Vegetarian Thai Chili with Bulgur

So back in December I made this chili recipe from Clean Eating magazine with ground turkey for my Xmas party and it turned out really well.  It could have used a bump in the spice department for me, but that is easily achieved.  Also I found it a bit odd that there was no use of kafir lime, cilantro or fish sauce in a Thai recipe...huh?  So this time I modified things more to my taste.

This is the first time I am cooking with bulgur.  To be honest, the only reason I didn't make the recipe with bulgur originally back in December was that my local grocery store didn't have it!  Well, since then I have bought some and I thought I'd try this recipe out again.  Nothing better than a belly-warming chili to chase away the -20 temperatures in Toronto (-33 with the windchill....brrrr).  Sadly I have to be careful with the heat if there is any chance that the youngest will eat it.  The Teen is all about the heat, like us, but sometimes I think Justin was switched at birth!  I guess I'll give him a few more years to catch up with us on the Scoville scale.

Vegetarian Thai Chili with Bulgur

4 tsp thai red curry paste (mine seemed very mild heat wise so use your judgement here)
2-3 Thai bird chilis or more (to your desired heat)
2 tsp ground cumin
4 cups vegetable stock
1 cup uncooked bulgar
1 large green or red pepper, chopped
1 can of kidney beans, drained
3 kafir lime leaves (optional)
1 cup light coconut milk
2 cups tomato purée or passata
2 green onions, choppped
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp fish sauce

In a medium sized pot, add curry paste, cumin and 1/4 cup stock.  Stir mixture until curry paste dissolves slighty. Add remaining broth, bulgur and red pepper.  Bring mixture to a boil over high heat, then cover tightly with a lid, reduce heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes.

Add beans, coconut milk and tomato purée to the pot and cook uncovered for 10-15 minutes or until bulgur is tender and chili has thickened.  Stir in fish sauce right before serving.  Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with green onions and more cilantro to serve.

Cook's Note:  I made the mistake of using a store bought commercial brand so the curry was very mild.  Store bought is ok but you won't get the heat unless you use a proper brand like Mae Sri.

Why did I not make my own like the one that Don Duong taught me in my Thai cooking classes years ago?!?!  If I remember correctly Don was born in Vietnam but was raised in Thailand and learned to cook Thai by his grandmother, whose recipes he taught my friend Ann and I at George Brown College.  Don is an amazingly accomplished pastry chef who was a pastry chef for the Metro Convention Centre at the time, but now owns his own successful business at Dessert Trends which has a commercial location on Weston Road amazingly around the corner from where I live currently and a new location on Harbord Street.  I still use his family recipes for Thai food and will always know because of him that Pad Thai does not use ketchup!

Justin's Junior Chef Bloggette - Seafood Corn Chowder

Today for dinner we are making a seafood soup that we thought looked good from my Mom's magazine.  We changed some stuff because the recipe used a lot of scallops and she says they are expensive.  We put some white fish and salmon in instead with a few baby scallops and some shrimps.  I thought it turned out really good but Brenden says it is "Just ok."  Whatever.

And I learned that when you cut up onions they make your eyes hurt and water.

What you will need:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large carrot, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 tsp. smoked paprika
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 lb russet potatoes (2 medium sized baking potatoes), peeled and chopped into chunks
1 can peaches and cream corn
1 can creamed corn
1 cup whole milk (3.25%)
2 cups water or stock
100 g bay scallops
100g shrimp, tails removed
100g salmon, cut into chunks
100g white fish, cut into chunks
2 green onions, white and light green parts, thinly sliced
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a soup-sized pot.  Add onion, carrots and celery, add salt and pepper, and cook until soft but not brown (about 6-8 minutes).  Add smoked paprika and thyme and stir.  Add water and bring to a low boil.  Add potatoes and reduce to a simmer until just cooked, about 7 or 8 minutes.  Remove about 1 to 1.5 cups of potato/celery/carrot and set aside.  Add in can of creamed corn and milk  Using an immersion blender, purée soup until smooth.  Add reserved potato/celeary/carrot mixture and the can of creamed corn, and stir to combine.  Add more salt and pepper if needed.  Cook for 5 minutes until heated through.

Add scallops, shrimp and fish to the chowder and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes until the fish is cooked through.  The shrimp will turn pink and start to curl, and the fish will turn more white and opaque (solid) instead of translucent (almost glowy see-through).  Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with green onions and serve!

Mom's Note:


Firstly, yes I am helping with the typing :-)

Justin is a natural chef.  His interest in trying just about anything constantly blows my mind.  We have fun just hanging together in the kitchen.  And I just love the way he comes out with these mature and sometimes rather profound observations about cooking for a 10 year old.  In addition to trying to teach Justin how to cook, I am also trying to teach him to be cost conscious.  There is no way a young guy would have a pound of scallops in a soup, so I thought he should learn the right way to substitute.  We also picked this recipe because corn was on sale at No Frills this week for $1 for a bag or 2 for $1 for the cans.  They were out of frozen, so I thought the creamed corn would add a great texture to the soup without fat.  And it is cheap!


A neat variation on this for the adults would be to stir in 1 tsp (or more) of thai red or green curry paste and substitute a can of coconut milk for the whole milk, and cilantro instead of thyme.

Ach aye the noo! Happy Robbie Burn's Day...

So today is Robbie Burn's birthday, and Scots far and near will be celebrating the great poet's birthday.

The evening begins with the Selkirk Grace, followed by the Parade of the Haggis where the dish of legend is paraded in on a platter accompanied by bagpipe music and guests on their feet a'clappin'.

Burn's poem about the illustrious haggis is recited to the crowd, and the Haggis is then ceremonially stabbed with a sgain dubh (pronounced skeen do) which is a Scottish ceremonial dagger that a good Scotish lad always has tucked into the top of his sock.

More speeches follow, including the "Toast to the Lassies" made by a male guest as thanks to the women in their lives. Scotish women - never being short of a word - make a toast in reply to the gentlemen in their lives. And then the party REALLY begins....until the evening is over and closes with a rousing version of Auld Lang Syne, another more famous poem by Burns. And everyone stumbles home.....

No worries I have not decided to try to make Haggis. Not this year anyway, but you never know with me what I will do next year. However, I thought since it was Burns Day I would give my own little solute to the Haggis. I always wanted to have a Highland Terrier and name it Haggis. And a second one to name Hamish. Don't ask why...there is no reason, I just do.

I am sure many don't really know what a Haggis is, right? When I was a little kid I thought it was a creature that ran through the heather and up and down the hills of Scotland and had legs short on one side and long on the other. Apparently there is a flying variety also....yes I read too many Dandies and Beanos as a child!

Well a Haggis is a very, very old Scottish dish in which the liver, lungs and heart of a sheep are boiled, then minced and mixed with chopped onions, oatmeal, salt, pepper, and spices. Not that the Scots really use much spice. If I ask my mother what her two favourite spices are she would say "Salt and pepper". Yep...that's what I grew up on. No wonder I learned to cook. But I digress....then the lovely mixture is stuffed into a cleaned sheep's stomach, which is sewn up and boiled! Wonderful.

The Haggis is served along side Tatties (mashed potatoes) and Neeps (mashed turnip) and sometimes if you are lucky, Mushy Peas (exactly what they sound like). Dessert might be a Clootie Dumplin'(my Aunt Dorothy apparently makes great ones) with hard sauce and/or a Scottish Trifle (a dish which my Mom excels considerably), which is basically boozed and jello'd up sponge cake layered on top with custard, fruit and then whipped cream.

A taste delight be sure, but I was born in Aberdeen and it is my heritage so I share it with you today!


Address to A Haggis

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o' a grace
As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o' need,
While thro' your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An' cut you up wi' ready sleight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn,
they stretch an' strive:
Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve, Are bent lyke drums; Then auld
Guidman, maist like to rive, "Bethankit!" 'hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi' perfect sconner,
Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him ower his trash,
As feckless as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro' bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll mak it whissle;
An' legs an' arms, an' heads will sned,
Like taps o' thrissle.

Ye Pow'rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o' fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer,
Gie her a haggis!

Haggis photo courtesty of freefoto.com

Croque Monsieur - The King of The Sandwiches!

Being sick and being around sickies last week made me think of comfort food. When I was sick I always remember my Mom making me grilled cheese with tomato soup when I was recovering, so of course that is what I made myself.
It is amazing how wonderful simple food tastes after days of either nothing (air sandwiches LOL) or broth-based soups. Sinking my teeth into that grilled cheese was like experiencing a taste sensation for the first time. The sweetness of the melted butter…the suppleness of the fresh bread…the crunch of its light crust….and the sharp creaminess of the melted cheese.  othing better!

So I am back at work now but still thinking about grilled cheese, so I thought this weekend I would explore different “versions” of grilled cheese. I thought I would start with what Julia Child called the “King of the Sandwiches” – the Croque Monsieur!  I have never actually eaten a Croque Monsieur but for some reason I have decided now that I HAVE to make one. They looked so delicious in that Alec Baldwin- Meryl Streep film I saw last weekend called “It’s Complicated”. I think that is where the obsession began….

There seems to be some debate as to what goes into a Croque Monsieur. At a minimum the traditional Croque Monsier is made with fresh ham (preferably Jambon de Paris), Swiss-Gruyere cheese, Pain de Mie (French sandwich bread) and unsalted butter. Some recipes also call for the addition of Béchamel sauce.

Jambon de Paris is basically an un-smoked, wet cured, good quality boiled ham. I am sure someone will have it at the Market but I haven’t managed to get there this week with the cold, so I am going with the recommended substitute of Proscuitto Cotto, which we can get easily here at any deli counter. As with most sandwich meats, thinly sliced is best.

Pain de Mie is a crustless French sandwich bread that is more or less the same as Pullman Loaf or any fresh sliced sandwich bread you get at a bakery. What it is not is Wonderbread!

Béchamel is one of the 5 French mother sauces, the others being Velouté, Tomato, Hollandaise, and Espanole. Each of these sauces is the basis of other sauces. For example, add shredded cheese to a Béchamel and you get a Mornay Sauce. Hmmmm….I think I feel another themed post coming on….but back to the Croque Monsieur for now.

Apparently at one time McDonald’s – the scourge of France and North America – even tried to introduce the "Croque McDo" sandwich! That is just WRONG on so many levels.

The below recipe is a combination of the traditional Julia Child recipe, mixed in with a bit of Barefoot Contessa, and a sprinkle of Sandra.

Croque Monsieur (Serves 2)

1 recipe Basic Béchamel Sauce
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
4 slices Swiss-Gruyere cheese
4 ounces Swiss-Gruyerre cheese, grated
4 slices Pain de Mie or fresh white sandwich bread, crusts removed
4 slices Jambon de Paris or good quality Proscuitto Cotto, thinly sliced

Prepare Béchamel sauce and set aside to cool.

On a flat work surface, lay one slice of bread and brush lightly with melted butter. Flip bread over (buttered side to your cutting board) and spread the inside with a thin layer of Béchamel sauce. Top with a slice of cheese, several slices of ham, and another slice of cheese. Thinly spread a second piece of bread with Béchamel, lay on top of the open sandwich, Béchamel side down, then brush the exposed top lightly with melted butter. Press the sandwich together firmly, leaning on it with a spatula or the palm of your hand. Trim off the crusts, if desired, and press down again on the sandwich.

In a medium sized frying pan, add 1 tsp of the butter, heat it to bubbling, add the sandwich and brown rather slowly, 2 to 3 minutes on each side, so the cheese will melt. Turn on the broiler while the sandwich is browning.

When finished, slather the top of the toasted sandwich with more Béchamel sauce, sprinkle with a few ounces Gruyere. Place sandwich on an oven safe pan and and broil for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the topping is bubbly and lightly browned.

Eat.