Fragrant Thai Curry Dinner - Sans Ring 'o Fire

...well somewhat fragrant anyway

I get recipes sent from Canadian Parents dot com on a regular basis in the hopes that I'll get motivated to create an awesome dinner for my family. This because many nights a week cereal boxes come out for dinner and that's the best I can do after coming home from work and promptly turning around again with kids in tow on our way to one sport or another. So the other day I got my weekly recipe from canadianparents.com and it was Fragrant Thai Curry. Okay, cool, I can do this.

The picture on the email looked really good and the list of ingredients seemed fairly easy (I'm lazy and if it gets too complicated I'm out). So I went to the store and picked up what I needed (and cheated a bit too because if I don't find an ingredient, I'll use something else - no one's dead yet in my family...and besides I like cheating and not getting caught).

So here's the ingredient list:

12 oz (375 g) firm tofu, drained

Cheat #1, tofu - okay so here's the thing, tofu is one of those nasty ass foods that should be banned. It's all weird feeling in your mouth and reminds me of eating a slimy insect (don't ask, I've never eaten bugs but it's just how it feels)

So I used chicken instead.

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, sliced
1 lb sliced fresh Mushrooms (white, crimini or oyster)
1 can lite coconut milk
3/4 cup vegetable broth

Cheat #2 - I couldn't find veggie broth...okay so Wal-Mart was my shopping destination, perhaps I should have gone to Super Valu, but hey...I didn't

So I used chicken broth instead

2-3 tsp Thai red or green curry paste

Oh for Pete's sake cheat #3 - what the hell is curry paste anyway. I couldn't find any but I did find curry powder, so...

I used curry powder instead

2 tsp finely grated lime rind
1 tbsp fish sauce (or substitute for  ½ tsp salt)

Yup you bet, I used salt instead (the words fish and sauce together remind me of something the fish is squeezing out of his ass - so I'm not eating that)...!

2 cups halved green beans (I used zucchini)
1/3 cup diced red pepper
2 tsp sugar
½ tsp lime juice
2 green onions, thinly sliced
Fresh Thai basil or coriander leaves (optional)
2 cups (500 mL) hot cooked jasmine or white rice

So here's how you do it:

1. Cut tofu (a'hem chicken) into 3/4 “(2 cm) cubes. In large skillet or wok heat oil over medium- high heat, stir fry onion 1-2 minutes. Add tofu/chicken; stir-fry until lightly browned.
2. Add mushrooms and stir-fry 2-3 minutes. Stir in coconut milk, broth, curry paste, lime rind and fish sauce; bring to boil while stirring to blend well.
3. Add green beans; reduce heat to medium and boil 5- 8 minutes or until beans are crisp-tender. Add red pepper; cook until sauce has thickened to desired consistency, about 3-4 minutes.
4. Stir in lime juice and sugar. Serve over hot rice and garnish with green onion and basil or coriander.

And here's what mine looked like:

Not bad if I do say so myself.

I was pretty good actually. I bought Naan bread to have with this to help sop up the liquid and there's enough left over for tomorrow night. I wasn't spicy by any stretch of the imagination so go ahead and add your "ring 'o fire" spice.

Wanna know what the kids ate? Not the above. They thought it looked gross so they had chicken nuggets. I tried and I failed. The dinner was good tho' and I'm mighty proud of myself.

As they say, bon appetite!