Panang, Take That!

I'm obsessed with coconut milk, it's true. Ever since I've been making a conscious effort to reduce eating highly processed foods and having been enlightened as to the many benefits of coconut, I'm "coo-coo" for coconut. This in turn has created a frenzy in my pantry - half of one shelf is entirely dedicated to Thai pantry items, including fish sauce, coconut milk, straw mushrooms, tamarind paste, a variety of curry pastes and kaffir lime leaves in my freezer.

Last night, I made yet another one of Jet Tila's recipe from his recent stint at New School of Cooking - roti panang. This curry was served with paratha (an Indian bread) at the class, but last night I opted to pair it with fragrant, nutty brown rice. The beauty of curry is its flexibility, you can do anything with it really. I substituted bamboo shoots for straw mushrooms, added more onions and red bell pepper, and upped the amount of extra curry paste for kick. It was delish. The real key to raising your "curry" bar is cooking a few tablespoons of the coconut milk with the curry paste over medium-high heat. You're looking for the paste to melt together with the coconut milk and brown. This browning process brings out all of the flavor of the paste and will intensify your curry.

chicken curry-licious.

Right about now if you walked into my house you would still smell the remnants of Indian food I cooked last night. In the January 2009 issue of Bon Appetit, I found a recipe for chicken with a red pepper and shallot curry that screamed my name. I simply adore Indian food. I adore the complex combination of spices. Indian food is rich, deep and above all else, delicious. The chicken thighs were baked in a tomato-yogurt mixture that included cumin, cayenne, paprika, cloves, cardamom, celery seeds, salt, pepper, canola oil, garlic and a few others that have escaped my brain at the moment (13 in all). While the chicken was baking and the basmati rice was steaming, I made the red pepper and shallot curry that included red and yellow bell peppers, shallots, tomatoes, jalepenos, paprika, turmeric and cumin seeds. Spicy and intoxicating. This dish warms your spirit and your belly. The perfect ending would've been a Bollywood movie, but we settled on the Superstars of Dance. So sue me. Perhaps during this new year you will take a culinary train ride and dive into some new recipes! Whatever your intentions may be for the new year, I wish you well!