cook: more asian comfort

I've been on a spree of making soap dishes and a couple of butter boxes. And hence I've been cooking dishes without having to think--Filipino, Vietnamese, and Japanese. Saturday night, I cooked chicken karaage, steamed brown jasmine rice, kabocha and sweet potato tempura  with dashi and soy dipping sauce, and red leaf lettuce salad dressed in miso & sesame oil.                           

I thought if I'm gonna fry, then I'm gonna fry! I did strain and reserve the cooking oil. And Patrick complimented me on a delicious dinner.

And lunches this week will be leftover Asian meals as well as kale and goat cheese and walnut salads with my usual homemade dressing: minced shallots, walnut and olive oils, Dijon mustard, orange blossom honey, seasoning sauce, soy sauce, lemon juice, salt and pepper.     

I'm trying to eat my Asian leftovers before I leave for a 4-day working weekend, but I cooked a Thai curry last night. I had defrosted chicken thighs. I also pulled out a jar of Thai red curry paste, leftover kabocha and sweet potato and bok choi and herbs as well as red peppers from the garden, a can of coconut milk and both Filipino and Vietnamese fish sauces as well as a Vietnamese caramel sauce (fish sauce boiled with Palm sugar). I liked that I was making do when I cooked and not making additional trips to the grocery store for a missing ingredient.               

I now have a reserve of coconut milk after a trip to the warehouse store. 

 

I sautéed the cut-up chicken, kabocha squash and sweet potato in the red curry paste. I then added one can of coconut milk to the chicken and starches and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

 

I left the rest of the vegetables for the last 5 to 7 minutes of cooking and the herbs for the very last.

The curry was a bit fiery, and so I added some of my caramel sauce to temper it. 

The husband ate the curry too though he didn't compliment the dish.

But the win for me is that my husband ate what I ate and that I got to eat a dish I liked. I also had Cecilia help herself to as much curry and rice as she wanted, and she validated me by declaring the curry as one of the best I've cooked.