Pineapple Curry

Congratulations to UCLA's ASCE for winning 2nd place for both the concrete canoe and overall conference in Las Vegas. As promised, I will post a photo of the concrete canoe. Yes, it is made out of concrete, and it floats.

After eating from various buffets in Las Vegas and tons of meat, I have decided to try to go vegetarian for a whole week. This is going to be quite a tough feat because I am a carnivore. I love meat, and I just don't know how I am going to give it up. I guess the vegetarian experience will expose me to various vegetables that I have never used or have not even heard about.

The first dish I made is a simple pineapple curry sauce to be served with long grain rice.

Pineapple Curry



Ingredients
1 can Coconut milk
1/2 ripe Pineapple
1 tbs Ginger
1/2 Brown onion
1/2 Lime
2 cloves Garlic
2 Red chili peppers
2 Star anise
1 tbs Corriander
1 tbs Cinnamon
1 tbs Curry powder
1 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp Cloves
Salt and pepper
Mint leaves for garnish


(setting up ingredients)

Prep of green (more like yellow)
Create Paste
1. Chop onion, garlic, and chili pepper
2. Add to food processor or blender
3. Add turmeric, curry powder, cinnamon, corriander, cloves, and star anise
4. Blend into a paste. (if you are using a blender add in a little coconut milk)
5. Cube pineapple

Cooking
1. Heat up about 1 tbs of butter into a pan
2. Add in the paste until you smell fragrance
3. Add in the pineapple and coconut milk and simmer for 10 minutes
4. Salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve with rice.
6. Garnish with mint leaves and fried shallots.

Well, the first vegetarian dish wasn't too bad ^_^. Onto the next one ...

"Thai Tacos"

I saw that soft taco shells were on sale at Ralphs and thought it was a good buy. Unfortunately, when I got back home, I realized that I do not know what to make with the ingredients in my fridge with the tacos.

Then it hit me. Tacos are the Western version of fried rice. You can put anything in them and it tastes good.

I had some leftover chicken marinating from yesterday's dinner and decided to chop it up and use that for my protein. I had some bell peppers going to expire and a lovely half onion.

Let us start the combination of leftovers!
"Thai Tacos" (In quotes because I'm not too sure where they are from because I pulled this idea out of my head ... maybe I should call it Jon's weird imagination tacos)



Ingredients
6 Soft shell tacos
3 Coconut fried chicken breasts see note first before starting
1 cup Coconut rice
1/3 cup Peanut sauce
1 Green bell pepper
1 Red bell pepper
1/2 Brown onion


Prep the leftovers (yum!)
1. Thinly slice both the red and green bell peppers
2. Slice the onion
3. Create the ingredients above that have links (see note before starting)
Note: Cube the chicken into 1/2 inch - 1 inch cubes and marinate, then bread the chicken so when you fry it, the chicken turns into little nuggets (aw how cute!)

Cooking
1. Saute or roast the bell peppers and onions
(Wow! only one cooking instruction)

Assembling the taco (somewhat cooking instructions)
1. Heat a small pan and lightly cook the soft shell tacos
2. Spread the peanut sauce on the taco
3. Spoon some coconut rice in the center
4. Put the chicken and garnish with the bell pepper and onions
5. Enjoy with more peanut dipping sauce or Saracha hot sauce

Peanut Sauce

I dug up some old peanut butter from who knows where and who knows when from my pantry. I decided to use it because it smelled and tasted fine. Since I had more leftover coconut milk, I made a peanut sauce to put with my "Thai" style tacos.

Ingredients
1/2 cup Coconut milk
1/4 cup Peanut butter
3 tbs Soy sauce
2 tbs Peanuts (chopped)
2 Garlic cloves
2 tsp Brown sugar
1 tsp Sesame oil
1 tsp Cayenne chili pepper powder
1 tsp Rice vinegar
1/2 Lime

Directions of nuttiness
1. Heat up oil of choice (I used chilli oil)
2. Add in peanut butter, soy sauce, lime, vinegar, sesame oil, and garlic
3. Mix around until becomes ketchup-like consistency (might need a bit more coconut milk if it is very thick or soy sauce)
4. Add in chili powder and brown sugar
5. Taste (it should have a sweet tartness taste to it with a smoky spiciness flavor)
Note: Not enough tart: add more lime, Not enough sweetness: add more sugar, Not spicy enough: add more chili powder
6. Add in chopped peanuts and serve with grilled chicken or just eat it straight (for the crazies people)