Vegetarian Thai Green Curry

In southern California, where I go to college, there is plenty of access to all types of Asian food and I eat it all the time.  Back home, however, we seemed to only eat the occasional Thai take out.  When ordering Thai, the green curry was always my favorite.  I had never had much success making it though.  I remember once following a recipe out of a Curry cookbook and ending up with green curry that seemed weirdly sweet.  I am always a bit weary of making most Asian food as it is never something that was made in my house growing up.  I don't have experience to fall back on when a dish doesn't taste quite right.  And with so much around, I have easy access to the dish.  My friends that I cook for, however, suggested this so I thought I would give it a try.  Luckily it turned out pretty well.

When looking online at green curry recipes, most seem to call for green curry paste.  None of the three grocery stores within walking distance carried it though.  Trader Joe's had a green curry simmering sauce and so I picked up a jar of that just in case, but, since I had an extra jalapeño lying around from the tacos I made a few days ago and some fresh ginger in the fridge, I decided to try my hand a making my own approximation.  It turned out pretty well though I did end up adding a bit of the simmering sauce to the curry, since I didn't quite have enough paste for the amount of curry I ended up making.  I reduced the amounts of everything else though so this should be fine.  If you don't want the vegetarian option, you can always switch out chicken for the tofu and add it in with the rest of the vegetables.

Vegetable and Tofu Stir Fry

I told Noah that I wouldn't post anything else until he cooked more, but this has been sitting as a draft long enough.  I got tired of waiting so I decided to post something.

When I think easy food made out of what you can find in the fridge, I think stir fry.  It is basically the perfect college food.  It only takes one pan, its relatively fast, and it is much healthier than ramen or easy mac.  Stir fry is probably one of the first dishes I cooked by myself.  The rest of my family wasn't a huge fan but I always liked it growing up.  We would keep cans of bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and baby corn around and whip up a stir fry with what ever vegetables we had.  A good stir fry is still an excellent meal though.  This stir fry happened to be made with tofu, an assortment of vegetables, and a combination sauces and seasonings that I had around.  It is a good idea to develop the technique and find a sauce and spice combination you enjoy as a method for using up any vegetables you have lying around.

Tofu with Edamame and Shiitake Mushrooms

Edamame and tofu were to foods that I picked up when I came to college.  They were both avoided in my childhood home in favor of more traditional sources of protein (read meat).  I, however, am a bit more adventurous in my palette than my mother and thus have come to enjoy cooking with these ingredients.  And, with a vegetarian roommate, I try to cook at least a few vegetarian dishes each week.  My favorite uses of tofu are either panfried or in a soup or liquidy curry.  This dish uses the panfrying method, which results in these lovely chunks of tofu that are crispy on the outside and soft and smooth on the inside.  Combined with edamame and mushroom and served over rice, this makes for and excellent dish.