Coconut Curry Soup

COCONUT CURRY SOUP

YIELD: 4-6 SERVINGS

 PREP TIME: 10 MINUTES

 COOK TIME: 20 MINUTES

 TOTAL TIME: 30 MINUTES

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

INGREDIENTS

·          2 tablespoons olive oil

·          1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts, (about 3), cut into 1-inch pieces

·          Salt and pepper for seasoning

·          1/2 cup chopped yellow onion (about 1/2 medium onion)

·          1 red bell pepper, finely chopped

·          2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

·          1 can (14-ounces) unsweetened light coconut milk

·          1 tablespoon fish sauce

·          1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper or more to taste

·          1 tablespoon brown sugar

·          ½ tablespoon curry powder

·          1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (about 1 medium lime)

·          ¼ cup fresh cilantro

·          3-4 cups hot, cooked rice for serving

INSTRUCTIONS

1.       In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat until it is hot and shimmering. Pat the chicken pieces dry with a paper towel and season them lightly with salt and pepper. Add them to the hot oil. Let the chicken cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the onions and red pepper. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until the onions and peppers are slightly softened. The chicken and vegetables don’t have to be fully cooked as they will simmer and cook further in the next step.

2.       Add the chicken broth, coconut milk, fish sauce, cayenne pepper, brown sugar and curry powder. Stir to combine. Bring the soup to a simmer and cook, gently, for 10-15 minutes. Stir in the lime juice and cilantro. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3.       Serve a ladle or two of the soup over a scoop of rice and garnish with more cilantro, if desired.

NOTES

The slight dash of cayenne pepper doesn’t make the soup spicy, instead, it just enhances the overall flavor. You can add more to taste, if you like things a bit spicier. Also, if you are worried about the fish sauce, don’t be! It is widely available in most grocery stores in the Asian foods section. It is relatively inexpensive and lasts a long time in the refrigerator. It adds an element of flavor you can’t get otherwise, but in a pinch, you could leave it out and sub in probably 1/2 teaspoon salt (more or less to taste). If you don’t know what you would use the rest of the fish sauce in, here are a few of my other favorite dishes that call for it: Shrimp Stir Fry with Coconut Curry Sauce, Chiang Mai Noodles, Red Coconut Curry Noodles, Vietnamese Spring Rolls, Authentic Egg Rolls.)

Make Ahead Instructions: Follow the recipe through the step through the first paragraph. Transfer the chicken/onions/peppers to a slow cooker. Add the remaining ingredients (except the lime juice, cilantro and rice). Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Stir in lime juice and cilantro. Serve over rice.

Homemade Bread Recipes

This is the recipe from the Peterson's Bosh Kitchen Center Class Recipes that Mom used most recently.

I haven't been very successful with it, I have had more success recently using this recipe.

Marie Holmes’ Whole Wheat Bread

(her husband was our Bishop in the Berkeley student ward)

Makes 4 loaves/3 loaves

5 cups warm water/3 ¾ C

⅔ c. vegetable oil/1/2 C

⅔ c. honey/1/2 C

2 Tbsp yeast/1 ½ T

2 Tbsp salt/1 ½ T

About 12 cups whole wheat flour/9 C

Mix water, oil, honey and yeast with 6 cups flour until well blended, cover and let rest 10 minutes.

Add salt and remaining flour, more flour as needed.  Knead 10 min (on 1st speed of mixer).

Form into loaves and place in greased loaf pans.  Let rise 30-45 min (maybe longer), should double.

Bake 30-35 min at 350 degrees.

I usually use about half wheat flour, half bread flour and I add about 1 T of gluten.  I set the oven to 150 degrees while I am putting the bread in pans.  I put oil in the pans as I put the dough in and spin it around like Mom used to. Then I turn off the oven and put the bread in to rise with a cloth over them.  When they are risen I just take off the cloth and leave them in and turn on the oven to preheat. When Mom had more bread dough than what would fit in bread pans she used an old yeast can (it was pretty tall and about the size of a bread pan) and we would have round bread. I remember feeling like that was weird one morning when we had a field trip and I was taking cold lunch and my sandwich was made with round bread. I thought I would be teased by the other kids. On the contrary, the other kids thought it was amazing.

Death-By-Chocolate Cake (Bundt)

3/4 cup sour cream
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup oil
1 chocolate cake mix (432 g)
1 small box instant chocolate pudding (167 g)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat sour cream, eggs, water, and oil together in a large bowl until thoroughly mixed.  Add cake mix and pudding mix.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Place batter in a greased and floured bundt pan.  (We find this works particularly well for other shaped pans and anytime you want a more dense cake.)

Bake 45-55 min (may vary with type of pan you use), or until a fork inserted into cake comes out clean. 

While still hot, invert cake onto a serving platter. When cool, sift powdered sugar over the top of cake.

This is from "101 Things to Do With a Cake Mix" that Lara gave us one year for Christmas. 

I first made this for Melissa's 7th birthday when we made a caterpillar cake by cutting the bundt cake in sections. 

We have also done it with white/yellow cake mix, vanilla pudding and white chocolate chips, but the white chocolate chips stuck funny on the pan.   This is the preferred recipe for our 'baby bundt' cakes.

For Eliza's birthday (7/12/12) we made a Chocolate-Banana Cake by adding 1 cup mashed banana and reduced the following portions: 3 eggs, 1/4 cup water and oil and 1/2 cup sour cream for a banana chocolate cake.

Peanut Butter Popcorn

This is an Een family favorite

4 quarts popped popcorn
1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup corn syrup

1/2 cup sugar

5 Tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup peanut butter

In a saucepan heat corn syrup, sugars and butter on medium/medium-high heat and let it boil 1 minute.  Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and peanut butter.  Pour over popcorn and toss to cover.  

Slowcooker Chocolate Lava Cake

Prep Time:  15 min
Cook Time:  4 hours 15 minutes (it says, we find the regular recipe cooks in our crockpot on high in about 2 hours 30 minutes, I have 1 1/2 times the recipe and it cooks a bit longer, if you'll be gone longer you can try cooking it on low at least part of the time)

6-8 servings

For the cake batter:
1 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla

For the topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cup hot water

Top with
Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream

Instructions:
1. Whisk the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl.  Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients.
2.  To the well, add the milk, butter, and vanilla.  Whisk until smooth.  Spray the slow cooker with vegetable oil or baker's spray (flour-embedded).  Pour into the bottom of a slow cooker.  (We use our large oval one and need to spread it out a bit.)
3.  To make the topping, whisk the sugar, brown sugar, cocoa powder together until evenly combined.  Add the hot/boiling water and stir.
4.  Pour gently over the top of the batter.  Do not stir.  Cover and cook.  Cook time may vary some with your cooker.  Our large one cooks this perfectly on high in 2 hours 30 minutes, 4 hours makes it overdone.
5.  Scoop out the lava cake and top with ice cream or whipped cream, include the lava from the bottom of the slow cooker on top.

Our Melissa found a version of this in a kid's slow cooker cookbook when she was in Activity Days and we made it once for the treat.  (This isn't exactly that version, it called for a baking mix which we modified, but then found this version that we think tastes even better.) It was huge hit and continues to be well-loved whenever we serve it.  It's really chocolaty and wonderful and works great for any season, but especially nice to not heat up the oven in the summer or have for a treat at home after a concert/performance, fireside, or activity.

Waffle Cookies

Waffle Cookies

These are great cookies to make in the summer when you don't want to heat up the oven.

4 squares of chocolate (or 3/4 cup cocoa + 1/4 cup oil)

1 cup margarine

2 cups flour

1 1/2 cup sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

Frosting: 

2 Tbsp butter

4 tsp milk

1/4 cup cocoa

1/2 tsp vanilla

Melt margarine and chocolate (if using squares) mix margarine, chocolate, sugar, vanilla, eggs, and flour.  Chill 1 hour (we don't always do this, it may make the dough less sticky, but we use a scoop so it works fine)  Make frosting (or use what you have stashed, we've use other types of frosting as well, or plain)  Spoon on to waffle iron, cook 1-2 min.  Frost.  I like to add sprinkles if I use chocolate frosting for looks.

We also use our waffle cone maker, they are thinner and cook faster and also great.

Farm Boy Cookies

Farm Boy Cookies

2 1/2 cups canola oil
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 Tbsp vanilla
1 Tbsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
6 cups flour (3 white, 3 whole wheat)
3 cups oats
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
1-2 cups shredded coconut (optional)

Mix together in order given.  Use an ice cream scoop to put on baking stones/sheets.  Bake at 350 degrees for 17-18 minutes.
This recipe is from our family friend Ashley MacKay.  It makes a very large batch, you can bake some and freeze dough for later.  They don't get very browned when they bake so it's easy to let them overcook, be careful.  David loves to make them.  Nutrition plug--they're lower in saturated fat because they use oil instead of butter or shortening.