Green curry and rice is a personal favorite dish of mine and I’ve seen it served as soup or as a thick sauce on the rice. It is super great to warm you up during the winter and no one should be afraid of curry as it’s easily adjustable. The flavor from the green curry is what makes this dish, combined with coconut milk and you get a nice sweet heat. Not only will all the ingredients soak up the flavor but the rice will absorb whatever is left leaving you with a dish to remember. You can adjust the green curry paste based on your heat tolerance. I’ve found that 4 seems to work good for Judy who doesn’t like heat at all and is still a bit hot for my medium tastes. Play with the ingredients, most everything will work fine!
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 1/2 cups coconut milk (1 can)
- 4 tablespoons green curry paste
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup broccoli
- 1 cup cauliflower
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 4 cups rice
METHOD:
In a skillet, bring 1 cup of coconut milk to boil with green curry paste. Reduce to medium and add everything but the chicken into the milk/curry mixture. Cook the chicken separately and add into the soup mixture once done. Cook for 15 minutes or until vegetables are soft and serve on rice.
Having a bunch of turkey left overs from Thanksgiving, I’ve spent most of the week working on utilizing it as much as I can. Last Night, I made a nice turkey fried rice for my wife and as always it was super simple and super tasty.
As with many of my recipes, it is a bit of a blank canvas and you can use any type of meat you’d like. Enjoy the great mix of carrots, green peppers, turkey, and egg as it melts in your mouth and warms you up. This is what fried rice should be, notice the lack of that weird yellow color? I still haven’t figured out why that’s added to the take outs! Make a big batch as you can warm this up for quick dinners or lunches as well.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 1/2 cups turkey (pulled/shredded)
- 1 carrot (vertical sliced)
- 1/2 green pepper (horizontal sliced)
- 4 cloves garlic (diced)
- 1 egg
- 2 cups rice (cooked)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice wine
- 1 tablespoon garlic (diced)
- 1/4 cup green onion (sliced)
METHOD:
Warm a skillet on medium-high heat. Once warmed, add oil and garlic then sauté for 30 seconds or so. Add carrots, green peppers, pepper, and turkey. Turn heat up to high and fry for 5 minutes stirring to make sure things don’t stick to the pan.
Add rice, rice wine, and soy sauce and mix well. Make a small hole in the center of the skillet and crack the egg in the middle. Mix the egg until it is cooked, add green onions and then mix the whole skillet up, remove from heat and serve.
I sincerely hope that your Holidays bring laughter, cheer, great food, and good spirits this year. I will be taking a week off from the blog to enjoy the holidays and will resume blogging on the 28th of Dec. In other news, The Culinary Adventures of MadZak has finished Season 1 and boy was it a great time! The MadZak team is creating and planning Season 2 which is going to bring in even more MadZak for you to enjoy. Season 2 will start up on March 1st so be sure to tune in.
In the meantime, enjoy the new and old segments that will appear here starting next week and as always, get in that kitchen and make some real food!
Thank you again and Happy Holidays!
I grew up with this basic dish eating it at least 4 times a week. It wasn’t until I reached my teens I found out that there was an even better version that didn’t all come out of a box. Have fun with the cheese in this recipe as there is no real one choice. Cheddar is a safe bet (staying close to original recipe) but by just combining some white new york cheddar I added a bit of a smoky flavor and made the overall look a bit brighter. Let me know how the cheeses turn out for you and make sure to share this with friends, they will love it!
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 (16 ounce) package of elbow macaroni
- 1/2 pound brick of Sharp Cheddar Cheese
- 1/2 pound brick of New York White Sharp Cheddar Cheese
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
- 1 dash of salt
- 1 dash of pepper
METHOD:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add elbow macaroni to boiling water and cook for about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Grease a 9 x 13 baking pan with vegetable oil. Place a quarter of the macaroni in the bottom, followed by a layer of cheese slices (half new york white and regular sharp). Dot with butter and season with salt and pepper. Repeat until once again and then pour milk over top of dish. Bake in the oven for one hour or until the top is golden brown.
Remove from the oven and let cool for 20 minutes, cut and serve. This will make 6 generous portions.a
I first had this dish at Siam Cafe in the “chinatown” of Cleveland, Ohio and I immediately fell in love! The noticeable difference between an american and chinese eggplant is a sweeter flavor and this dish helps show that along with a great characteristic of a sponge. The eggplant soaks up the blend of sauces, soy/vinegar/wine, and provides a consistent flavor on each bite.
For about 20 minutes of cooking time, you will get 4 servings, a great smelling house, and a delightful dinner with plenty of lunch time leftovers. You can also add some hot sauce if you want to kick up the spice.
INGREDIENTS:
- 4 japanese eggplant
- 1/4 cup garlic (diced)
- 1/2 green pepper
- 4 green onion stalks
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch (mixed with 1 tablespoon water)
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoon black vinegar
- 2 tablespoon rice wine (cooking wine will do)
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cups rice
METHOD:
Wash outside of eggplants and cut off vine end. Cut eggplant in half at the middle, then slice each half lengthwise. Cut each eggplant piece using an angle, you want the eggplant to be chunky but not too big. Turn the skillet to medium-high heat and when heated, add half of the oil, the garlic, and the eggplant chunks. Cook for 5 minutes.
Slice the green pepper and add to the skillet along with the remaining oil. Cook for 5 minutes. In a bowl combine the cornstarch and water and set aside. Add to the skillet the soy sauce, black vinegar, and rice wine. Bring the added sauce to boil, then add cornstarch. Once the sauce is boiling again, remove skillet from heat and continue to stir until sauce thickens and coats all the eggplant.
Place 1 cup of rice in a bowl, pour 1/4th of the eggplant over the top and sprinkle with 1/4th of the green onion. Repeat for the the remaining 3 bowls and serve.
As many of you may noticed, there is always a bunch of turkey left over from the holidays. Being from the bird family, you can easily dress up turkey to appear to be chicken and save that tasty meat from going to waste!
This dish does just that, with the combination of spices the signature turkey taste is covered up and even in pictures appears to look like chicken! A simple combination of spiced turkey, cheese, tomato, and green onion presents itself beautifully in this quesadilla with a rich taste that’s sure to entice you to make it up again or even ask for more left overs.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 cup turkey (diced)
- 1 cup cheese (colby jack)
- 1/2 cup green onions (about 2 stalks)
- 1 tomato (diced)
- 1 dash pepper
- 1 dash cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon cilantro
- 4 10″ tortilla
METHOD:
Preheat oven to 350. In a mixing bowl, combine tomato, turkey, green onion, cheese, pepper, cayenne pepper, and cilantro. Mix until all ingredients are mixed well.
Lay 1 tortilla on a baking sheet, pour half of the mixture on the tortilla, top with another tortilla. Place in oven on top rack for about 8 minutes. Watch for the tortilla to get brown on top. Remove and Serve with sour creme or guacamole.
Cookies are a great dessert and they sure are easy to make. These pumpkin cookies are great for the fall season and work well as snacks before and after holiday dinners. I am a huge fan of oatmeal cookies so I decided to smash in some pumpkin to bring up the fall flavor.
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/3 cup quick cooking oats
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter (soft)
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup pumpkin
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
METHOD:
Preheat your oven to 350°F and grease the baking sheets or use parchment paper.
Mix the flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a mixing bowl. Beat butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until fluffy. Add pumpkin, egg, and vanilla extract to the sugar mixture and then mix well. Add flour mixture to large mixing bowl and mix well. Stir in the walnuts once blended well. Using a tablespoon, make round balls and place on your baking sheet.
Bake for 15 minute or until cookies are lightly browned and set in centers. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes and then move to wire racks to cool completely.
Thanksgiving can get boring with just Turkey every year, so why not change things up a bit and cook up a nice ham. Ham is a staple for many other holidays but, with it’s sweet and savory taste combination it will work just about anytime. The key to ham is low and slow cooking so prepare to have that oven running for 4+ hours with a few basting actions in the middle. Hams are priced pretty well and for the amount of left overs that’ll be available, they can pay for themselves if you skip two meals out.
INGREDIENTS:
- Ham (Fully Cooked)
- 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
- 1 tablespoon Cinnamon
- 1/2 cup Maple Syrup
METHOD:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Remove the Ham from the package and trim the rind or “skin” off the ham. You can do this by cutting around the shank bone or if you have a boneless ham, just cut a line from the already cut portion to the other end. Now with your knife, cut under the skin but only the skin as you will want to leave the fat on. Once the rind is removed you then cut little diamonds into the fat which is called scoring.
Now that the hard part is done, mix up your brown sugar and cinnamon until they are blended well. Place a cooling rack into a shallow pan and set the ham cut side down on the rack. Pour the maple syrup over the top of the ham and make sure that it gets into all those good scoring marks. Now take your sugar/cinnamon mix and pack it around the ham.
Put the shallow pan into the oven and cook for about 15 minutes per pound. If you have the time, reduce the oven temperature by half and increase cooking time to 30 minutes per pound. Doing the longer version will make it taste even better!
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 1/2 cups chicken broth
- 1 large onion, diced
- 6 cups mixed diced whole-grain and white bread
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 2 eggs
- 1 dash salt
- 1 dash pepper
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup dried apricots
METHOD:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a pan with medium-high heat, combine 1/2 cup of the chicken broth and the onions. Cook for until onions have softened then remove from pan and pour into a mixing bowl.
Add the remaining broth, bread, paprika, eggs, salt, pepper, dried cranberries, and dried apricots to the cooked onions and mix well. Pour mixture into baking dish and bake for 45 minutes.
Another Thanksgiving feast worthy dish! I give you the great green bean casserole in all it’s simplicity and cheesy goodness! Yup, just cause you are feasting doesn’t mean you can skip your vegetables… It also doesn’t mean you can’t make those vegetables fit your tastes either. With only 6 ingredients, no reason not to make this outside of the holidays either.
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 10 oz cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 can French fried onions
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 packages frozen cut green beans
- 1/2 pound sliced processed cheese
METHOD:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Greese a 9 x 13 baking pan with vegetable oil. Combine mushroom soup, milk, cheddar cheese, and half of the onions in a mixing bowl until blended nicely.
Layer one bag of green beans in baking pan. Pour half of the mixture over the green beans and add half of the processed cheese, and half of the cheddar cheese. Add the final bag of green beans, the rest of the soup, and the rest of the processed and cheddar cheese. Top with remaining french fried onions.
Bake for 40 minutes, cool and serve.