For whatever reason, tomato paste comes in a large can even when the majority of recipes only ask for a couple tablespoons … or maybe only one. What do you do with the remaining paste? How should you store it so it’ll last longer?
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I’ve always been able to eat copious amounts of curry with rice. Growing up, I didn’t even like rice but if it involved curry, rice was suddenly the best food in existence. I’m also very guilty of drowning my rice in curry.
While I was initially introduced to Japanese yellow curry, I quickly found that other regional curries existed worldwide. The word of curry varieties are vast! Here are some simplified curry profiles:
Japanese “Curry Rice” – onions, carrots, potatoes, meat of choice
Chinese Chicken Curry – chicken, cornflour slurry, five spice, soy sauce
Indian “Murgh Kari” – coconut milk or tomato base, maybe yogurt, onion, aromatics
British Curry – slightly sweeter version of Indian “Tikka Masala”
African “Mozambique” Curry – chicken, coconut milk, tomatoes, vegetables
Trinidadian Chicken Curry – chicken, green seasoning, tomato, hot pepper
Thai Curry – curry paste (red, yellow, or green), coconut milk, herbs, aromatics
Anyways, if I went to a Thai restaurant that has curry, there’s an 85% chance I’m ordering green curry. Why? Because it has bamboo shoots. 😅 I have an odd infatuation with bamboo shoots- they’re so yummy! I know not many people like them, but I’ve found that I enjoy foods that most people don’t such as olives, pineapple, artichokes, cottage cheese, ginseng, and okra. Are these ingredients strange to you? What are your favorite curry ingredients?
Even though I prefer my green curry dining in, I bought red curry paste to make red curry at home. I made a huge pot of red curry, twice, both of which lasted me 5 days for two meals a day! And this is the most important point: I DIDN’T GET TIRED OF IT. Is it curry bias in general, or is it that good? You’ll have to make it and tell me how it goes 🤣
Might I also add, the secret ingredient to this recipe is tomato paste!
For whatever reason, tomato paste comes in a large can even when the majority of recipes only ask for a couple tablespoons … or maybe only one. What do you do with the remaining paste? How should you store it so it’ll last longer? Fortunately, there is a way to store tomato paste so that…
I didn’t add any meat because I prefer it without, but if you want to add meat, I recommend browning the meat with some coconut oil first before proceeding with the below recipe. Make sure you cook it using the same pot that you’re cooking the curry in so that the leftover meat flavor can absorb into the curry. The meat doesn’t have to be cooked completely through. Cook the meat enough to get the outer parts to caramelize.
Finally, use whatever vegetables you have on hand! I’ve seen red curries with just bell peppers or just chickpeas. On the other hand, there are red curries with a huge vegetable variety!
I also filmed the whole process of making this recipe! You can find it on my Instagram highlight reel titled “thai curry” @hungry.craving
On one forgettable day, my hungry college apartmates and I were lured into a fancy pizza chain by the name of Z Pizza after grocery shopping. That was when I had a very memorable encounter with their “Pear and Gorgonzola” salad.
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Honestly, I have no idea anymore. When I made it the first time, I was certain it was an apple cake. I got inspiration from the French Apple Cake, otherwise known as an “Invisible Cake” because the apples seemingly melt into the cake. On the other hand, I really liked the whole look of the apple-rose tart where apple slices were arranged to look like a rose in full-bloom. The result was very nice (as pictured below); however, I was not satisfied. There were two faults: the cake itself was dry where there were no apple slices and; the apple slices were too thick.
And thus, I remade it for Christmas, except, it kind of became it’s own thing. True, the apple slices were very much thinner, and the cake was very much moist, BUT almost too moist. The texture came out almost pudding-like. I have a pretty good idea of what went wrong this time so I will be remaking it again. Until then, no recipe for this belle, sorry 😅
It is NYE and almost everyone that I’m close to is sick. Just as I was appreciating my body for being a proud soldier of love and justice health and fitness this morning, I was suddenly struck with intense stomach pain.
All I had to eat so far was avocado toast 😦
Growing up Chinese, when I got sick with no appetite, my mom would either make me congee or macaroni soup. I don’t believe that my mother’s macaroni soup is specific to Chinese people because it most likely had to do with the fact that I strongly disliked congee as a kid. Thus, the macaroni concoction came to be.
Now that I mostly live by myself, I realize that my mother’s macaroni concoction is 100% comfort food for me. After suffering from intense stomach pain today, I decided to make a pot of macaroni soup.
Honestly, what’s more romantic than waking up late, and smelling food being cooked in the kitchen, knowing that it’s for you and a favorite person? Especially if said food is BRUNCH. Unfortunately, this is not a brunch recipe, but gosh, I’mjustsaying…brunch is the way to a gal’s heart, mine, specifically *nudge nudge wink wink*.
Anywho, if waking up to homemade brunch is the most romantic, being blessed with the best girlfriends is the luckiest. I’m not romancing anytime soon, but I thought I’d make some cookies for the sake of galentines. But also, they’re irresistibly good and sophisticated. Even without a reason to make them, I would. Not to mention, they appear in animes a lot and anime food ALWAYS looks divine! Sorry, not sorry for being an anime-shoujo nerd!
Anywho, I totally stole this recipe. The only difference is that I didn’t have (I still don’t) Dutch-processed cocoa. I used some good-old cocoa powder. The cookies still tasted real good, but I’d imagine cocoa powder would yield a ‘dark chocolate’ flavor that the original recipe doesn’t. Click here to learn more about Dutch-processed cocoa versus normal cocoa powder.
I’ve made these cookies countless time, for friend’s birthdays, Christmas, for tea, etc. so I can assure you, it’s a solid recipe. Don’t be afraid of using cocoa powder instead of Dutch-processed!
Cost-wise, 2 trays of checkerboard cookies (half-chocolate and half-vanilla) utilizing normal cocoa powder is only $4.24. Can you believe that? I think in stores, they would mark a small box of these “gourmet cookies” upwards $5! Meanwhile, we get two trays for less than that! If you use dutch-processed cocoa instead, it would cost $4.53.
The interesting thing about this recipe is that it uses a cooked egg yolk. Weirdly enough, I’ve found that although most people know how to boil eggs, most people know how to boil “perfect” eggs. Heck, I didn’t until the author of the original recipe explained…
You’ll need 2 boiled eggs in the cookie recipe. Since I’ve discovered this method, I’ve never made my boiled eggs any other way.
Sablé Cookies don’t have to be in checkerboard (vanilla/chocolate) form. In fact, these cookies are really versatile both in form and in flavor. Try rolling the cookies into pinwheels (spirals), adding orange zest, lemon zest, dried fruits, chocolate chips, coffee, etc.
Ingredients: vanilla, matcha, chocolate decorations.
Ingredients: chocolate, vanilla, lemon zest, dried cranberries, matcha, sugar icing.
I tested a similar recipe that uses raw eggs instead of boiled. It was also really good. Check it out here.
HUNGRY CRAVING 