The Kitchen Scale

This is why I'm a dork

As I'm sure you can all imagine I enjoy the Food Network (with the major exception of Semi Homemade with Sandra Lee, this show inspires cries of "God No!" while I scramble for the remote. I'm even warming up to Rachel Ray which I am extremely embarrassed about. I still can't stand her, but 30 minute meals in the background while I read or do something is no longer the torture it once was). And I am seriously excited for two of the new shows that the Food Network has been advertising.

This first is Simply Delicioso. I'm excited that there will be some programming that isn't Italian or some all American type thing. I have nothing against either of these, but I feel like the Food Network has some responsibility to educate and while there is definite merit to learning about Italian cuisine I am so thankful that they are branching out. Honestly, between Molto Mario, Everyday Italian, and Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello there is a constant bombardment of Parmigiano-Reggiano, pasta, and extra virgin olive oil. I love all of these ingredients, but I am really excited to see something different. Maybe a little Queso Fresco and beans and rice would be nice for a change. And its not just Italian cooking, there is also a stunning amount of BBQ and grilling specials in the summer time. Unfortunately some of these are not fit for my mini George Foreman Grill since as hard as I try I can't turn it into a smoker.

But I am really excited for Glutton for Punishment. Honestly, I have no clue what the show is about. If it's cooking or some sort of foodie show (not my fav, but I can cope). And as I tried to investigate at the Food Network website I couldn't find it. So perhaps it will never air and the Food Network is just teasing me, but since I am a dork I have penciled in the premier date (July 10th, I didn't write down the time but there is nothing scheduled on the Food Network website for the 900/930 slot). Why am I excited? It's quite simple. The guy is running through what looks like Napa and grabs two glasses of red wine, like a marathon runner with those little water cups that never seem like they could contain enough that would satisfy actual thirst. (I know you can't drink too much of anything when you're running and blah blah blah.) Anyway, like any 20 something college student I admire that kind of dedication and perhaps blatant stupidity. And like anyone that has been to Italy (as I was fortunate enough to do last summer) I was fully able to realized the glory and absolute gift from God that is wine. Plus, if this guy can pull it off then maybe I have found new and actual incentive to run, or go to the gym. And perhaps a new Hero as the guy also bites into a massive looking chile and then looks like he's going to die. Again, if you couldn't have guessed it I enjoy my spicy foods. (Don't worry Mom and Dad, I'm not that stupid to run with wine or that I drink. Plus I fall enough sober as it is, and I might spill the wine...but I'm just saying...)

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

 

Fast Food II: Cous Cous

There is this take out place I enjoy where they sell fresh pastas and have a deli case full of pasta dishes, meat dishes and some sides. The food there is good, if not a little heavy for my taste (I prefer marinara to cream sauces). And my new favorite thing that they have started serving is an Italian Summer Couscous. This is my attempt to make my own version and I have changed some of the elements, like less oil and added fresh basil.

It also comes together really fast, if you are really organized then it can be thrown together in about 7 minutes. If you're not (and most of the time I'm not) it will take a bit longer, but not by much. This is also great warm or chilled, and I take it to work on the days when I need a lunch.

My Summer Couscous studded with tomatoes, feta, and green onions. With flecks of black pepper, parsley, and basil.

My Summer Couscous
These are more guidelines than exact rules, so please take her any liberties you feel necessary.This also makes about 4 cups of couscous.

1 cup plain, uncooked couscous
1 cup water
2-3 green onions, white and light green bits, sliced
1 Roma tomato chopped (try to keep it seed and juice free)
juice from about one lemon
2 T. finely chopped fresh parsley
about 6 basil leaves, julienne them or tear them
2 tsp. chicken Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. oil (extra virgin olive oil, or you can even use canola)
3 oz. reduced fat or fat free feta (trust me you won't miss the fat)
sprinkle of garlic powder (use a light hand)
hot sauce to taste
salt and pepper to taste (keep in mind the feta will add a good deal of salt)

1. Bring the water to a boil in a pot with a lid. Add the couscous and stir briefly. Take it off the heat and put the lid on and let it sit for 5 minutes.

2. While the couscous cooks prepare the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and mix to combine.

3. Fluff the couscous with a fork before adding in the rest of the ingredients. And continue to fluff until everything is combined.

Living up to my Promise

So, I told y'all that I would feature each of the 5 healthy spices sometime this week. If you don't remember what I am talking about , then I don't blame you. It was a while ago.

So the first spice I want to share with you is one of my go-to spices as of late- cumin. I don't know what it is I like so much about cumin. I think I like it so much because it lends a smoky flavor that compliments the spicy food that I tend to make. But have no fear, this recipe doesn't pack a lot of heat, but does pack a lot of flavor.

Cumin spiced turkey burger, fresh off the George Foreman Grill.

Cumin Spiced Turkey Burger
This is enough to make one giant burger or two pretty small ones.

1/4 lb. ground turkey (white meat)
1/3 cup chopped onion
2 mushrooms (button or cremini) chopped fairly finely
3 Tablespoons bread crumbs
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. chicken Worcestershire sauce
hot sauce (however much you like, for once I tend to keep it on the light side)
a pinch of salt (or about 1/8th tsp)
2 tsp. fresh parsley minced (this is completely optional, I just had fresh parsley in my fridge that I needed to use)

Incorporate all the ingredients together and form into a patty. Cook however you please, you can broil it, grill it, pan fry it, or put it on your George Foreman Grill. Unfortunately if you use any method other than the George Foreman Grill method I can't really help you figure out how long to cook your burger, if you are using a George Foreman Grill it will be about 5 minutes. Regardless this is a turkey burger so cook until done.

Now I am not going to tell you how to serve it because it is a burger after all. I will confess something that may repulse you though.I like to eat my burger on a salad, that has been dressed with condiments that I would put on my burger if it was a sandwich. I make a thousand island like sauce with a little bit of lite mayo, mustard, ketchup and relish and toss my greens in that and reserve a little for on top of the burger.

The Promised Cake

So a while back I asked one of my friends to do me a big favor. As a thank you (and an incentive) I told him I would make him a cake. Plus I had that pesky, gnawing baking craving to fulfill. When I asked him what kind of cake he wanted he told me either chocolate caramel or chocolate with fresh strawberries, but if at all possible he wanted caramel chocolate. He described a chocolate cake with some sort of caramel on the top, but he didn't really know what it was he was describing. Which made it very helpful to make his cake.

Now I wanted to make the caramel chocolate cake because he got really excited about it. And this friend, who we will call Boyscout, became like a little kid when he talked about the cake. And chocolate. And puppies. And his research job. And ice cream. And Usher. And well, most things. Well, let's just say Boyscout has a lot of enthusiasm for life. Now that I knew what I was going to make I would have to deal with the logistics of the cake. The first one being my fear of caramel making. I really do not like working with molten hot, bubbling liquid sugar. Call me crazy, but it's just not on my list of things that make me happy. So I had to deal with that, and the way I dealt with it was with this:

Sorry about the blurry/red picture of Fran's Classic Caramel Sauce. Fran's is based out of Seattle and products can be found in some grocery stores and specialty markets. At least that is what I have found.

I got this caramel sauce when I was out shopping the other day figuring it would be o.k. to cheat just a little. And this jar of golden goodness inspired the rest of my cake.

Fran's is famous for their caramels coated in chocolate and topped with salt, either grey or smoked sea salt. They are amazing. Salt for whatever reason is pairs magically with caramel and makes it (and many other things) taste creamier. I don't know if its because it make your mouth salivate or what it is, and it's so good that I don't even care. It just works like peanut butter and chocolate or milk and cookies.

So as a nod to Ms. Fran Bigelow I made a chocolate cake with a creamy slightly salty chocolate filling, covered in velvety chocolate ganache and caramel sauce. First, I made my chocolate cakes. And let them cool slightly before prying them out of the pans. Which made one of th cake crumble a little. This is the second time that has happened to me and my heart fell a little, but I am happy to say that I rebounded quickly. (Yes, I am emotionally tied to my baking, it can be kinda ridiculous, but what about guys that get sad and pout when their football team loses? I rest my case.)

However, this crumbled edge cake made it so that the cake was a little lopsided and it didn't help that I didn't center the cake on the plate and had it on the rim a little. Luckily though, Boyscout's mother and girlfriend have trained him very well and when I told him the cake was a little lopsided he said that it just made it better and just proved that it was homemade. Boyscout is a good guy, I don't mind baking cakes for him.

But back to the cake construction. I made a fudgy chocolate filling consisting of butter, unsweetened chocolate, vanilla, salt (I always use salt in whatever I bake, but this time I added in a little more than I normally would. It wasn't uber detectable, but it did seem creamier and a little salty.), powdered sugar and cream. If I had wanted to make it more like frosting I would have used more powdered sugar and cream, but I wanted to keep it fudgy and more candy like. So I put that in between the two layers and coated the whole thing in ganache.

This was my first ganache experience and it was ok, but not something I'm eager to do again. It did a decent job coating my rough edged cake, and looked good. But for me when I have chocolate cake I tend to crave a fluffy chocolate icing. Then I drizzled caramel in what was supposed to be concentric circles and pulled a toothpick through it to get the pretty design. Honestly, I couldn't even tell that I completely failed at the concentric circles. Which made up for my crumbled edged cake.

I was also worried that my friend would whisk the cake away and I wouldn't get to try it. Luckily he was willing to sit down and have a slice of cake. The cake was nicely moist, which I was worried about since it crumbled when it came out of its pan. I was also really worried that the filling would be too salty, but luckily it too turned out. And Boyscout loved it, which is what really mattered. And apparently it was exactly what he had in mind.

Food News

The other night, when I couldn't sleep I went online to catch up on news and to check out some fun  websites. And I found this  (can we just take a minute and marvel at the fact that I finally figured out how to create a link). Basically the article lists 5 spices with health benefits ranging from antioxidants to cancer prevention. So in the spirit of health and food I will share recipes featuring one of the five spices over the next week! I was going to describe the article for you, but now that I have figured out this whole link business I think I am going to let you do that yourself!

And if any of you are waiting breathlessly for the cake I promised, have no fear it is coming soon- either tomorrow or the day after. And this time I mean it.

Craving- In cookie form

Follow me on my initial attempt to squelch my baking craving.

It started innocently enough. I decided to bake sugar cookies and then pawn them off on beloved friends and family. And I would get to decorate cookies with one of my dear friends before she abandons me for another country. I flipped through my stained personal cook book full of go to recipes looking for a sugar cookie recipe. Oddly enough I have none. I have lemon, molasses, lavender ginger, chocolate chip, chocolate with nuts and a few others. But no sugar cookie recipe! How could I lack one of the most basic cookie recipes?! The shame! The shame!

So I did what any other person would do. I Googled it. And I also did what any foodie would do and checked out www.epicurious.com and www.foodnetwork.com (one day I will figure out links). I was flooded with delicious-looking cookie recipes. I didn't want one with a long chill time because I'm impatient and an hour is the most I could stand (this was a serious baking craving). So that got rid of half of them. And I kept looking and for some reason I am really averse to vegetable shortening. I know it makes a tender flakey crust, and I prefer it in pie crusts. But I want my sugar cookies to be buttery tasting. This requirement did two things, severely cut down my options and made me realize that when it comes to cookies I am high maintenance.

I looked through the recipes and none caught my eye. When suddenly I had a flash back. It's last Thanksgiving and I am at my brother's house, freezing because we had the back door slightly ajar so that we would cool our cookies and cookie sheets faster. We were making amazing sugar cookies that we later decorated with glee (it was approaching the holiday season so words such as glee were appropriate). Some were delicate and beautiful and some looked like Liberace exploded onto a cookie, but they all tasted amazing. Where had he found that recipe? I did another Google search and there it was in joyofbaking.com. And these cookies were joyful indeed! Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la!

I won't bother to post the recipe because so many people have their own favorite sugar cookie recipes, or can go to the site themselves if they are in the market for one. I will tell you though that in addition to the vanilla extract I added a little less than one tablespoon of dark rum and about half the zest from a lemon.

Let your inner Picasso or Monet shine when you decorate sugar cookies!

My friend and I used royal icing and silver dragees. It was so much fun- laughing, decorating, spilling frosting into her purse, eating cookies (there was some moderation), and going crazy with the dragees. Everything cookie decorating should be. But soon she had to leave to go see other people before she would leave to go to her other country. I was in great pain, not only because I would miss her. But also because dragees were (and still are) all over my floor. It looks like a Mardi Gras necklace broke in a mad scramble by drunken partiers, all over my floor. But a tiny Mardi Gras necklace. So tiny you can't see all of the beads unless the light hits them just so. However, they are large enough that stepping on them hurts! My dining room is like a land mine of tiny, silver decorations.

Beautiful, yet dangerous, silver dragees.

We did not bake all the cookies since my home was warming up, so I decided to have fun with them the next day. Some of them I jabbed chocolate chips into. And others got coconut sprinkled on them. But my favorite is the cinnamon roll cookies. It's incredibly simple to do. Roll out your chilled dough a little thinner than you would for cut-out cookies and sprinkle a handful of raisins, a sprinkling of cinnamon and a sprinkling of brown sugar. Roll up. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge or freezer if you aren't going to use them soon. Cut them up and bake. Depending on the size of the rolls it may take 8-15 minutes.

Mmm... Cinnamon Raisin Roll cookies!

You would think that this would end my craving. Alas, it didn't. So tomorrow (or the day after) I will make a cake. It’s the next step, obviously.

Craving

Lately all I have wanted to do is bake. I can't help it. I thought if I made some cookies to give away I could satisfy my craving. It didn't work. I need to bake a cake. It's horrible, but it has been on my mind for days. I don't mind baking things and then giving them away, in fact I prefer it. But so many of my friends have gone away this summer or may not be able to handle the quantity of baked goods that I may make (sometimes I get on a roll and make cookies one day and muffins the next and cupcakes the day after). Then tonight I had this realization, I had completely fogotten that two of my guy friends are living in a house with their friends. I now have a home for my baked goods! Well, hopefully. We will see how much food I can shove off on them. I am thinking that in a household of at least 5 college guys I can probably get rid of a lot of. It's an experiment that I will have to investigate further. So, do not be shocked or concerned, dear readers, that there will be postings of cakes, cookies, brownies and other baked goods. Hopefully all of it (if not most of it) will go towards friends.

Meatballs

I think everyone has a few recipes to fall back on in case of emergency like a last minute dinner party, a midnight snack, unexpected company, whatever. I have a few dishes that my mind immediately jumps to for occasions like these; like pigs in a blanket, fresh fruits and veggies, stuffed mushrooms, pizzas or flatbread, and meatballs. It’s simple food that is fun and retro that I like to jazz up. I’ll add slices of bell pepper to the sausages in the pigs in a blanket, or do a simple caramelized onion and mushroom pizza with goat cheese and some fresh thyme. However, there is one thing I like to leave untouched and classic - the meatballs. I love these meatballs (and so do most of my friends). They are delicious and moist and freeze wonderfully. They are also laden with fat. So, in my attempts to eat healthier I took my favorite meatball recipe and my favorite turkey burger recipe and some Italian flavors to make a delicious and healthier meatball. I tried this recipe out on one of my friends who loves the traditional caloric laden meatballs that I used to make. She had just come from a party and wasn’t very hungry. Yet while we gossiped (and I did the dishes) the meatballs seemed to have disappeared.

Turkey Meatballs

This can serve two as a snack or one as a meal served on top of a slice of bread.

1/4 lb. ground lean turkey
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup unseasoned bread crumbs
3 T. parmesan cheese, grated
1 tsp. chicken Worcestershire sauce
4 tsp. regular Worcestershire sauce
1/8 tsp. caraway seeds
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
Salt
About 3/4 cup tomato sauce (your favorite canned kind, I prefer to use plain tomato sauce and add basil, oregano, salt and chili flakes to it)
2 T.  water
2 T. red wine or balsamic vinegar
Grated parmesan cheese for garnish
1. Combine turkey, onion, bread crumbs, cheese, Worcestershire sauce, caraway, garlic, basil, oregano, and about 1/8 tsp of salt.
2. Heat a large pan over medium high heat. Spray the pan with Pam and while you’re waiting for the pan to heat roll the meatballs into about Tablespoon sized balls.
3. Add the meat balls to the pan and turn the heat down to medium. Let them brown on one side for about 2 minutes or so. Don’t touch them, you want them to brown. You will be able to smell the meatballs cooking and that will help clue you in on when to turn them. Once they are brown on one side turn them onto the other side for about one minute.
4. Turn the heat to low and add in your sauce, water and wine/vinegar. Give it a quick stir and then put the lid onto your pan. Let it simmer for about 4 minutes, basically until the meatballs are done. Take off the lid and raise the temperature to medium to evaporate some of the liquid for a minute or so.
5. Serve on its own with some of the sauce, or I like to put a slice of bread in the bottom of my serving dish and put the extra sauce to good use! I let the bread absorb the sauce and top it off with the meatballs.

Fairytale Pasta Salad

Once upon a time, a young woman with a food blog went to her local Farmers' Market. She enjoyed all of the wonderful produce and deep in the forest of food booths she stumbled upon sea beans and fiddlehead ferns from the land of Found and Foraged. Ever since then she developed a compulsion to drop by his little booth first. It's exciting and new and foraged! And this week along with little bags of mushrooms (the cooking kind, it’s not that kind of market... except this all could explain the new found and foraged compulsion...) there were sea beans and morel mushrooms. As far as she was concerned morel mushrooms have always been one of those elusive food fairy tales. On the pedestal of other exotic and hard to find ingredients (or rather expensive ingredients if you will), like foie gras or geoduck. She knew that they are out there, but on her student budget she rarely encounters them. She has had foie gras at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) Greystone, she liked it and it was pretty much what she had imagined. And she has been fortunate to have some of these food fairy tales come true. She has had truffles, beef carpaccio (in Italy no less), Jacques Torres chocolates, several dining experiences at Chez Panisse, and she ate at Buchon once. All in all she was very fortunate to have had so many gastronomical adventures so young. Despite her good fortune, she was not satisfied. She would hear of people traveling and eating crazy things and would immediately become jealous. She likes to push my food boundaries and have them pushed, so she tends to jump in and hope everything figures itself out. And that’s what she did with the morel mushrooms, noting that the sign next to the basket of mushrooms suggest pairing them with fava beans and smoked salmon. She was now on a mission to procure these items and a few other things on her list.

    After a little less than an hour in the market (she can be a very talkative lass) there were only a few more things on her list when she spotted a free sample. A free sample to a college student is like a moth to a flame- it's irresistible. So she tried a sample of canned tuna thinking she would smile, make the obligatory "what a delightful sample! I will think about it" face. However, this tuna was amazing. She didn't know what made it so good, until the Captain told her. It was cold-canned tuna. This deserves further explanation- the tuna is put in a can raw and then cooked in the can! No added water, oil, or heaven forbid chicken broth. Just tuna. And its hand filleted tuna. And wait it gets better yet! It is caught through a sustainable method (trolling) and is young which means it is low in mercury and high in omega three fatty acids! And it can be yours for three easy payments of $3.99. Forgive the sudden lapse into an advertisement, it really is amazing though.  And now she was at a crossroad. She had a hard decision to make. Should she pair her mushrooms with the smoked salmon or this really amazing tuna?

A really light pasta dish. The bready looking brown bits are the morel mushrooms.

Spring Pasta Salad
Feel free to use smoked salmon instead of tuna, just make sure to add a couple more tablespoons of stock. Also, it is great as leftovers, but be prepared for some slightly soggy mushrooms.
Morel Mushrooms (I did not measure, you'll find this to be my biggest fault, I would say there was roughly 1/2 c. to 3/4 of a cup of mushrooms)
Fava Beans (Yup, again with the not measuring... about 1/3 of a cup once shelled)
3 1/2 oz. can of cold-canned tuna, flaked (you could use any canned tuna but please investigate cold-canned tuna)
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 green onions, sliced
1 small tomato (heirloom if you can), chopped
1 small handful of grated parmesan (and or feta)
Lemon juice from 1/2-1 lemon (to taste)
1/2 c. vegetable stock, divided
1 T. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 box of pasta, cooked until just al dente (anything with ridges or places for sauce to hide)
1. First clean the mushrooms. How is still not quite clear to me. I researched online and I found a method that worked pretty well for me- rinse under cold water and toss into a bowl of cold, lightly salted water. I stored them there until I was done hand rinsing all the mushrooms and then dried them off and cut them into bite sized pieces. Then sauté in a pan sprayed with Pam. A lot of liquid will be released rather quickly. Transfer the mushrooms to a bowl.
1.5. Go out to get medicine for an ailing family member, but instead of buying the medicine trade the money your mother worked so hard for for some magic fava beans. Yes, people will ridicule you, but they are magic!
2. Clean out sauté pan and then spray with Pam. Heat over medium and add in garlic. Make sure you don't burn the garlic, just let it become fragrant and then add 1/4 cup of vegetable stock. Add the shelled fava beans. Cook until the tough outer skin pops. Let cool slightly and remove the skin from the fava beans. Keep the shelled, skinless fava beans in the cooking liquid.
2.5. Clean your step sisters' rooms while they gossip about last night's ball. If only they knew that you were that girl dancing with the royalty formally known as the prince (disownment is such a messy issue)! Yeah, he might have once been royalty, but he's too short anyway. And whatever you do, don't mourn the loss of your glass slipper; it was glass which is so impractical anyways!
3. To the fava beans add the juice from half a lemon, salt, pepper, remaining stock, olive oil, green onion, and tomato. Toss the pasta with this mixture.
3.5 Wake up (after eating that apple the old lady- who looks a lot like your stepmother- gave you) to find your Prince Charming staring dreamily into your eyes, and don't worry too much about your morning breath. He understands.
4. Add to the pasta mixture the tuna (I used 1/2 of the juice from the can, it too is amazing), morels, and parmesan. Toss to incorporate and enjoy warm.
And of course live happily ever after.

My Kind of Fast Food

Sometimes my schedule is busy, and sometimes it's not. For those times that I am busy (or too lazy to cook) I like to have an arsenal of fast food in my house. Naturally I have the traditional pantry staples like pasta, canned beans and tuna at all times. These have all served me well, but I find that lately I've been turning to my freezer. I like to make a big pot of soup and freeze the leftovers because (a) I am horrible at figuring out how much to make so I always end up with too much and (b) if I'm already making soup I might as well make a big pot of it. I love my frozen soups and stews. In the summer when tomatoes are abundant and amazing I try to make a lot of tomato soup loaded with fresh herbs. In the winter I tend to make legume laden stews. And when its drizzling, cold, and I feel like I haven't seen the sun for weeks I heat up a bowl of tomato soup and remember when it stayed light out past 6.

I double the recipe and freeze it.

Regardless of the season I always like a big bowl of Thai Green Curry and brown rice. I love it super spicy and acidic. (I also have a soft spot in my heart for salt and vinegar chips and fish and chips heavily doused in malt vinegar.) I found this recipe online somewhere (I think the Uwajimaya website) and have changed it up quite a bit. Also, as far as the amount of seasonings I have tried to keep it on the safe side (although I don't promise anything) and my measurements may be a little conservative, so feel free to add in more lime juice or less curry paste as needed. If you should happen to go a little crazy with your seasoning (and trust me I have) add in a splash of broth.

Green Curry
serves 4-6 (depends on your rice to curry ratio)
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth (or a mixture of the two)
juice from 1/2 a lime
1 T. Ponzu Vinegar (optional- if you don't have this on hand and want a little more acidity then no need to rush out, just add in a little more lime juice)
3 garlic cloves (I leave 'em in and once they get soft I mash them with the back of a fork)
1 lb. chicken breast, thinly sliced (or 1 lb. firm tofu cubed, or a mixture of both)
1 can lite coconut milk (feel free to use regular)
2 T. green curry paste (add more or less for desired spicy level)
2 T. fish sauce (fish sauce will not make this taste fishy it's just adding salt so do this to taste- if you don't have fish sauce on hand then feel free to use regular salt)
1 T. sugar
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 can bamboo shoots, sliced
1/4 lb. green beans, cut into roughly 1-1 1/2 in. pieces
1/4 lb. snow peas, cut in half and I trim the ends
1 bunch Thai basil, it has a redish purple vein running through it- regular basil will do though
Hot sauce, optional (I like to use Sriracha hot sauce)

Combine the broth, lime juice, Ponzu vinegar (if you are using it), and the garlic in a large stock pot or Dutch oven. Heat over medium high for about 5 minutes and then add the coconut milk and chicken (or tofu). Let that simmer over medium for 10 minutes, allowing the mixture to reduce a little, so do not cover the pot. Add the fish sauce (or salt), green curry paste, sugar, bell pepper, bamboo shoots, green beans, and snow peas. Let cook for about 8-10 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. At this point I generally taste the curry and see if I want more acid (lime or ponzu), salt or spiciness and adjust the seasoning accordingly- I almost always add in more salt, lime or ponzu and hot sauce, but this is completely up to you. Add the basil at the very end. Serve over rice.

To make this into fast food I freeze it and then let it defrost (or if I'm in a hurry I sometimes put it in a pot and let it slowly heat up). As far as the rice goes, Trader Joes has these lovely little packets of mostly cooked brown rice that you can heat up in the microwave. Since I don't have a microwave (I simply lack the space for one in my tiny kitchen) I put the mostly cooked brown rice into my pot of curry and let it heat up with the curry, the brown rice also absorbs some of the flavor.