Laksa Ayam

Years ago while backpacking half way around the world, I spent some time in Malaysia, and this one town on the east coast had a fantastic night market, where one could fill up on fantastic foods for a couple of bucks. Some of my favorites where the flaky roti canaii, the massive grilled king prawns (more like emperor prawns, if you advance on that size scale, as they were literally fist sized) with sambal and the endless variations of flavorful soups that would be available at all times of day (or night)

For a long time after coming back I would make a chicken and shrimp based soup called Laksa, then I forgot about it, but last week-end in NYC we ate a delicious little gem called Niu noodle house and our dinner reminded me of Laksa, and back came the memories of the fantastic taste, flavorful yet mild.

You can make this totally from scratch by buying a whole chicken, cutting it into pieces and boiling it to make stock, then remove the meat from the bones, shred and reserve and discard the bones. Or you can use chicken broth (homemade and stashed in your freezer) and a chicken breast or rotisserie chicken, all depending on the time you have or your willingness to work. In the spirit of full disclosure, my not completely authentic version features some adaptations, to make the recipe fit our western pantry a bit better. For one, I use macadamia or cashew nuts, the original calls for candle nuts, which are rather difficult to come by in this part of the world. I also like to add a pinch of turmeric to give the whole thing a bit of color.

…and of course you can put lots more broth over the noodles

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces or left over rotisserie chicken meat
3 cups chicken broth
1 can coconut milk
(1/2 pound shrimp, or 5-6 per person, peeled and cooked, optional)
3 hard boiled eggs, peeled and quartered
7 oz or 200 grams dried rice noodles, size medium or smaller, or vermicelli
4 small shallots + 1 shallot for garnish*
3 garlic cloves
4 macadamia or cashew nuts
1 stem lemon grass, only thick end, bruised so it’s slightly crushed and split open
1/2 tsp coriander seed
1 pinch turmeric
3 tbsp oil
salt to taste

* as a shortcut, get ‘fried red onion’ in a jar from your Asian grocer

Directions

Using mortar and pestle, grind the coriander seeds to a powder, then add the nuts and process the same way. Press the garlic and the small shallots through a garlic press, then add to the mortar and pound everything to a paste.
Thinly slice the remaining shallot and set aside.
Bring water to a boil, then pour over the rice noodles in a heat proof bowl and let stand until softened but not mushy, (time varies, depending on the size of your noodles)
Heat a small amount of oil in a soup pan, and fry the seasoning paste from the mortar until it just starts to turn golden and a strong fragrance is released. Add the chicken breast and cook for another minute. Chicken will cook more in the following steps. ( If using cooked chicken, add after adding the broth)
Deglaze with the chicken broth and the coconut milk, stir to dissolve any lumps of the seasoning paste. Add the lemon grass and bring to a boil and cook until the chicken is cooked through.
In the meantime, heat a small frying pan, add the remaining oil and fry the sliced shallots until crispy, set aside.
Add a pinch of turmeric to the broth and season with salt to taste.
To serve, place the noodles into 4 bowls, top with shrimp and 3 pieces of hard boiled egg each, then ladle the hot soup over top and serve garnished with the fried shallot

October 2, 2012December 16, 2017

Nelson’s Pepper and Mushroom Soup

After watching me make soup a couple of times, Nelson surprised me the other night by making a soup of his own, using what we have, just like I would, he whipped up the most delicious little soup one can imagine! And all from the things that needed to be used up: 2 sad looking zucchini squash, celery, 4 mushrooms leftover from making pizza on Friday, the rest of the pizza sauce, a can of pinto beans, some speck and a lovely misshapen red peppers that were on ‘quick sale’ at the store. Oh, but I wouldn’t do it justice by forgetting the not-all-that-hot looking little hot pepper we got from Dawn’s garden that spiced up the whole pot. It was super awesome! I might be odd, but I had to have some for breakfast today, yes, it was that yummy 🙂

Ingredients

2 tablespoons coconut or olive oil
1 onion chopped
4 big button mushrooms, cut into chunks
3-4 stalk of celery, chopped
1 can Pinto beans, rinsed (or frozen equivalent)
1 small green zucchini
1 small yellow squash
1 8 oz can of tomato sauce (or about 1 cup leftover pizza sauce)
1 red bell pepper or ‘sweet ancient’ (long and funky looking)
1 hot red pepper (cherry or the one we had which looked innocent like a mini bell pepper)
1/4 cup diced Speck (pronounced “Shpek”, German slab bacon, cut into cubes)*
water (which should not be underestimated when making soup)
1 tsp salt
1 no salt added vegan broth cube from Rapunzel

*For vegetarian option, leave the Speck out, but make sure you blacken the red bell pepper, to give the soup some smoky depth.The odd little bag, you ask? Yes, that’s my frozen beans, I soak and cook beans for several meals and freeze them in snack size bags = just about a can of beans

Directions

Heat oil in a soup or stock pot, add the diced onions, celery and sweet red pepper, cook until softened and just starting to brown slightly.
Add the mushrooms and speck and cook just another minute before adding about 4 cups of water, the vegetable bouillon cube and the pizza or tomato sauce. If the beans are frozen, add them at this point.
Bring to a boil and cook until vegetables are tender and the soup gets cloudy looking and thickens a little, then add the finely diced hot pepper
In the meantime, cut the squash lengthwise into spears and chop into pieces, add to the soup and cook for another 5-10 minutes.

Good with Rosemary Soca or corn chips!

September 25, 2012December 16, 2017

Better-for-you Gluten Free Brownies

brownie and sunshine 🙂

brownie, no sunshine. Oh yeah, the thing in the middle there? A overly cooked white chocolate chip…

I wanted to do something a bit special, celebratory for our 1 year anniversary and how better to celebrate than with something sweet and chocolatey? Yes, it is true, today my little blog turns one!

Therefore today’s recipe had to be a little special, so ‘common’ brownies were not going to cut it and since I don’t like things that are very sweet anyway, a standard recipe would not have been my thing. I have often felt that there are too many products and recipes out there that are, for example, gluten free, but now there are 18 eggs in them, or they are low fat but have twice as much sugar. So I challenged myself, why not combine some of the restrictions people face into one recipe without adding extra “bad stuff”? A lot of folks have issues digesting gluten + diabetics should be real careful eating sugar (and I don’t like lots of it, + it’s really not good for you) + most people watch the amount of fat they consume: I was setting out with quite a lofty goal. Can’t be done, you say? Well, I just think I might have nailed it! Best of all, if you just happen to be vegan, you can make this too 🙂

And since the weather looked a good deal like fall today I added another good for you ingredient: Pumpkin, to make it moist (also packs vitamin E, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Iron, Manganese and is a good source of fiber) and chick pea flour to keep it gluten free. I did have a whole big bag of chickpea flour, from who knows what recipe originally that I just rediscovered last week in making Socca.

By the way, get Besan from the Indian grocer, much cheaper than other healthfood store brands. As a matter of fact, anything you can buy at an ethnic store will be cheaper. If it is considered a specialty or an exotic item the grocery store will a) buy less of it, making it more expensive, and b) they can get away with charging premium dollar for ‘delicacies’ and ‘gourmet food’.For example, if you have a Asian grocer nearby, get your shallots there, also rice and rice noodles, dried or fresh will be a lot cheaper, so is Tofu, if you have that on your meal plan. Indian grocers usually carry various beans, peas and lentils, spices and almonds are usually less as well. And of course they have Besan, which is the chick pea flour we just talked about. But since it is not sold as a ‘gluten free’ flour… fraction of the cost!

But I digress, back to today’s topic: The gluten free, virtually fat free, low sugar, vegan anniversary BROWNIES! Yes, I am a tad exited about them, can you tell? 😉

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, unsweetened
1/2 cup brown rice syrup
1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup chick pea flour/besan
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup mixed chocolate chips (dairy free, or it’s no longer vegan) or 1/2 nuts 1/2 chips
3/4 cups water
1/4 cup raw sugar (turbinado)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350ºF
Lightly grease a 9″ x 13″ baking dish (lasagna dish) with coconut oil
In a large bowl mash the bananas and mix in the pumpkin puree, then stir in the cocoa powder.
Add the brown rice syrup and the water and stir until well mixed
Combine the three flours, the xanthan gum, baking powder and baking soda
Add the flours and 2 tablespoons of the raw sugar to the cocoa mixture and stir until well blended, then add the chocolate chips or nuts.
Spread into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle top with remaining sugar
Bake in the middle of the pre heated oven for 45-50 minutes or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cool completely before cutting, or you’ll have fudge brownies

August 17, 2012December 16, 2017

Raw ‘Pasta’ Alla Checca

Serve up some summer!

‘Alla checca’ is one version of a classic Italian summer fresh uncooked tomato sauce. Dreamed up in Italy, when the summer sun ripens tomatoes by the minute and you just don’t want the extra heat nor want to spend much time indoors cooking sauce. When tomatoes are at their ripest and most flavorful, you want to give this recipe a try. Use either your own fresh picked tomatoes or something pretty from the farmers market, no watery, flavorless kind from the store will do here.

Summer Bounty!

To take this a step further, I omitted the pasta and went with another summertime favorite that abounds in gardens this time a year, summer squash. Using Julienne cut zucchini and yellow squash instead of noodles, this is THE best dish of the summer. Low in calories, refreshing and oh so yummy! And the colors were so vivid and bright, I just kept looking at it, until my whole kitchen smelled like the garlic I used and hadn’t cleaned up yet;) Not as bad as the one time my whole house smelled like onions for a week, because of my over zealous helper, but more on that some other time…

Use it as a vegan main meal or serve some meat or mozzarella cheese on top or alongside. A crusty slice of bread would go well here too.

Ingredients

2 medium summer squash (I used one zucchini and one yellow, for visual appeal and because that’s what I had)
2 to 2 1/2 cups of tomatoes, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tbsp capers
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup black olives, preferably niçoise
1/4 cup basil leaves
fresh ground black pepper and sea salt to taste

Special tools: Julienne peeler

Directions

Julienne the squash like such, set aside in a medium bowl
Chop the tomatoes, add the garlic, capers and olives, cut into pieces if big, grind black pepper over top and drizzle with the olive oil. Toss to mix the sauce ingredients. Let stand for about 5 to 10 minutes to let the tomatoes release some of their juices, then salt to taste (I find that with the olives and capers, I need hardly any salt)
Roll the basil leaves and slice into thin long ribbons, add about half to the dish, toss. reserve the rest for topping.
Divide the cut zucchini and squash on two deep paste plates (as a main meal, four if served as a side) Top generously with the ‘alla checca’ sauce and some more basil, serve and let everyone grind some more pepper on top, if they like.

July 25, 2012December 16, 2017

Super Natural Mango Ice Cream

Soft serve state……or popsicle, fantastic either way!

You may have notice that I am ~~obsessed~~ enamored with mangoes. For more on this delicious fruit, see the Mango Cheesecake and the Mango with Sticky Rice posts and a fun side salsa, geeez, I guess I am kinda crazy about them. Since it is really hard to describe a flavor so exotic and sweet that it transports you to faraway places where the sun rises red through the early morning haze and you hear a peacock’s cry in the distance. The view takes your breath away as daylight slowly uncovers the scenery, like unrolling an exquisite silk tapestry…

Well, beyond dreaming, this is not going to get much words from me, except it’ only 2 ingredients and a must-try! No added sugar since mangoes are sweet as a dream, and if you use coconut milk, the whole thing is vegan.

Remember to start this the day before you want to eat the super natural mango ice

Ingredients

2 champagne mangoes, peeled, cut into 1/2″ chunks
about 3/4 cups coconut milk (or half & half*)

*If using half & half, the mango ice is no longer vegan

Directions

Chop and freeze the mango pieces until rock hard. (best overnight, but minimum of 6 hours seems to work)
Blend the chopped, frozen mango pieces, until they look crumbly, like such…
With the machine running, slowly pour in coconut milk (or half and half, if going the dairy route) until the mango crumbles start to blend into a homogenous mass.
Either serve right away (texture is soft serve) or scoop into a small dish or popsicle molds and freeze until solid. Will keep for several weeks, if you can keep your fingers off of it 🙂

June 11, 2012

Strawberry Jicama Juice with Mint

In the last couple of weeks, I have re-introduced juices into my days again. No no, not OJ from a box. We all realize by now how not so good that might be for you. If you don’t yet, just think about the fact that diabetics are given orange juice when their blood sugar gets dangerously low, to quickly bring it back up… On some days juicing is an easy way to up my vegetable intake, and at least get to some of the nutrition I really should eat but don’t always have time for.

I will not get up on my soap box about sugar today, waaaaay to hot for climbing, but on hot days like this, eating is sometimes not something I feel like doing, but using my juicer always seems to come in handy. My general rule of thumb would be to use fruit only to sweeten your (green, yellow or red) vegetable juices, unless… unless of course you are making a desert. Well, here is more of a desert version, you know, to balance out the green juices in your life 😉

Ingredients

1/2 lb strawberries
1/2 medium Jicama, brown skin peeled off
1/2 cucumber, peeled
1 Chinese pear, quartered and seeds removed
2 sprigs mint, plus some leaves for garnish

Directions

Per your juicer’s guidelines, juice all the ingredients: I started with the softest things, the strawberries. Don’t push down, or you won’t get much juice from them, gently feed them through. Either juice the mint sprigs, or usig a wooden drink mottler, bruise them in the glass before serving the drink. Then juice the Jicama, the cucumber and the pear.
Pour over ice, garnish with mint leaves and serve!
Save the strawberry pulp for another use, unless you have a super Juicer and there is almost nothing left, you can use the rest for baking, pancakes or pop sicles

I bet this would be awesome spiked with lemon vodka… Tropical Island gettaway, here I come! …

May 28, 2012

Gluten-free Vegan Oatmeal Cacao Nib Cookies

Oh yeah, AND raisins!

These are so ridiculously awesome. The cacao nibs give them a dark chocolate flavor you can smell from the oven all while being gluten-free and low sugar! A quick word on cacao nibs/cacao bean: coming from the Theobroma cacao tree, sometimes wrongly labeled cocoa nibs/cocoa bean, which from my understanding refers only to the extracted butter or powdered stuff. The mayan word is: kakaw, they might be on to something, I mean, they’ve only been using the stuff for ever. Just sayin’

Gosh, you have no idea, but just writing about those cookies makes my mouth water, and of course they are already gone… (I see some more baking coming up in this girl’s future) They are chewy and fragrant and yes, the texture is somewhat different than regular oatmeal cookies, after all there are mostly oats in there (and they are made without gluten flour).

Dark cacao nibs (essentially pieces of cacao bean)

If you are cultivating your sweet tooth, please feel free to use more ‘sweet stuff’. The cookies here are getting some of their sweetness from the raisins, but they would be a perfect treat for my Dad, who doesn’t really like sweets. I am a big believer in flavor over just plain sweet, or salty for that matter; and these cookies fit the bill perfectly.

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup millet flour*
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup cacao nibs
1/4 cup flax meal
2 tbsp chia seeds
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup almond or other nut butter
1/4 cup agave nectar, maple syrup or honey**

* I used millet because of its sweet, nutty flavor, but you could most likely use other gluten-free flours

**if using honey, the cookies are no longer vegan

Directions

Preheat oven to 350ºF
In a large bowl, combine first four ingredients (oats through cacao nibs)
In a separate bowl, mix flax meal and chia seeds with the water, set aside and let rest for 10 minutes.Then stir in the agave nectar and almond butter
Stir the flax mix into the bowl with the oats, add up to another 1/4 cup of water if dough looks too dry.
Drop cookies by the rounded tablespoon onto a prepared baking sheet, and bake until golden brown on the bottom and just starting to turn golden on top, about 8 to 11 minutes.

Makes about 30

January 10, 2012December 16, 2017

Colorful Vegetable Soup with Celery Root

Celery Root or Celeriac is what we use back home as winter vegetable for soups, salads, stews, you name it. It’s cheap, readily available and has a great flavor both raw and cooked. You could most definitely use regular green celery, which has a bit more of a pungent flavor, compared to the almost a bit nutty or earthy flavor of the root crop.

Cerliac

Making vegetable soup from scratch could not be easier, and I am giving you a basic recipe that can be made in as many variations as there are cooks.

For this particular soup I chose colorful veggies, and I am foregoing the usual potato for the sake of the ‘getting lean in the new year’ and all the paleo eaters out there and I am using, as I just said, celery root instead, which has a much lower Glycemic Index (GI) than a potato. choosing vegetables (and foods in general that are low on the glycemic scale keeps you full longer, therefore helping to control your appetite. In very simple words (yes there is more to it, but I’ll spare you) the idea behind the glycemic index is to measure how quickly a particular food affects your blood sugar/insulin response, meaning how quickly the sugars in it get digested and find their way into your blood stream.

Alright, now that we fed the brain, let’s look at our tummy 🙂

Ingredients

1/2 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1/2 celery root, peeled and cut into chunks
3-4 large tomatoes, diced * see note
2 carrots, diced
1/4 to 1/2 a head of cauliflower, separated into florets (depending ont he size of the cauliflower you get)
1/4 of a head of a medium savoy cabbage, cut into chunks (or use some leaves off a large one)
4-5 stalks Swiss Chard, chopped(any color you like, rainbow colors look pretty)
1 tsp salt

* I used frozen ones from my Garden in the summer: when they are at the peak of ripeness, just chop and put in zip top bags for soup in the winter. Alternately you could use a can of no salt added diced tomatoes)

Makes one 3 1/2 qt pot full

Directions

In a stock pot (mine is 3 1/2 qts, or so it says on the bottom) heat one tablespoon on olive or coconut oil over medium, then add the onions,a dn cook until translucent but not brown
Add the celery and carrots, stir and cook until the onions are beginning to brown
Add the tomatoes, with any juice that collected on the cutting board (if using frozen, partially thaw in the fridge overnight) stir and allow to cook 5 minutes to allow some of the juices to come out
Add water to cover the vegetables and bring to a boil, cook 5 minutes, then add the cauliflower and chopped Swiss Chard, bring to a boil again,then reduce the heat, add the salt and simmer until celery, carrot and cauliflower are tender when pierced with a fork.
Serve hot with some crackers or a slice of rustic bread, or enjoy as a first course.

To make this your own:

Instead of celeriac, use 2-3 stalks of celery and a medium potato
Use kale instead of Swiss Chard (but remove the tough stems)
Use spinach, but add right before serving into individual bowls, ladle hot soup over
Don’t like cabbage? Leave it out
Instead of cabbage and kale, use thin cut or quartered Brussel sprouts
Add green beans or snow peas towards the end of cooking time
Leave out the tomatoes
Go through your fridge, anything vegetable can most likely be used up in your yummy soup, the potions are endless 🙂

January 4, 2012December 16, 2017

Phở Bò – Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup

Happy New Year everybody!

Wishing you all a super wonderful 2012 filled with happiness, prosperity, health, friendship and love!

Since this is my first post this year, I wanted to make something a bit different. But when it’s cold like it is now (at my house the thermometer reads 18°F right now brrrr), the only thing to do is make some yummy soup, right? But since it’s early January and everybody is trying to eat lighter and healthier, a stew or thick soup did not seem like the way to go and anyway, I like to be reminded of warmer days or at least warmer parts of the world and since I have some time between chores (cleaning the house has to be done this year too, really?) I am making myself Pho, Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup from scratch.

You could, to save time, use beef stock and simmer the spices in that for a while, but truly the flavor of homemade stock, made with beef marrow bones, slow simmered for hours is beyond compare. Although I do wonder if this could be transferred to the slow cooker to make itself while you’re at work… I might try that next time 🙂

I forgot to add lime until I sat down to eat…

Traditionally , or I should say normally in restaurants, this soup is clear and very lean since the fat gets skimmed off while the flavorful broth is cooking, but you could leave some of the fat in the soup like I did, for the cold winter weather’s sake.

If you’ve ever had this in a restaurant, you might be familiar with the washtub sized bowls one gets served. I am not kidding, seriously big enough to wash your head in, and no one I have ever been to a Vietnamese restaurant with has EVER been able to finish one of those, and there were a few hungry guys amongst those counted not just dainty ladies. So that said, the recipe makes enough for 6 to 8 meals, the lower number for bigger bowls, the bigger number for more normal appetites.

Ingredients

Stock:

2 lb beef marrow bones
1 lb beef brisket or other cheaper cut of meat
3 medium shallots, unpeeled
4 cloves
1 1/2 tsp black pepper corns, whole
3 green cardamom pods
4-5 star anise pods
2 pieces of cinnamon, 3″
1 ginger, 2″ piece
cheesecloth or ‘bouquet garni’/spice bag
1/4 to 1/2 cup nuoc mam (fish sauce) or 3 tsp to 1 tbsp salt

Garnish:

1 pd sirloin or flank steak or filet (whatever your budget allows, this should be a nicer cut than what you use for the broth), placed in the freezer for 30 minutes
1 pd Rice Noodles or Rice sticks, flat, size medium (about 1/4″ wide)
4 handful bean sprouts (about 1 lb?)
4-6 sprigs Thai or Vietnamese Basil
4-6 sprigs Mint leaves
4-6 sprigs Cilantro
red Thai chile peppers, (they are HOT), sliced
1-2 Limes, cut into wedges
3-4 Scallions, sliced

Directions

Rinse the bones with cold water, then place in a large stock pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and blanch for 10 minutes
Drain, rinse the bones and clean the pot then return the blanched bones to the same pot, add 6 quarts of water and bring to a boil, skim off any fat and foam that forms on the surface.
Add another 2-4 quarts of water and return to a boil, again skimming off any impurities that rise to the surface.
In the meantime, stud the shallots with the cloves, and roast both the ginger and the shallots either by holding them over the gas burner until blackened in spots or by placing under a broiler. Place the spices, ginger and shallots inside the muslin spice bag (alternately using two layers of dampened cheesecloth, wrap all the spices and tie shut with kitchen twine).
Place the spice bag in the stock pot with the bones and simmer for 1 hour. Then remove the bag and discard.
Remove the brisket and set aside.
Return to a simmer and cook, uncovered 4-5 hours, adding water as necessary to maintain the water level and making sure to keep the bones covered at the minimum.
In the meantime, after placing in the freezer for 30 minutes slice the flank steak paper thin against the grain, also slice the reserved meat paper thin, set aside.
When the broth is ready, remove and discard all of the bones. Strain broth through a colander or strainer, lined with a double layer of dampened cheese cloth into a clean pot.
Return to heat and add the fish sauce or salt, bring to a boil then reduce the heat and keep the soup at barely a simmer while you are getting everything else ready.
Soak the rice noodles in very hot water until softened (takes about 15-20 minutes)
Divide the softened rice noodles among 6 to 8 large soup bowls, top with the sliced meats.
Bring the soup to a rolling boil then ladle the soup directly over the meat in each bowl, cooking it instantly.
Garnish with a handful of bean sprouts, some scallions and a lime wedge.
Let everyone garnish their own soup to their liking with additional mint, basil and cilantro leaves, sliced red chile peppers.

You can also make a large batch of broth and freeze some for later. I use quart size zip top bags that I sit inside a square container, fill with soup, freeze and remove the bag from the container. Stacks easy since it is square in its frozen shape. When you’re in the mood for some Pho, you just have to get the steak sliced, get all the garnish ready: sprouts, herbs, chile, lime and rice noodles.

December 19, 2011December 16, 2017

Thai Red Curry Chicken ‘Slow-Cooker Friday’

I love Thai food and I am a little bit of a Thai food snob, I have to admit. But I guess it might come as no big surprise, after travelling in South East Asia extensively, and my brother living on an island in Thailand (I know, don’t get me started, he gets to enjoy the sun while we have cold toes here ;P ) While travelling and meandering through Thailand and other South East Asian countries, I ate with local families, and therefore ate some ‘Thai Food’ you’d never see in a restaurant, in short I acquired some first hand knowledge of real Thai cooking. So this recipe really should be called Thai Inspired Red Curry Chicken, since the slow cooker is not traditional, but the flavors are still reminiscent of warmer places, so this is my Americanized Friday evening version 😉

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 chicken legs/thigh quarters, bone in (about 1 1/2lb)
2-4 tbsp red curry paste (if you are very sensitive to spice, use less, for extra spice use more)
1/2 of a 14 oz can of coconut milk
1 cup brown Jasmine rice
1 cup broth
2 cup mixed vegetables, cut into bite size pieces (preferably fresh, I used snow peas, red bell pepper, and broccoli)
1 lime, cut into wedges for garnish

Directions

Heat a heavy frying pan over medium.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper and cook the chicken skin side down until browned, about 4-6 minutes, turn and cook repeat on the other side (Chicken will cook more in the slow cooker, this is just to give it some extra flavor) Transfer to slow cooker
To same skillet, add the coconut milk, half the broth and the curry paste. Stir and loosen any browned bits. Pour over the chicken in the slow cooker insert.
Pour the rice around the chicken , add the remainder of the broth and cover.*
Turn slow cooker on low and cook for 5-6 hours, or until chicken is sift and starts to fall off the bone.
Half hour before you’re ready to eat, place the vegetables on top and turn up to high. Alternately you could also steam the vegetables separate and serve over the chicken and rice from the crock-pot.
Garnish with lime wedges and serve.

* The rice will be soft and flavorful from cooking in the sauce, if you prefer your rice to be less ‘risotto’ , add it about half way through the cooking time.