Thai Green Curry Sauce

Rather than purchasing a bottled sauce, I found two different recipes in my cookbook libraries to make a Thai Green Curry sauce. While the list of ingredients was sort of long, it is actually a pretty simple to make--as long as you have a blender and a good knife! It took me some time to find all the ingredients, but I really enjoyed my time at the Asian Market, wandering around, poking around the produce bins, peering at labels, and enjoying imagining what I could make with all these different flavors.

Ingredients:
3 large poblano chillis
2 medium Serrano chillis
10 fresh green Thai chillis
2 stalks lemongrass
bunch thai basil
1 shallot diced
3 garlic cloves
1 tbs fish sauce
1 tbs grated ginger
1 tbs grated galangal
2 tbs chopped cilantro
4 kaffir lime leaves
ground black pepper

Depending on how hot you want this, you can vary which peppers you use. The little Thai chilis are super hot, so they go pretty far, which is why I used a milder, larger chili like the poblano. I deseeded the larger chilis and roughly chopped them--the Thai chilis went in seeds and all, just the stems came off.

The garlic, ginger, and shallot are peeled--and I used a microplane to grate the ginger and galangal. Everything else is roughly chopped and tossed with the fish sauce (the original recipe called for shrimp paste, which I didn't have.)

 I used my blender and pureed it into a very smooth paste. This is a complex sauce, not just spicy, redolent of so many different flavors. This can be used in a number of different dishes--I used it in two different ones.

Some like it Hot--with Harissa

So I like spicy foods--not burn your mouth off spicy, but I don't mind my food biting back. So when I was planning my foray into North African cuisine, I wanted to try some of the spicy variations of their dishes. I found that they have a peppery condiment called harissa. Apparently you can buy it pre-made in some stores, but I didn't see any, and it seemed pretty easy to make. One thing that is very easy to find around here is dried peppers, which is the main ingredient.

Ingredients:

1.5 oz dried red peppers
3-4 garlic cloves
1 tsp salt or to taste
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground corriander
juice of one lemon
1 tsp olive oil


I bought an assortment of dried chilis from the bulk bins at Winco. They were just labeled New Mexican Dried Chilis, though there were clearly three different kinds represented. I purchased and used about equal amounts of each. I suspect that some were hotter than others, but I figure this would give a good balance of flavor. I looked them up on line and it looks like I used some anchos, arbols, and a New Mexico red chilis.

The first step is to take all the seeds and stems out, which was a little harder with the tiny spicy arbol chilis and the big gummy ancho peppers.This keeps the sauce smooth and keeps the heat level at a reasonable level.

Next the cleaned peppers are covered with very hot water and soaked for at least a half an hour--I soaked them while I ran to the grocery store to get some things I've forgotten, so I'm not sure how long I left them in there. Anyways, when I got back I drained and dried them. They went into the blender cup along with the spices, garlic, lemon zest, and some of the lemon juice.

This gets blended until it forms a fine paste, adding more liquid once it was all broken down and smooth. I added a teaspoon of olive oil and the rest of the lemon juice and continued to puree it. I poured it in a glass jar and will use it in my tagines, roasting veggies, and even with my eggs!

The Verdict: There is a fine balance between hot and so hot that all you feel is burning and no flavor but heat. This still has a great garlic and lemon flavor with different layers of heat and smokiness. I look forward to having this on many more things. It should keep well, with maybe some olive oil to smooth out.

 

Blueberry Lemon Compote

So I decided to make more cheesecake cupcakes to use up the last of my yogurt, and because the first batch was so good I wanted more! This time I wanted to amp up the fruit flavor, so rather than just putting frozen blueberries in, like I did last time, I wanted to make a sauce or compote to go in and on top. This is pretty simple, but the flavors pop a lot more than simple frozen blueberries.This is my first time making something like this--though it is similar to making cranberry sauce, just less sugar and less cooking time.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/4 c sugar or 2 tablespoons stevia baking blend
2 teas cornstarch 
juice and zest from one lemon


I put the frozen blueberries in a small sauce pan, zested and juiced the lemon over them, and sprinkled on the sugar substitute.

This cooks over medium heat until the berries defrost and some of juice from the berries comes out. I drained the juice and whisked in the cornstarch and re-added it to the berries. This cooks for a while to thicken the sauce and for the berries to soften more. Once it has cooked down for a few minutes, I used the immersion blender to puree it

The Verdict: The lemon really brightens up the blueberries and makes it tart and delicious. Since I used meyer lemons it is particularly sweet, without too much sour. I put some in the cheesecakes before cooking them and then topped each one with a generous dollop before eating it. I also used it in my breakfast bowls for flavor. It didn't make enough in my opinion, because I just keep eating it in different things. I think it would be good with yogurt, on ice cream, or as a topping for pound cake. I will be making this again!