A few friends asked me about my curry recipe and as it’s rather simple I decided to write it out last time I made it.  So here you go, my easy chicken curry recipe.  Makes about 6 servings and takes about 45 minutes.  You can easily substitute various vegetables below and use shrimp instead of chicken.

Ingredients

• Sweet Potato
• Mushrooms
• 1 Onion
• 1 Green Pepper
• Spinach
• 3-4 lbs Chicken breast
• 2 cans light coconut milk
• 1 oz jar red curry paste
• 3 TBSP peanut oil

Directions

• Heat your wok (or large pot) to medium-high and coat with peanut oil
• Add sweet potato and sauté for about 5 minutes stirring often
• Add the bell pepper, onion and chicken and liberal amounts of salt (I don’t use chicken broth so it’ll be pretty bland) – sauté for 10 minutes stirring often
• Add the mushrooms, sauté for 5 minutes
• Add 2 cans light coconut milk and 4 oz (small jar) curry paste (or less depending on taste).  Simmer for 10 minutes or so over medium-high heat, stirring in the curry paste.  Add liberal amounts of salt to taste.
  (If the chicken isn’t fully cooked don’t worry, it will finish while simmering.)
• Add raw spinach right at the end and simmer another 5 minutes
• Serve over rice, quinoa or some other grain

I hate reality TV.  With rare exception I will not watch it.  I strongly feel that it’s designed for the low-brow masses that don’t really care about the quality of their programming but rather the amount of wow factor it can bring them.  The drama, the fights, the stupidity.  The only reality show I’ve ever watched with any regularity is The Biggest Loser.  While yes, I hate all the stupid drama the build (almost force) into the show I still feel good watching a show that promotes a healthy lifestyle through diet and exercise, something I dedicated myself to a few years ago.  Along those lines I’ve seen the first two episodes of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and I think it’s the best terrible show I’ve ever seen.

The premise of the show is simple – famous British chef Jamie Oliver comes to the most unhealthy town in America as show by obesity rates, disease and death in this town.  The reaction of the town is shocking.  He is met with disbelieve and mistrust – “we don’t want to sit around and eat lettuce all the time” says the local radio talk show host (who is very overweight).  It is unreal how this town eats and when you see the family that Jamie tries to help it is shocking.

In one episode a group of 6 year olds don’t know what a tomato looks like.  Or a potato.  Or spinach, broccoli, eggplant, etc.  As soon as they see pizza or chicken nuggets they know what that looks like.  When Jamie takes all the food that one family eats in a week and puts it all out on the table guess what, it’s all brown/yellow, it’s all loaded with fat and sugar and it utterly disgusting.  Their 15 year old son is a good 100lbs over weight and is on the verge of developing diabetes.  The doctor proclaims he’s cut 30-40 YEARS off his life.  Still they don’t get it.

Jamie has a huge task – to change the school lunch program from a disgusting mix of processed foods into fresh prep, healthy (and very tasty) food.  It is shocking to see the resistance from the staff, from the lunch ladies all the way up to the principal.  They really see nothing wrong with how they are feeding their children.

Anyone with kids in school should see this show.  They should be required to watch Super Size Me and Food Inc.  We should know what is in our food and what we are putting into our bodies.  I don’t eat organic all the time but I do try to avoid as much processed food as possible.  Watch these shows/movies – learn what you are consuming and what it does to your body.  If not for you then think of the children, just think of the children!!!

I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking on this one.  This weekend a group of friends got together to get their cars ready for the track in a few weeks.  Chris Wand and I decided we’d have a little surprise for everyone.  I give you the Bacon Explosion.

Stats on the bacon explosion:
- 2 lbs of Benton’s bacon (easily the best bacon in the entire world)
- 2 lbs of mild Italian sausage
- Rub of choice / BBQ sauce of choice

And how bad is it for you?  Well we each only had a small piece (some larger than others, Stevie…) but it racks up at:
- 4100 Calories
- 200g of fat
- 17,500mg of sodium
- 1200mg of cholesterol

And oh my gawd did it taste goooooood!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a recipe so I figured I’d share this one with everyone. This is very easy to make and tastes fantastic, in fact it’s one of my all time favorite ways to prepare steak. So here goes:

What you need
1 lb flank steak
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp vinegar
3-5 tbsp scallions

What you do
Combine all ingredients in either a seal able container or zip lock bag. Allow the steak to marinate for at least 4 hours, longer if possible (you can easily leave it over night). Turn it several times while marinating. Sear the steak on the grill over high heat for about 3 minutes per side (you want it medium-rare). Don’t over cook it, it can dry out pretty easily. After you take it off the grill let it sit for about 5 minutes then slice into strips – if you have extra slice that up too for left overs (if you don’t slice it up it’ll dry out pretty easily). Enjoy!

I’ve been wanting to do some healthier tomato based dishes so tonight I decided to try a seafood cioppino (a cioppino is a seafood stew).  I headed to Whole Foods to see what looked good in the seafood department and fortunately they had fresh muscles.  I also picked up some fresh shrimp and some more of the fresh hake fish that I made last night.  The only thing I would change was using a red wine instead of cooking sherry (I didn’t have anything that I was willing to open and cook with).  I didn’t want sherry to over power the flavor so I used just a little and it came out great.  I think it would definitely be better with red wine (like a syrah) so next time I’ll plan a bottle with the meal.  Be sure to serve it with a nice french baguette or a good sourdough roll.

What you need
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 medium onion, quartered
3 garlic cloves
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 California bay leaf
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried hot red-pepper flakes
1 (14-ounce) can crushed roasted tomatoes
1/2 cups water
1/2 cup full-bodied red wine such as Zinfandel or Syrah
1/2 cup clam juice
1 1/2 pounds of fresh seafood (fish, shrimp, scallops, muscles, calamari, etc)

What you do
Coarsely chop the fennel, onion, and garlic in a food processor. Heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat until it shimmers, then stir in chopped vegetables, bay leaves, thyme, red-pepper flakes, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Cook, covered, on medium heat, stirring a few times, about 4 minutes until the vegetables begin to soften. Add the tomatoes, water, wine, and clam juice and boil covered for 20 minutes. Stir in your seafood and add a pinch of salt then cook uncovered until the mussels open wide, 4 to 6 minutes (discard any that remain unopened after 6 minutes). Check your seafood frequently and serve as soon as the last pieces are cooked through (so you don’t over cook others).

Sunday night I made yet another fantastic dish (man I am really on a roll I must say). It is a very easy dish to make, just a bunch of chopping and then baking.  I did some wilted spinach with roasted garlic and mushrooms on the side and it came out great too (just be sure the spinach is as dry as you can get it before wilting it).  I’ll definitely make this one again, very easy and very healthy.  Next time I’ll probably use trout or a slightly meatier white fish, the hake was a tad mild for this recipe (I’d never had it and they didn’t have any fresh trout at Whole Foods)

What you need
2 fresh white fish filets (trout, cod, hake, etc)
1/2 cup chopped seeded cherry tomatoes
2 green onions, chopped
2 large, fresh shiitake mushrooms caps, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
2 large garlic cloves, minced
4 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil
Fresh cilantro sprigs

What you do
Preheat oven to 400°. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil; coat with nonstick spray. Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper. Place fish skin side down on foil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Mix next 5 ingredients in bowl with a pinch of salt. Lump the mixture over fish, drizzle with soy sauce and sesame oil, then top with cilantro sprigs. Bake uncovered (pulling the foil up around the edges to save a mess) until fish is opaque in center, about 20 minutes.