thai lettuce wraps and massaman curry

So.. I made this yummy dinner and I thought I would share with y'all. I have been less than motivated to blog recently. Mostly... when I cook yummy dinners, I just want to eat them and I'm too lazy to take pictures :)

This is a very Thai inspired dinner... authentic? Of course not! The lettuce wraps were a memory from a dinner at PF Changs. I looked on vegweb.com for a recipe.. found this one --> here, but definitely didn't follow it very closely. Here's what I did: (Came out DELICOUS!!!!!)


Thai Lettuce Wrap:

ingredients:

2 packages of mushrooms (white button and porcini)-chopped
1 package tempeh-cut into chunks
2 cloves garlic- minced
1 small chunk ginger- minced
1/2 c. lemongrass broth (2 tb dried lemongrass soaked in hot water, then strained)
good squirt sriracha
2 Tb peanut butter
2 Tb Bragg's- more to taste
1 head Boston lettuce 
sprouts

-In castiron skillet, med heat, add lemongrass broth, then garlic and ginger. Cook for a couple minutes then add mushrooms and tempeh and other ingredients. Cook until mushrooms are soft and mixture is moist.
-Serve in crispy lettuce leaves. We topped ours with some sprouts for added crunch

massaman curry

Massaman curry is my ABSOLUTE favorite Thai curry to get at restaurants (potatoes, peanuts and tofu? hell yes!). I got an email from VegNews with a homemade version and decided to try it. Here's a link to the --> recipe. It was definitely yummy, but needs some work. My hubby realized that there were no red peppers in the recipe, but there usually are at our favorite Thai restaurant, and I think it would have benefited from some. Since I made this for guests, I doubled the recipe... and ended up added 4 limes worth of juice to it.. The lime was way overwhelming, still tasty curry, but really really tangy. So, I think I'm going to have to tweak this recipe for a perfect at home Massaman curry.

Dinner was enjoyed by all, and the Hubby would like Thai lettuce wraps everyday.

sweet potato-chickpea curry with mellow yellow rice

Have I ever told you how much I love Indian food? Well I do, but I have NO CLUE how to cook it authentically, my lack of knowledge doesn't stop me from trying! I think my attempts are yummy :)

Last night, I satisfied the Indian craving.. I made a curry with a sweet potato, chickpeas, onion, garlic, ginger, curry powder and coconut milk. (I also added in other spices... like cumin, cinnamon, salt and pepper). I basically started with the aromatic veggies, added in the spices and coconut milk, chopped sweet potato and chickpeas.. then let it come together on the stovetop for 45 minutes.

I also made a yummy mixed yellow rice. I had like 3/4 cup of brown rice and 2/3 cup of basmati rice left in the cabinet, so not really enough for a full dinner, I decided to combine them into a sort of pilaf. During my lazy sunday afternoon, I had cooked the rices separately in the rice cooker, then let cool. When it was almost time for dinner, I cooked up a lil onion in some earth balance, added a teaspoon of turmeric, then fried the rice in. I used my regular chinese fried rice technique, and it worked great! I think saffron would have been an awesome flavor, but I'm too poor and the turmeric did the mellow yellow job. I also steamed some kale for a nutritious side of greens.

I wish I could have posted a "recipe" for this... but whenever I make a curry I never measure, and just keep adding random spices until I'm happy with the flavor.