latino bars apparently make a “Rice Rocket,” a potent mix of horchata, coconut-flavored rum and Goldschlager).”

Note:  I was just thinking about the “bling” factor of a liqueur with tiny pieces of gold floating in it, but I just read that Goldschlager has a cinnamon flavor.  That would make it more appropriate than I thought for a horchata drink.

and this (most intriguing):

“At the creative cocktail den Death & Company, you can pick up the very complicated “Smoked Horchata” crafted by bartender Joaquin Simo. The recipe involves reposado tequila, crema de mezcal, cinnamon bark syrup, house-made horchata (crafted with toasted coconut flakes and almond flour) and a dash of bitters. The resulting cocktail is dense but crisp. An unexpected summer drink, like the base liquid itself, it somehow manages to restore.”

Yay!!! I found a PDF of Smoked Horchata recipe, including the easy horchata (made with rice and almond milks with coconut water) and cinnamon bark syrup (added to other drinks as well) at Tasting Table.com.  It looks fascinating! Here’s another cinnamon bark syrup recipe used in a non-horchata drink from Imbibe Magazine.

Fodors.com highly recommends a horchata drink called The Spicy Brown Girl made at Stir Lounge in Las Vegas:

“While the Horchata gives the Spicy Brown Girl its creamy consistency, the drink’s zing comes from (mixologist Niles) Peacock’s homemade Ancho chile simple syrup, a spicy mixer that leaves the palate surprisingly hot. Other ingredients: Smirnoff Vanilla Twist Vodka, dark Crème de Cacao, and Peacock’s homemade Madagascar cello, which he makes with Madagascar vanilla beans.”

I could not find a recipe for the Spicy Brown Girl on the internet, so I looked for recipes for the components of the drink.  Here is an Ancho Chile Syrup Recipe to try (scroll to the middle of the page). I could not find a recipe for “Madagascar cello”, but I assume it is vodka infused with Madagascar vanilla bean pods.  Here is a link to Marie Brizard’s Vanilla Liqueur, which I think might be an acceptable substitute.

The Rosa’s Horchata Site had five cocktail recipes using their canned or bottled ready-made horchata. Click here for the page with the recipes and here for a PDF file to download.

On other random sites, I found some other drinks recipes:

  • Here’s one for Rum-Spiked Horchata, which uses condensed milk and then rum to replace some of the water.
  • Here is a Sarah Moulton recipe for a coconut rice cooler with optional rum added.
  • The Monte Alban on DrinkNation.com is similar to the Rice Rocket, but uses tequila instead of coconut-flavored rum.
  • DrinksMixer.com had the Rojo Robles,which adds coffee liqueur and raspberry vodka to the horchata, and…
  • The Reggaton, made with horchata and Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum.
  • In the middle of this article  is a recipe for Heavenly Horchata, made with tequila and Kahlua.
  • The La Palapa Horchata has vanilla vodka and amaretto added to it.
  • Horchata Macau uses just a bit of spiced almond horchata with Flor de Cana guava-infused white rum and fresh lemon.
  • the White Widow has tequila, melon liquor and horchata

I just found a fascinating article on orgeat syrups. The original orgeat syrup is a sweet syrup made from almonds, sugar and rose water or orange-flower water. It was, however, originally made with a barley-almond blend. (from Wikipedia).  Here is a step by step recipe for French orgeat syrup with illustrations.

This article from RookieLibations at Blogspot seems to be playing around with derivatives based on rice-based drinks.  Check it out – there are recipes for three different types of syrup.  There is a syrup using a horchata de melon recipe, which is used in a drink called the Melon de Rosa.  There is a rice horchata syrup recipe with a pisco drink called a Fausto Cocktail.  Finally, there’s a wacky syrup based on thandai (a northern Indian concoction) with a cocktail called the Isodo Cocktail.  Very creative!

 

Peruvian Yellow Beans, Part 2 Monday, Sep 7 2009 

Food and Latino and Recipes , , , tiedyefor 3:05 pm

verdevallebeansperuanosI think this is my 3rd time cooking these beans.  I have found out a little bit about them, too.  Even though they are called peruanos, or Peruvian yellow beans, they are actually grown in Mexico and are also called Mayo Coba beans.

This time, I bought Verde Valle Brand beans, and pretty much stuck to the directions on the back of the bag.  It was pretty basic: 1 Cup beans + 9 Cups water = 4. But of course, being me, I cooked the whole bag (2 lbs.).  I soaked them overnight (the package suggested I keep them in the fridge.  When my husband came down to the kitchen, he said that the beans had soaked up all of the water, and he added a little more to cover them.

I had a lot of beef stock left over from making beef tongue the day before, which I reserved in a big bowl in the fridge.  I drained the beans and put them in my largest pot, then poured the stock on top of it.  I had bought some mild Mexican chorizo to use instead of the ham and turkey sausage I usually use, but I was a little surprised when it turned out that the “links” were plastic, and you had to squeeze the sausage out like toothpaste. So, it ended up looking like (very red) ground beef.  I added it to the pot with some sauteed onion and yellow bell pepper, then added a little more of my favorite new seasoning, Don Julio ground pepper and cumin.  I also added turmeric and garlic.

I brought the pot to a boil, then turned it down to simmer for 90 minutes. That was about right.  I siphoned off some of the stock – I like my beans thick.  I also added 2 Tablespoons of harina de masa to thicken it and took out a cup of beans and liquid and pureed it in the blender and added it back to the beans.  I just had some and they are great – maybe they need a little salt.  But they sure are yellow!

 

Mexican Green and Yellow Stew Monday, Sep 7 2009 

Food and Latino and Mexico and Recipes , , , tiedyefor 1:06 pm

This morning (okay, noon) I got up and worked on more food.  My original plan was to add the beef tongue to the stew below, but decided it might be better to keep them separate and mix them in a burrito or over rice.

Mexican Green and Yellow Stew

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 small poblano pepper, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
6 nopal paddles, cleaned, de-spined and diced
2 medium yellow tomatoes, chopped
1 11 oz. can San Marcos Tomatillos, chopped
1/3 – 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 7 oz. can San Marcos Green Mexican Salsa
1 cube Dorot chopped garlic
1/2 cup Goya Recaito
juice of 1 lime
1 cup Trader Joe’s Roasted Corn
2 Tablespoons Maseca Harina de Masa
Don Julio Pepper and Cumin powder*, to taste
Cholula Chile and Lime Seasoning, to taste
Salt, to taste

1. Sautee onion, peppers and celery in a large pan or Dutch Oven.
2. Add other chopped vegetables and ingredients as they become ready: nopales, tomatoes, tomatillos, and cilantro and simmer until softer.
3. Add the can of Mexican salsa to the pan, along with the recaito, garlic, and lime and stir into the mixture.
4. Add other spices: Pepper and Cumin Powder, Chile and Lime Seasoning, and Salt to taste.
5. I add the Trader Joe’s Roasted Corn (which is frozen) last, because I don’t want it to lose its shape and “roasted” look.
5. I added the Masa Harina as a thickener.  It really added body to the mix.

I am eating this right now with brown rice and it is delicious – it may be a little tart for some, but I think that the addition of meat (tongue, for example) will balance that out.  I think that it would also be good in a soup, and I will try that later.

*I tried to find a link to the Don Julio products, but gave up.  I found this and some achiote powder in the Honduran section of my Mexican grocery.

Oh, I also found a recipe for Nopal Cactus Paddle Cake while searching – gotta try that!

 

Tongue in Slow Cooker, Part 1 Sunday, Sep 6 2009 

Food and Latino and Recipes and Slow Cooking , , tiedyefor 9:37 pm

I know that I have spoken of beef tongue in the past.  Today, I thought I would try and record measurements and ingredients for my recipe.  Today was just the beef tongue braising day.  Tomorrow, I will add more ingredients to make a stew.

Tongue in Slow Cooker, Part 1

Place the following in 6 quart slow cooker:

1 beef tongue, 3 1/2 lbs.
4 cups Progressorecaito_1 beef broth, 4 cups
1 white onion, coarsely chopped
3 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
8 – 10 baby carrots, chopped in half
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Then, in 2 cups of water, dissolve and mix the following, then pour into the slow cooker over the tongue (tongue should be completely covered with liquid, so add water if needed):

3 – 4 Tablespoons Goya recaito
1 cube Dorot chopped garlic
1 cube Dorot chopped cilantro
1 Knorr mini seasoning cube parsley
1 Maggi Seasoning Cube, Cumin-flavoredmaggi_cumin_cubes

You may put the mixture in the microwave 30 – 45 seconds to speed the dissolving of the cubes, but it doesn’t have to all be dissolved to pour over the tongue.

And, of course you may use fresh parsley, garlic, and cumin if you like.  I do have to tell those that are sensitive that the Knorr and Maggi cubes have MSG in them.

Top with a bit of extra virgin olive oil poured into the slow cooker.

Cook on High for 1 hour, then change to low for 7-8 hours or until fork tender.

Here is a link to a good-looking beef tongue recipe for taco filling.

While looking for Maggi Cumin cubes, I came across CocinandoConNestle.com.  Anyone interested in Peruvian Chicken Stir Fry?  I know I am!  As for a definitive link, Maggi doesn’t have one.  I have seen them in the Latino food section of Super WalMart and at the Buford Highway Farmers Market.

I always keep three trays of Dorot frozen garlic, basil, and cilantro in my freezer.  I wish that Trader Joe’s would expand into the other products, such as chopped ginger, dill, and parsley.  dorotcilantroThere is even a Tex Mex mix.  I just read here that they are available at Ingle’s.  I will have to see it to believe it.

One other little tip – I have bought jars of the Goya Recaito and Sofrito sauces, and one of them went bad in my fridge.  One thing I think I could have done was to top it off with oil or water.  This time, I bought some small cubical containers and divided the jars among them and froze them.  I added a bit of water to the jar to make it easier to pour.  One jar filled about four little containers.  I am going to see if I can pop them out and put them in plastic bags so I can re-use my containers.

I have also strained out all of the veggies from my beef/tongue stock and am going to preserve that as well.  It smells delicious.

 

Update on the Turkey Curry… Sunday, Aug 23 2009 

Recipes and Slow Cooking , tiedyefor 6:00 pm

It came out great! About 3 hours into the cooking, of course, I started fiddling with it a bit. I stirred it up and moved the turkey thighs closer to the bottom. I also added a little bit of coconut milk that I defrosted.

At around 5 hours, I pulled out the thighs and took the meat off of them (ouch!). I coarsely chopped the meat and put it back in the slow cooker to soak up more sauce.

I plan on serving it on brown rice. Give it a try! If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s nearby, please be wary of the red curry paste – it is way stronger than the TJ’s sauce, even cut with coconut milk.

 

Slow Cooker Turkey Curry Sunday, Aug 23 2009 

Blogging and Food and Recipes and Slow Cooking , tiedyefor 2:18 pm

Well, Friday afternoon, instead of battling traffic, I decided to go straight to the movie theater after school.  I was trying to wait to see Julia and Julie with my husband, but when I saw that there was going to be a thunderstorm in addition to Friday afternoon traffic, I tossed that notion and went to see it by myself.

I liked it fine, and even appreciated it from the Julie point of view.  Being a blogger myself, I could identify with the excitement of having someone actually respond to your writing… and the disappointment to find that it was only your mother writing in your guestbook.  Ha!

When I got home, I jokingly threatened to choose a cookbook and work my way through it in a year.  I told my husband I would maybe do the Cake Doctor’s first book.  Of course, my husband in gluten-intolerant, so that would leave me eating all the cakes…  That won’t do.

Anyway, as much as I admire Julia Child and the other chefs that approach cooking as a science (Alton Brown comes to mind), I have a hard time sticking to a recipe.  Just ask my mother…  I usually end up changing something, or substituting an ingredient.  Baking is different – I do try to stick to the directions there, even when the results are not as I would have hoped.

But for me, there’s nothing quite as much fun as throwing a bunch of things into a pot, adding spices or sauces, and seeing what happens.  I am a big collector of pre-packaged herb blends and sauces that I find at the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market – I am fascinated by moles from Mexico, curries from Thailand, Malaysia, India and the Philippines, stir fry sauces from Asia and Morocco.  Fun!

Today, I am experimenting with Trader Joe’s Red Curry Sauce (the Yellow Curry was fantastic – I think I used it with tuna filets).  Last night, I picked up two turkey thighs with skin and bone for $4.00 (about a pound).  Around noon, I looked through the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry to see what I could throw together.  Here goes…

Turkey Curry in a Crock Pot

2 turkey thighs (about 1 lb) with skin and bone
3 smallish potatoes (gold finns?), chopped
2 onions (Vidalia), chopped
baby carrots (about a cup), larger pieces chopped
1 red delicious apple, chopped
prunes, dried pitted
1 jar Trader Joe’s red curry sauce
2 tsp. Thai red curry paste
1 can petit diced tomatoes
2 roasted red peppers from a jar
2 cubes Dorot frozen cilantro
some flaked coconut
2/3 cup green peas, frozen

In the bottom of the slow cooker, I put in the onions, potatoes, carrots, and apple.  I scattered about 10-12 small dried prunes on that.

I washed the turkey thighs and put those on top of the vegetables.  Then, I poured the bottle of curry sauce on top of the thighs.  I added a little more water and the cilantro cubes and red curry paste and shook it up to get the dregs mixed in and poured that on top of the turkey.

I spread a can of petit diced tomatoes around the edges of the curry sauce, to fill in the space where the sauce was not covering the thighs, then added chopped jarred red bell peppers and coconut (just because I had it) to the mix.

On top, I put the green peas.  I turned the slow cooker to High for 6 hours.

I just found some more coconut milk in the freezer, and may add that later.

Now, I want to make beans and greens soup.  I just need some canned white beans…  I’ll let you know how the curry turns out!

 

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