This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on July 6, 2012.
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Sometimes I have a hankering for crab, and on those days, even mediocre crab will do. I have found that in the world of mediocre crab (the canned stuff that Phillips puts out, for instance), claw meat tends to have the most flavor. It's also more reasonably priced than lump. I bought a can of crab claw meat for the okonomiyaki I made a couple of weeks back, but didn't use all of it. The rest became crab cakes.

Our Thai basil was growing like gangbusters, so I thought I'd make a cake with Thai flavors: lemongrass; red curry paste; basil. I realized I should probably use a bit of breading, since claw meat tends to be on the moist side. I didn't want to use up the bit of bread earmarked for Mr Minx's lunch the next day, so grabbed the next carby thing I found - a box of corn Chex.

It worked quite well. After a long rest in the fridge, the cakes stayed together in the pan, and they formed a nice crispy crust, too.

My favorite thing about using Chex as a crust: getting out my frustrations by beating on them with a meat tenderizer.

Thai-Spiced Crab Cakes

2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Thai Kitchen red curry paste
1 teaspoon lemongrass paste
1/2 teaspoon Sriracha
12 ounces crab claw meat
1/2 cup Thai basil, cut into a fine chiffonade
1/2 cup crushed Corn Chex cereal
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

In a large bowl, mix together mayo, red curry paste, lemongrass, and Sriracha. Fold in crab, basil, and cereal. Add salt and pepper to taste. Form into 6-8 patties. Refrigerate for several hours; overnight is best.

Heat oil in a large saute pan. Add crab cakes. Cook for 10-12 minutes, turning over once, until heated through and browned on both sides.

Serve with peanut sauce.

Peanut Sauce

2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon Sriracha
1 teaspoon lemongrass paste
1 tablespoon milk
lime juice
1 tablespoon chopped scallions

Warm peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl or ramekin until runny. Stir in Sriracha, lemongrass, and milk. Add enough lime juice to create a drizzle-able texture (3 tablespoons or so). Stir in scallions.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

The Indonesian dish, Gado Gado (literally "mix mix") is a potpourri of various ingredients served with a spicy peanut sauce.  Though traditionally a salad, I decided that gado gado would make a fine burrito filling. (Actually, pretty much anything and everything tastes pretty good wrapped up in a flour tortilla.) I was heavily inspired by the yummy bulgogi burritos I get from the KoCo Truck that parks in front of my office once a week. If that Korean dish of meat, rice, and fiery gochujang sauce can translate into a Cal-Mex favorite, why can't a favorite dish from another Asian nation?

My Gado Gado Burrito is cheap, filling, and easy. You really only have to make the peanut sauce. Leftover rice is fine, as are leftover veggies. You can use cold roast chicken in place of the tofu, if you want. Hate cilantro? Use basil or arugula. Use all three. Hate burritos? (Seriously? How can you hate burritos?) Then assemble all the ingredients in a bowl, top with the peanut sauce, and eat it as a salad. Allergic to peanuts? Sub in almond butter. Allergic to almonds, too? Well, then you should probably eat something else.

Gado Gado Burrito

For the peanut sauce:
1 tablespoon grated ginger
3 cloves garlic, crushed
Oil
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tablespoons brown or palm sugar
1 cup coconut milk
4 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
Hot sauce
Salt

For the burrito:
4 large eggs
2-3 small potatoes (I used heirloom All Blue potatoes, which is the purple color you see in the pic)
Burrito sized flour tortillas
1 cup cooked jasmine or basmati rice
2 ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges and seasoned with salt
1 package baked tofu in plain, sesame ginger, or teriyaki flavor, cut into strips
Cilantro

To make the peanut sauce: In a medium saucepan, cook the ginger and garlic in a bit of oil until fragrant. Stir in the peanut butter and the brown sugar. Whisk in the coconut milk to thin the mixture, then season with the lime, soy, and fish sauce. Add your favorite hot sauce and additional salt to taste.

To make the burrito:  Bring a saucepot of water to a boil over high heat. With a slotted spoon, gently lower the eggs into the water. Set a timer for 7 minutes, and cook the eggs at a simmer. Prepare an ice bath by putting several ice cubes and cold water in a medium bowl. When the 7 minutes is up, gently remove the eggs to the ice bath and allow to cool completely before peeling.

Cook the potatoes in boiling water until tender. Allow to cool, then peel and cut into small cubes. Set aside until ready to use.

Place a tortilla on a microwave-safe plate and cover with a damp paper towel. Nuke on high 30-45 seconds until the tortilla is hot and pliable. Top with a few spoonfuls of the rice, some tomato wedges, a few strips of tofu, one of the boiled eggs, cut in half, a couple spoonfuls of potato, and a healthy drizzle of the peanut sauce. Top with several sprigs of cilantro. Roll up, burrito style, then cut in half. Serve with additional peanut sauce for dipping.

Makes 2-4 depending on how generous you are with the fillings.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

I really need to make this peanut sauce again.

--Kathy

This post was originally published on May 4, 2011.
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Chicken in Peanut Sauce with Fennel Slaw

I was sick with a nasty stomach flu a couple of weeks ago and missed out on the weekly trip to the grocery store. By Tuesday, I usually have some vague idea in mind of what I'm cooking on the weekend, but that particular week I had no desire to think of food at all, apart from bananas, crackers, and ginger ale. By Friday though, I was feeling much better and was actually hungry, so I thought I'd mosey on over to the Giant on Saturday to pick up some ingredients for dinner.

Nature had other plans, opening up the heavens and flooding us with rain. I scratched the idea of walking to the grocery store and instead looked in the freezer to see what fell out on my foot.

We were going to eat some cholesterol on Sunday, so I wanted to make something that was at least somewhat light. And after several days of bland food (including un-buttered toast and un-sauced pasta), I wanted to eat something that had bright, vibrant flavors. Asian flavors. All we had in the freezer that wasn't lamb or beef was a packet of chicken thighs, which was going to have to do the trick. There was a lone fennel bulb in the fridge, and a couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter left in the jar. These seemingly disparate ingredients, when matched with coconut milk and sundry Asian condiments, made for a delicious and somewhat exotic dinner.

The peanut sauce recipe makes quite a lot. Store leftover sauce in a lidded container in the fridge and use as a pasta sauce or as a spread for a BLT.

For some reason, my camera recorded the pale green shade of both fennel and cucumber as a pale fuchsia, which I corrected in Photoshop. Look closely at the fennel on top and you'll see some pink remains.

Peanut Sauce:
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
salt
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 15 oz can coconut milk minus 1/2 cup, well shaken (use half cup in banana bread recipe)
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 tablespoon Hoisin sauce
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon Korean red pepper flakes or 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
juice of one lime
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon finely minced cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a medium pan. Add onion and cook on medium heat until lightly browned, about 12-15 minutes. Add garlic and cook an additional 2 minutes. Set aside. Reserve pan.

In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together coconut milk, peanut butter, soy, ginger, Hoisin, honey, and red pepper flakes. When mixture starts to bubble, turn heat to low and add lime juice and reserved onion and garlic. Stir to combine and cook for about 15 minutes, until flavors have melded. Season with sesame oil, cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste.

Chicken
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1.5 cups chicken stock

In pan reserved from cooking onions, add chicken thighs and stock. Bring stock to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low and simmer chicken, covered, for about 45 minutes, until quite tender. At the end of the cooking time, turn up the heat to high in order to evaporate the remaining stock (if there appears to be a lot, pour it out) and to brown the chicken a bit (there should be enough residual oil/chicken grease to do so).

Fennel Slaw
1 fennel bulb, cored and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon Chilli paste with Sweet Basil
1 tablespoon olive oil
juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon sugar or honey
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients. Taste for seasoning. Allow to marinate for an hour or so before serving.

To serve:

Place chicken thigh on a bed of rice or some other nice starchy thing. Top with a generous dollop of peanut sauce and a handful of fennel slaw. If you'd like, garnish with some chopped scallion and carrot slivers.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Sometimes I have a hankering for crab, and on those days, even mediocre crab will do. I have found that in the world of mediocre crab (the canned stuff that Phillips puts out, for instance), claw meat tends to have the most flavor. It's also more reasonably priced than lump. I bought a can of crab claw meat for the okonomiyaki I made a couple of weeks back, but didn't use all of it. The rest became crab cakes.

Our Thai basil was growing like gangbusters, so I thought I'd make a cake with Thai flavors: lemongrass; red curry paste; basil. I realized I should probably use a bit of breading, since claw meat tends to be on the moist side. I didn't want to use up the bit of bread earmarked for Mr Minx's lunch the next day, so grabbed the next carby thing I found - a box of corn Chex.

It worked quite well. After a long rest in the fridge, the cakes stayed together in the pan, and they formed a nice crispy crust, too.

My favorite thing about using Chex as a crust: getting out my frustrations by beating on them with a meat tenderizer.

Thai-Spiced Crab Cakes

2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Thai Kitchen red curry paste
1 teaspoon lemongrass paste
1/2 teaspoon Sriracha
12 ounces crab claw meat
1/2 cup Thai basil, cut into a fine chiffonade
1/2 cup crushed Corn Chex cereal
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

In a large bowl, mix together mayo, red curry paste, lemongrass, and Sriracha. Fold in crab, basil, and cereal. Add salt and pepper to taste. Form into 6-8 patties. Refrigerate for several hours; overnight is best.

Heat oil in a large saute pan. Add crab cakes. Cook for 10-12 minutes, turning over once, until heated through and browned on both sides.

Serve with peanut sauce.

Peanut Sauce

2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon Sriracha
1 teaspoon lemongrass paste
1 tablespoon milk
lime juice
1 tablespoon chopped scallions

Warm peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl or ramekin until runny. Stir in Sriracha, lemongrass, and milk. Add enough lime juice to create a drizzle-able texture (3 tablespoons or so). Stir in scallions.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

I was sick with a nasty stomach flu a couple of weeks ago and missed out on the weekly trip to the grocery store. By Tuesday, I usually have some vague idea in mind of what I'm cooking on the weekend, but that particular week I had no desire to think of food at all, apart from bananas, crackers, and ginger ale. By Friday though, I was feeling much better and was actually hungry, so I thought I'd mosey on over to the Giant on Saturday to pick up some ingredients for dinner.

Nature had other plans, opening up the heavens and flooding us with rain. I scratched the idea of walking to the grocery store and instead looked in the freezer to see what fell out on my foot.

We were going to eat some cholesterol on Sunday, so I wanted to make something that was at least somewhat light. And after several days of bland food (including un-buttered toast and un-sauced pasta), I wanted to eat something that had bright, vibrant flavors. Asian flavors. All we had in the freezer that wasn't lamb or beef was a packet of chicken thighs, which was going to have to do the trick. There was a lone fennel bulb in the fridge, and a couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter left in the jar. These seemingly disparate ingredients, when matched with coconut milk and sundry Asian condiments, made for a delicious and somewhat exotic dinner.

The peanut sauce recipe makes quite a lot. Store leftover sauce in a lidded container in the fridge and use as a pasta sauce or as a spread for a BLT.

For some reason, my camera recorded the pale green shade of both fennel and cucumber as a pale fuchsia, which I corrected in Photoshop. Look closely at the fennel on top and you'll see some pink remains.

Peanut Sauce:
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
salt
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 15 oz can coconut milk minus 1/2 cup, well shaken (use half cup in banana bread recipe)
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 tablespoon Hoisin sauce
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon Korean red pepper flakes or 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
juice of one lime
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon finely minced cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a medium pan. Add onion and cook on medium heat until lightly browned, about 12-15 minutes. Add garlic and cook an additional 2 minutes. Set aside. Reserve pan.

In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together coconut milk, peanut butter, soy, ginger, Hoisin, honey, and red pepper flakes. When mixture starts to bubble, turn heat to low and add lime juice and reserved onion and garlic. Stir to combine and cook for about 15 minutes, until flavors have melded. Season with sesame oil, cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste.

Chicken
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1.5 cups chicken stock

In pan reserved from cooking onions, add chicken thighs and stock. Bring stock to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low and simmer chicken, covered, for about 45 minutes, until quite tender. At the end of the cooking time, turn up the heat to high in order to evaporate the remaining stock (if there appears to be a lot, pour it out) and to brown the chicken a bit (there should be enough residual oil/chicken grease to do so).

Fennel Slaw
1 fennel bulb, cored and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon Chilli paste with Sweet Basil
1 tablespoon olive oil
juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon sugar or honey
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients. Taste for seasoning. Allow to marinate for an hour or so before serving.

To serve:

Place chicken thigh on a bed of rice or some other nice starchy thing. Top with a generous dollop of peanut sauce and a handful of fennel slaw. If you'd like, garnish with some chopped scallion and carrot slivers.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.