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Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Changes to Menu 1

(All of these suggestions have been incorporated into the original post for Menu 1.)
As I'm watching last night's episode of Top Chef this Thursday evening, I'm reflecting on a very pleasant week of food. If you tried the Thai Chick'n Pizza, I hope you liked it, because I found it to be delicious. The one thing I would have changed would be to use red curry paste or a chilli paste instead of the green curry paste in the sauce - it would have given it just a hint of more kick.

Here are the other changes I would make:

The Tomato Soup:

I really like basil.

So, when I made the tomato soup, I was feeling like 1 tbsp. of chopped basil really wasn't enough. I chopped a handful and added it to the soup, and when it was done, it seemed like the perfect amount. I was really glad I hadn't only put 1 tbsp. in.

This applied to all the seasonings in the soup, so for the tomato soup, I recommend that you use:

3 cloves of garlic,
4 tbsp of chopped fresh basil, and
1 teaspoon of dried thyme.

The Broccoli and Cheese Quesadillas:

The broccoli was a little too raw and crunchy in the quesadilla.

Instead of putting the chopped broccoli directly in the tortilla with the cheese, I recommend that you do the following, before putting the broccoli into the quesadilla:

Heat one teaspoon of olive in a pan on medium-low heat. Add the broccoli, sprinkle it with a bit of salt and pepper, and stir. Cover it and let it cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring once a minute. The broccoli will become a slightly brighter green, and will be cooked, while retaining a slight crunch.

The Thai Potato Curry

This needed more seasoning, too. I bought the "Thai Kitchen"brand of coconut milk and green curry paste for this dish. The green curry paste is not nearly as spicy as the red curry paste, so I added more than the amount recommended in the recipe. I like my dishes to be flavorful, without being too spicy (I have a pretty low threshold for spiciness.) If you're similar, then I recommend changing the ingredients in the recipe to the following dosage in this dish:

3-4 tbsp. of basil,
(Thai basil if you can find it - I usually find it at farmer's markets, not at the grocery store)
4 teaspoons of green curry paste
1/2 cup of coconut milk

On a side note...

I'm looking to make this blog more user-friendly, so if you have ideas or suggestions for how to do this, and what you'd like to see, please leave a comment, or e-mail me at themenudrawer@gmail.com.

New menu coming Saturday!

1 comment:

  1. hi! our mutual friend leah recommended me to this site and i absolutely love it. i'm glad i caught your recommendations for the broccoli and cheese tortillas and the soup since i made them tonight, but didn't catch it time for the pizza. i too wish i used red curry paste instead for the pizza. i had a huge mishap with pureeing the soup, (it's as bad as you think it was) but it still tasted great. my only request is if you wouldn't mind adding the size of things when listing them on the grocery list such as ozs of cans of tomatoes so i know which ones to grab. i can't wait to see what else you have planned and good luck!

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