TaMara writes:
Thursday Night Menu: Not Turkey Edition
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What better way to combat turkey fatigue than with a crab and shrimp menu? It was a toss up between this and a nice Vegetable Beef Soup. We’ll do the soup next week. Maybe JeffW and I can coordinate and he can come up with a nice hearty bread recipe for next Thursday to post along with the menu (that’s a hint, Jeff, in case you missed it). I’m travelling again this week, but I’ll do my best to answer any questions you might have. The shrimp is a bit of a different recipe, instead of traditional coconut shrimp which is fried in a coconut batter, this one is simmered in a coconut milk sauce. I like Jasmine rice and if you haven’t tried it, now is your chance. I actually use a nice brown Jasmine rice that fluffs up almost as well as its white counterpart. And of course, vanilla ice cream is only a suggestion here, it won’t ruin the entire menu if you go all wild and choose something like mango.
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On the board tonight:
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1) Shrimp in Coconut Milk
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2) Jasmine Rice
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3) Cucumber Sea Salad
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4) Crushed Pineapple & Coconut over Vanilla Ice Cream
Recipes and shopping list at the link.
Jim, Once
Thanks, TaMara. It all sounds wonderful. I’ve been wondering what to do with the coconut milk in my cupboard. And for once, I’ve got everything needed for all of today’s recipes on hand.
Little Boots
so many open threads.
oh well,
John, you had a point, that nobody cares about very soon.
Little Boots
and that does seem tasty. Oh, John, I want to care, me above all, but … jasmine rice. consider.
Ailuridae
That shrimp looks excellent.
I am going to use this here Cooking, Open Thread to ask a food question. I am making a spinach lasagna over the weekend and the recipe calls for 3 and 1/2 to 4 cooked cups of spinach. I one pound back of chopped spinach has 6 presumably uncooked cups in it but obviously cooks down a ton. Am I going to need one 1 lb bag, two 1 pound bags or a 1 lb bag and a 10 oz brick? Anyone?
sfinny
Love Jasmine rice. I make a bunch and just keep it in the fridge for an easy side for any entree. Or even a meal in itself with some vegetables.
I don’t like coconut much, but a nice shrimp scampi goes well with the rice and pinapple too. With alot of garlic, too.
Will definately try the sea salad. Sounds tasty.
Yutsano
I almost read that as sea cucumber salad. Which teh Google didn’t give me a good recipe for. But I bet there’s a Japanese variation out there somewhere. They eat just about anything aquatic. To wit: fugu.
sfinny
@Yutsano: Sea cucumbers remind about a couple of trips to Bermuda when I was a kid. The place we stayed at had a golden retriever that would jump into the water and come back with sea cucumbers. Darnedest thing had ever seen, diving dogs.
Nellcote
@Ailuridae:
Spinach cooks down to appox. 20-25% of it’s original bulk. You probably need 3lbs. of raw spinach. A little extra won’t hurt in lasagna.
My question: Has anyone here used liquid nitrogen to make ice cream or sorbet? Is it as easy as it looks on the cooking shows?
Yutsano
@Nellcote:
Yes and no. Yes in that it really does freeze liquids so quickly that they barely have much chance to crystallize. No in that it’s fucking difficult to handle properly and you can injure yourself easily if you’re not hella careful.
Tattoosydney
@Yutsano:
Poison. Poison. Poison. Tasty fish.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano:
@Tattoosydney:
Hi, hubbies. How you be? I’m in a blue (as in down, not as in raunchy) mood today.
@Yutsano: Can’t help it. So little time. So many regrets. I really hope you have a job come Monday. And, I’m listening to kd lang sing “Hallelujah”. So there.
Yutsano
@Tattoosydney: I laugh, but mostly because cutting fugu is literally like that. That and the mock Japanese is kinda awesome.
And no I’ve never had it. I wouldn’t dare to outside of Japan.
@asiangrrlMN: Well stop that. It’s almost Friday and I don’t know if I’ll have a job come Monday or not. Then there’s the debt ceiling mishegas.
Tattoosydney
@asiangrrlMN:
I’m pretty good. I officially resigned on Wednesday, so I am in NMP mode for the next six weeks.
I feel …. liberated.
Tattoosydney
@Yutsano:
Why this?
Tattoosydney
@asiangrrlMN:
I haven’t got any useful words for you, just my sympathy.
That said, throwing my entire career away and launching into the unknown with no particular life plan is working to fix my bad mood so far.
asiangrrlMN
@Tattoosydney: YAY! StupidfuckingRepublicansshuttingdowngovernment.
@Tattoosydney: I’m stoked for you. It’s gonna be awesome.
Tattoosydney
@asiangrrlMN:
I thought that just meant that the servants of the public didn’t get paid (bad enough, I admit) not that they lost their jobs…
asiangrrlMN
@Tattoosydney: Well, he wouldn’t be able to do his job, I think he means. Not that he actually loses it.
Yutsano
@Tattoosydney: What wifey said. My manager told me not to worry about it, that they’ll pass a Continuing Resolution (which just means no increases in funding beyond current levels) by Saturday and it won’t be a big deal. But we gets no pay raises for COLA for two years now. And if the debt ceiling doesn’t go up, I’m out of work too. The joys of American federal gubmint employment. And I’d still take it over my old job in a heartbeat.
@asiangrrlMN: The government can’t make us work now and promise to pay us later, the union won’t allow that. So they shut the doors save for critical personnel (and the military, but their funding hasn’t passed yet either) and I get a day or two or more off. What I really want to know is if we get paid for those days we missed. Even at half pay that would still be pretty sweet.
Svensker
Love shrimp in coconut milk — this one sounds almost Thai. Have you ever tried Brazilian coconut shrimp stew? Delicious and easy. I usually add a few drops of Tabasco, some lime juice and then top with cilantro. And its wonderful with the jasmine rice.
Tattoosydney
@asiangrrlMN:
@Yutsano:
Ah, I understand. I had visions of staff cutbacks, but if it’s just staff standstill then meh – this too shall pass.
Yutsano
@Tattoosydney: There is a hiring freeze on, but I got in just before that. It’s just vewy vewy interesting times right now. And at least we aren’t required to show up and get our noses counted.
Tattoosydney
@Yutsano:
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: OK, I’m down with you getting paid for not working. Then you can buy me this.
Or this (in black).
Tattoosydney
@asiangrrlMN:
I was looking at the website of one of my favourite stores today, and thought you might like…
asiangrrlMN
@Tattoosydney: Oh yeeeeeessssss. I like the bones jewelry. A lot.
P.S. I think Yutsy has fainted again.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Perhaps. Or housework is taking up chunks of my time. Or I’m just distracting myself. Or I’m trying not to think about the long ass day I have tomorrow. Oh okay fine I fainted. I kinda like the cat tree and the Aussie jewelry though.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: I like to think of you clutching your heart and muttering to yourself as you click on the links. It amuses me.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
I hear “Yoo-hoo, Yutsy! Get out the checkbook!” like it’s coming from a ’30s screwball comedy. Hilarious.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Just an FYI: the Dawg forbade me from dying while he’s out of the country. I figure I should put that out there while you kill me by a thousand
dollarscuts.@Steeplejack: Only if I get to be Ethel. I never get to be Ethel dammit.
WarMunchkin
I have a lot of trouble making tasty stuff with Thai-ish themes, mainly because I’m vegetarian and there’s so much stuff like shrimp paste in it. Also in that recipe, what does the Tequila add to the broth?
Also too, I just went back and read the “Jane Hamshers of the Left” thread, which predated my reading this blog (circa ~2007), and I lol’d. This place changed a lot, huh.
Edited for crimes against grammar. Look forward, not backward.
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: Love it! Does that make me Ricky or Lucy?
@Yutsano: Aw. How sweet. Yes, it would be hard to explain to him how I dedded you. You can be Ethel!
@WarMunchkin: Yeah. Most Asian food has some meat/seafood in it. And, this blog has changed A LOT in the past few years (though that thread was before my time, too).
Tattoosydney
@asiangrrlMN:
I’m going to be fucking pissed if I have to be Fred.
Steeplejack
@Yutsano:
In this scenario I picture you more as Edward Everett Horton in the great Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals.
Yutsano
@WarMunchkin: Soy sauce was created by Buddhist monks in China as a replacement for fish sauce, so using that as a base seasoning is a good start. An d there are Thai versions of soy sauce you can get at any decent Asian market. You can also sub out just about any meat with tofu in almost any Chinese dish, though you have the Japanese to thank for that. There are several Asian vegetable dishes that go beyond stir-frys, it just takes a bit of digging. And if all else fails, tempura. Everyone will eat a veggie in tempura.
@asiangrrlMN: Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to figure out how this song applies to the Dawg and me. I’ll give you one hint: I can change my own oil.
BTW the cheating at pool in the video cracks me up to no end.
WarMunchkin
@asiangrrlMN: It’s surprising though right? I’m living in Japan for a few months as an exchange student, and despite all the reports you hear about how their food is so healthy and all, the beef bowl and fried forms of meat are ubiquitous and tuna skin is in everything. I’d think that that would result in super health problems down the road, but nope, they live really long. Maybe due to the rice based diet rather than a wheat based one? You’d think that one of the nations that invented/popularized tofu and have a large Buddhist influence would be more vegetarian than they are.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
You guys are trapped in the TV era. I said the ’30s, damn it. That would make you Ginger Rogers and Yutsy Edward Everett Horton.
Steeplejack
@Tattoosydney:
You can be Fred Astaire, not Fred Mertz. Goddamn reading comprehension fail on this blog.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Um. He’s a cowboy? You’re really a female? He’s with you for your pillows? I got nothing.
@WarMunchkin: It is the rice and the veggies and fish. At least in Taiwan. If you are in Tokyo, then I expect it’s more Westernized than other areas.
@Steeplejack: You are cracking me up. But, I wouldn’t mind being Ginger Rogers. She’s awesome.
Tattoosydney
@Steeplejack:
Yay! Can I be Cary Grant in “Bringing up baby” if I ask nicely?
They started on about Lucy, and I got caught up. I much prefer your version.
Tattoosydney
@Steeplejack:
It’s true – I can just see Yutsy doing his “Oh my god what is she doing?” face…
Steeplejack
@Tattoosydney:
Yes. In that scenario, you’re Cary Grant, AsiangrrlMN is Katharine Hepburn, and Yutsano is Charlie Ruggles. I’ll be the leopard.
asiangrrlMN
@Tattoosydney: As I have never seen one….
@Tattoosydney: I wanna be Katharine Hepburn.
@Steeplejack: Damn. I didn’t even know she was in the movie! I just really like her. Cool synchronicity. But, what if I want to be the leopard?
WarMunchkin
@Yutsano: For fish sauce, I’ve come up with a combination of mushroom soy sauce and golden temple sauce that mimics the flavor. Bonus kick if you flavor it with dried shittake mushrooms or kombu kelp beforehand. My main issue is with using pre-packaged chili paste, green curry paste or red curry paste, since, more often than not, they have a shrimp paste base. I’ve succeeded in making vegetarian nam prik pao though.
Tempura is great. I hated it in the U.S., but since I came to Japan, my opinion of it has changed darmatically, since they cook it competently.
@asiangrrlMN: I’m in Tokyo. I was amused to see a Red Lobster here… I wonder what marketing executive decided that it would be a great idea to try to sell overpriced fish to Japanese people?
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN:
Hee.
Well he does own horses. But calling him a cowboy is a bit of a stretch.
This would be a shock to not only my mother but every man I’ve slept with. But my SIL does call me her sister.
Do I even wanna know where this came from?
Oh and totally off subject: So wrong, but so true. With apologies to all the Canuckistani BJers.
Tattoosydney
@Yutsano:
Is that what the kids are calling it these days?
Tattoosydney
@Yutsano:
Jesus, our musical tastes diverge wildly at the ends of the spectrum. What was that shit?
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Jesus. Actors. Then I’ll be George the dog. And Yutsano can be Katharine Hepburn, for all I care. Can I get some people in here I can work with?!
Yutsano
@Tattoosydney: You kicked Keith Urban out for it. But my tastes run pretty much everywhere. So I’m kind of hard to pin down.
Tattoosydney
@Steeplejack:
I suspect it’s more like this.
ETA: Hee.
asiangrrlMN
@WarMunchkin: Have you ever been in it? I bet it’s adapted to the local customs. When I was in Taiwan last winter, the pizza selections were wild.
@Yutsano: Well, you like to rest your head on my pillows, so….
He chews? You play pool together? You’re really a female? He’s never been to college? You’re an uptown girl and he’s from the wrong side of the tracks?
Steeplejack
@Tattoosydney:
Okay, a little edgy, but touché. If you want to go in that direction.
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: Snort! You funny. I will be Katharine.
@Tattoosydney: Am I Bette or Joan? I have a hunch I’m Baby Jane. And, Yee Haw!
P.S. I have not seen this movie, either.
Steeplejack
@Tattoosydney:
I thought you meant this.
ETA: FYWP! Eating comments again. Naughty.
Tattoosydney
@asiangrrlMN:
This video contains content from Vevo, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.
You haven’t seen Baby Jane? Oh. My. God. Hang your head in shame. Next you’ll be telling me you haven’t see “All about Eve” either.
WarMunchkin
@asiangrrlMN: Sadly I haven’t. It would cost basically 10% of my monthly budget to go so… yeah, Tokyo is $$$.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN:
Closer, but not quite that dramatic, and flip them around. I’m more salt of the earth he’s more blue-blood. But he keeps coming back to me only God knows why. :)
@Steeplejack:
You forgot
your daily sacrificeto feed it again. Naughty child.Steeplejack
Okay, I’m out. Got to get up early in the morning to serve the Man. You night owls carry on.
Fred and Ethel Mertz. Jesus.
asiangrrlMN
@Tattoosydney: Try this one. You
willwon’t regret it.I have seen All About Eve. A friend of mine loves old movies and
made me watch itshowed it to me.@WarMunchkin: Yes. Very much so.
Yutsy, ah. Got it. He just can’t quit you!
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: Night, Steepman! Does it help that I’ve never seen the show, either?
Tattoosydney
@asiangrrlMN:
From what I think I know about your taste, I suspect you would quite like Baby Jane.
I hate you.
asiangrrlMN
@Tattoosydney: Bwahahahahahahaha! Love you, too.
I liked the snippet you linked. I will check it out.
ETA: It’s Yutsy’s fault. He got me hooked on country.
Tattoosydney
@Yutsano:
I can’t criticise, I promise… My current playlist includes Rihanna (who I heard for the first time the other night on The Graham Norton Show with Daniel Radcliffe (yum) and Colin Farrell (more yum)) and the Pet Shop Boys. I’m so gay.
asiangrrlMN
@Tattoosydney: Heh. You are. Night!
Tattoosydney
@Tattoosydney:
Necessary Graham Norton and eye candy link.
Tattoosydney
@asiangrrlMN:
‘Night, dear.