Curry Yoki Salmon with Salad (Wok Star series 2.0)

I'm adding this to Cook Like a Wok Star series because I'm using my wok to cook salmon in a unique way! If you think of using your wok in a unique way, I'd love to hear it. In Cook Like a Wok Star 1.0, I used my wok to lightly parboil broccoli prior to stir frying.

My thought process for this dish? I wanted to do something other than grilled salmon. So, I used a "breaded" technique but with yoki (seasoned cassava flour) and Myspicesage.com curry powder. Yup, curry again! Stir frying the curry yoki salmon in my cast iron wok gave it a nice, crispy texture. The yoki burned quite quickly so i have to watch it more closely.

Presented on a bed of field greens & topped with a few cubes of pineapple. They gave a juicy sweetness that I love with fish.

Stir fried curry yoki salmon in my cast iron wok!

Sent from my iPhone
www.wokstar.us

CurrySimple Baked Ribs

CurrySimple Baked Ribs

We're not hosting July Fourth this year, it's kind of a relief because it's not the cooking but the cleaning and tidying up that takes so long, don't you find? You can see our last year's celebrations with Hoisin Spare Ribs and tons of salads etc.

I particularly wanted to share this dish because instead of BBQing your ribs, you can bake them with an Asian twist!
This dish is so easy because with CurrySimple's readymade sauces, you just open and pour. I am not a fan of premade foods but I must say CurrySimple's curries are really the best outside of homemade curries.

I discovered CurrySimple when I saw Mike Moran, the founder/owner on Donny Deutsch's TV show, The Big Idea. His philosophy, "we make Thai food easy' was such an "AHA" moment. I'm always on the lookout for products that make life easy for people. So, I immediately contacted him and am thrilled to include a pouch of his CurrySimple when folks purchase my Wok Star Kit! Everyone who's tried it always wants more.

There are some things that should be made fresh like using fresh veggies vs frozen or fresh garlic vs ready peeled in jars of oil. But there are some things like this fantastic idea of combining curry paste and coconut milk in a pouch just makes our lives so much easier. I remember when I was young, my mom used to have the four of us sisters pound curry spices from scratch in a mortar and pestle. I mention this in my Malaysian Chicken Curry blog. Unbelievable amount of work and time which no-one has nowadays.

So, when you crave a good Thai curry, you can make it right at home with the proteins and veggies you have/like and it's just as good as a Thai restaurant. The Thai restaurants in Miami are so generic like the Chinese restaurants, you might as well open a can of curry sauce and just pour. Sorry to my Thai friends but that's how I feel. The CurrySimple flavors however, are spot on and the convenience factor is what wows me. I know this sounds crazy but when I came back from my Hong Kong trip, the first thing I wanted was to make a Thai CurrySimple dinner because I was so homesick for the Asian flavors I just left behind. I wanted the spicy, pungent flavors without having to slave at it.

Here's my really simple CurrySimple Baked Ribs with vegetables you can get all year round - cabbage and red potatoes, a complete dinner:


I didn't add any liquid to the spicy curry sauce but just poured from the pouch to cover the slab of spare ribs, covered with foil and baked between 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Half way through, I added in the potatoes and cabbage. Easy as that, the meat was tender, juicy and tasty!

A few dishes I made: Curry Salmon and Salmon Salad, enjoy. I've got lots more dishes using a variety of their sauces/soups, so keep stopping by.

Take a tour of CurrySimple's site for tons of cool stuff to try, you can also interact with other fans and upload your photos to share recipes. My favorites are their curries, nice variety from mild to spicy. I got my own personal Badge with my photo on it! Look over the right ->.

I love his site, he keeps improving it. In fact, Mike is so brilliant at marketing his brand that he's now started another business to help other folks set up their e-commerce sites. I'm very impressed with how much he's accomplished and love supporting a fellow entrepreneur.

Love to hear your experiences using CurrySimple and if you've not tried it yet, hurry over because you'll wonder what all the fuss is with making an authentic Thai

I leave you with a few articles from New York Times you may have missed. Oh, they want your BBQ photos and stories on their site!

The Secret to Ribs is already in the kitchen: The Oven by Harold McGee, NYT

When Grilling Today Fills Tomorrow's cravings

Simplify Greek Fish for Summer

Wok Curry Beef

Wok Curry Beef - combining my 2 heritages

My mom is from S'pore and 

dad is Hakka but born in Malacca

Join me to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage month and cook up a simple Wok Curry Beef!

Thanks to New Asian Cuisine, a beautiful site that promotes the best in Asian culture and cuisine, who invited me to do a guest post. Do subscribe to their weekly newsletter, their site has good resources as well as delightful dishes from all over Asia.  For my full "recipe", visit New Asian Cuisine - Wok Curry Beef

My step-by-step photos and TIPS to make a quick, weeknight dish taste Asian after the jump:

Malaysian Chicken Curry (Updated)

Malaysian Chicken Curry with naan (front) and chipati (back)
and ice cold Tiger Beer (from Singapore.)

Well, I tried to give a Curry Class but none of the kitchen showrooms wanted to host me and I understand why. Tumeric (description I shot at Spice Garden, Penang and will blog about soon) makes everything turn yellow, the showrooms have very expensive marble countertops or quartz. Plus they mentioned the "smell" would permeate for days, I personally love the smell of food. So, this is the next best thing.

I don't necessarily agree with Wikipedia's explanation of "curry"! I kept shaking my head in disagreement as I was reading it. Curries differ in spices used in India, Malaysia and Thailand. As far as I'm concerned these are the 3 main countries that I associate curry with.

I love leafing through my mom's favorite Malaysian cookbooks.
I use them as reference but never follow any recipes completely,
usually because I can't get the strange sounding ingredients!

When I was growing up in Hong Kong, my sisters and I had to pound all the spices by hand in a stone mortar and pestle. I am the proud owner of this same mortar and pestle. Thank goodness I brought it over years ago when they weren't charging for weight or suitcases cause it weighed a TON!

This is one of my mom's original stone mortar and pestle I lugged back from Hong Kong!

My mom came to visit years ago and of course we used it everyday. One day, a grumpy old man from the apartment below banged on our door and complained it was too noisy and gave him a headache. But instead of giving us a hint the first day, he let it build and then couldn't take it anymore (guys, do you recognize this trait?) My sisters used to laugh hysterically (I could hear them in the hallway) because you could smell the waft of blachan (concentrated block of dried shrimp) toasting 3 floors down! They kept saying things like, "you're going to get evicted because the smells are so pungent!"

Years later with grumpy neighbor gone, I had fantasies of how wonderful it would be to have freshly pounded spices instead of using a food processor. Well, it didn't last more than a week before I packed it away again. It's just not very practical for a small person to haul around a 60 pound mortar. But, I love all these associations of food and my family, brings back such good memories.

Anyway, where was I? So, I don't grind curry spices from scratch anymore. I'm a busy entrepreneur myself so I understand what it's like after a hard day of work and not wanting to spend hours slaving in the kitchen. You can get good curry powder from Indian stores or Asian Market 365 (my wonderful Malaysian architect friend, Amy told me about this site, you can get Baba's brand of curry powder, it's my favorite and most popular in Penang.)

Curry powder is the answer. It's all mixed and ready to go
I like EASY and CONVENIENT.
There are curry powders for meat and poultry,
another for fish, rendang (dry curry) etc.
I store mine in the freezer.

I absolutely love the smell of curry powder when it hits the hot wok. Yes, I cook curry in my cast iron wok. It's the perfect shape and size, makes it easy to turn food around. If you're worried about the acid hurting your wok, I can assure you that once you wash it out and cure with a bit of oil, start using it, your patina will build up IMMEDIATELY.

Here are some wonderful ways to use curry powder:

I put curry powder inside a chili shaker (see above photo), the ones you see in Italian restaurants! It's so easy to sprinkle onto any dish even stir frys. Spices it up and gives it another flavor dimension.

1. Great in stir frys. Stir fry your veg, then meat, when you combine back, sprinkle in curry powder liberally. Yummy.

2. Other uses: soups, salads, grill meats like lamp chops, salmon steaks, satay skewers, the list goes on and on.

Here's a SIMPLE ALTERNATIVE:
If you don't want the hassle of making curry from scratch, just use CurrySimple! It is a Thai curry sauce with coconut milk and curry paste, all-in-one pouch. It's fantastic, very authentic, just open and pour. I personally chose CurrySimple to be included in my Kit. You can find stores nationwide or order other delicious combo packs, cute t-shirts and lots of other goodies directly from their site.

I made an easy CurrySimple Thai Salmon and used the leftovers in a CurrySimple Salmon Salad the next day. I will be adding more posts using CurrySimple.

I always serve a small cold pickle as a side dish to "cool off" the spicy heat from the curry. Usually a simple cucumber and tomato, onion pickle. Watch out for post on Pickles soon.

So, finally here's a very simple Malaysian Chicken Curry based on my mom's "recipe". I used to teach this when I had my Key West cooking school and give out recipes. What I love about this curry is that you never get tired of it. It's just delicious, serve with basmati or jasmine white rice. I prefer brown jasmine rice.

You can find chipati, naan or paratha in the frozen compartment at Indian stores.
If you fancy making paratha from scratch, my Twitter buddy, Kamran,
a talented teenager gives a step-by-step on his blog, The Sophisticated Gourmet.

Your wok is PERFECT for heating up frozen paratha, takes just a minute.
Dip in curry sauce, the Indian way. YUM.

Malaysian Chicken Curry

You can HALVE this recipe if you just want to cook one tray of chicken (6 thighs) but curry is always better the next day. So, I like making a BIG batch since I'm doing the work already.

Just a word of warning, curry powder has tumeric, the dreaded spice that turns everything yellow! So, cover your countertops if you don't want any spillage.

Fresh ingredients:
2 trays of skinless chicken thighs or/and drumsticks or quarters
1 large onion, cubed
1 large beefsteak tomato, sliced into wedges (or 4-6 plum or round smaller tomatoes)
1 large potato, cut into large chunks (precooked but not mushy)
3/4 lb okra (lady's fingers)

2 tblsp. canola or vegetable oil for frying
enough water to just cover chicken

Dry Spices:
1 small stick cinnamon
4-6 cloves

Curry sauce, mixed into paste:
5 tblsp. curry powder
5 tblsp. cold water

Rempah
Malaysian curries usually start with "rempah", a spice paste to kickstart the dish. Rempah can include spices like coriander, tumeric, chili powder, galangal(yellow ginger), blachan (dried shrimp paste). My personal preference is NOT to add the spicy stuff in the rempah because when you fry it, it's extremely pungent and makes you cough and sputter.

Blend rempah in food processor:
4-6 cloves garlic
4-6 slices fresh ginger
4-6 shallots (if you can't get these, don't worry)


Directions:
1. You know the stir fry drill, heat your cast iron wok, squirt oil, fry onions. Set aside.

2. Clean wok, always start with a clean wok otherwise you'll get a hard fond forming at the bottom of your wok and you won't be able to "brown" anything. Same stir fry process as no.1, fry chicken in batches, set aside with onions.

3. Clean wok, same stir fry process again on medium heat. Fry rempah and dry spices (cinnamon stick and cloves) for a bit. Don't let it burn. Add the curry paste and immediately add the chicken. Coat chicken and onions with the paste as best you can, don't worry if it's not completely all over.

2. Add just enough water to cover the chicken. Once the curry starts to boil, turn down heat to simmer. Time it takes to cook depends on quantity. Add in tomato wedges and cook till chicken is tender. Add the potatoes so they have time to absorb the curry flavor before you serve.

This Chicken Curry never fails to please me.

Keep coming back for more Curry variations. I'm also working on my food journeys to Singapore and Penang.

Next blog is Pickles, a lovely cooling side to go with spicy foods, Yin and Yang.

Here are more ways to use your versatile wok:

One-Dish Wok Meals

Wontons and toufu with lettuce, straw mushrooms in soup.

In this post, I want to focus on weeknight dinners. Hence the One-Dish Wok Meals.

There are so many beautiful food blogs to get recipes from (see sidebar), so what I want to do is share a different approach to cooking. It's stress free because you don't have to run out for special ingredients, follow a recipe and there's very little cleanup. Cook the gourmet dishes when you have more time.

Yes, I cook my wontons in my wok.

Single guys tell me they enjoy showing off their wok cooking to their dates! This made me laugh especially when they said it makes them look like they know what they're doing.

My posts: Keep Cooking Simple and Tasty, Wok Up Your Own Creations and Stir Frying Without Recipes will give you the complete scoop on how to achieve this.

Why a wok? Because it heats up fast, cooks fast and washes up fast and best of all, you can use this one pan for cooking EVERYTHING, not just Asian stir frys. Less clutter, less oil, less washing up.

Toufu, green beans, cherry tomatoes, straw mushrooms cooked in CurrySimple's Green Curry Sauce.

(I won't repeat what I've already said in other posts about my preseasoned, lightweight cast iron wok. On my website, I explain in great depth and discuss different types of woks as well as technique to be successful.)

Simple stir fried bok choy and red bell peppers with dash of tamari and sherry.

Buy Char Siu (Chinese roast pork), mix with bok choy dish, dinner!

One-Dish Wok Meals is how my husband and I eat most weeknights and we never get tired of them. It's really a no-brainer, it gives you the right balance of protein and carbs.

That's how I was brought up, lots of veggies, less meat. I cut out eating starch a while back because I'm on the cusp of Type II Diabetes, I discuss this in Healthy and Delicious Snack Ideas. When my doctor first told me to cut back eating so much rice, I thought she didn't realize I was Asian! Asians eat rice at every meal. I cut back a little at a time and finally didn't miss not having it at all. When I understood starch drives up sugar levels, it was easy to give it up and see my energy soar. As mentioned, we'll have quinoa more often than rice or noodles. I get into more depth about Diets on my website.

I hear amusing stories from many husbands who are relegated to washing dishes, so you'll be pleased to know it takes less than two minutes to wash up for a One-Dish Wok Meal.

A typical washup takes less than 2 minutes.

As you can see, I use my cast iron wok for cooking many different things! I'd love to hear what you cook up in your wok?

Yummy Asian meatloaf steamed (ground turkey and omboshi plums)

Tilapia with veggies in soup.

Free Beijing Olympic Recipes

It's summer but there's a LOT going on...

Watch Olympics and savor... Friday 8.8.08
"8" is a very lucky number in Chinese culture, so that's why Olympics starts on that day, in fact Ralph and I were married on Jan.8, 1988, oops, now you know we celebrated 20 years together!

Take a Wok Star class next Tuesday, August 7 at The Grateful Palate, just in time to learn in 3 hours so you can whip up your own favorite Asian dishes.

Or you can order a Wok Star Kit with my complete class and audio cookalongs (like I'm a private coach in your kitchen) so you can learn in your own home.

Here are FREE RECIPES for 3 simple party dishes, perfect for setting the mood while watching the Beijing Olympics with family and friends. Best paired with an icy, cold Tiger Beer (it's from Singapore where my mother was born).
Thai Curry Salmon, Rainbow Lettuce Wraps, Singapore Chili Shrimp. Eleanor's healthy alternative to chip & dip. Perfect for any game night.

More FREE easy recipe variations, it's all there for you to relish -
Thai Curry Salmon using CurrySimple (ready mix coconut milk and paste, just open and pour). Available at Wholefoods and Wild Oats or directly from CurrySimple.com.
Steamed ground turkey meatloaf with umboshi plums (another way to use your versatile wok)