Corissa's Minot Cuisine to the Extreme

Well if you have read some of my blogs you know I am hard pressed to find exotic and out of the ordinary items in the Magic City of Minot.  So I was a little hesitant to try this next recipe, but fortunately for me I was able to find EVERYTHING, well minus the Thai chilies which I substituted with dried chile peppers.  This recipe comes from, you guessed it folks, my favorite blog thefoodinmybeard.com.  Here is the Thai Chicken Tacos that I copied from him.  I highly recommend following and /or checking out his site daily. 

So my first decision is should I take the easy way out using the store bought red curry paste????...

It looks like it might work, you notice I say might...

Well it would cut a lot of time out of roasting spices, grinding them up and also making my own curry paste out of garlic, lemongrass, shallots and fish oil.

I REFUSE TO TAKE A SHORT CUT YOU SPICY TEMPTRESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ooooooooooooooohhhh now that's more like it.  Way to buck self and make this recipe the correct way.  The ghetto 80's cupboards are making their token appearance in at least one picture.  All jokes aside if you have time, roasting your own spices and then grinding them up makes a whole world of difference.  In the lovely Magic City I could not find a spice grinder so I ended up buying a coffee grinder.  If you use this contraption make sure you are never going to use it for coffee beans again, unless you would like curry flavored coffee, although you could pass it off as an exotic blend from over seas to snooty friends.  I roasted all the spices for around 2-3 min make sure when using cardamon seeds that you split them in half and use just the inside teeny weeny seeds.  These are very potent little suckers and the recipe that the food in my beard guy posts does not specify this step for people like me who are not curry savvy.

Now onto the cucumber salsa.  I usually make this ahead of time due to the fact it is somewhat time consuming and also is better after marinading.  I start with mixing the rice vinegar, sugar, lime juice and minced garlic. This salsa truly makes the tacos pop due to the fresh taste of the mint and cilantro combined with the cucumber, tomato, red onion and green pepper .  If you have anyone that has an aversion to cucumber *cough, cough Dad* you could also do some pico de gallo.

Me likey!!

WHOA that's quite a close up, but you can see all of the beautiful colors that make up this lovely little topping.

Well since we are having tacos we should probably have a fun drink to pair them with.  This is my version of the skinny Margarita.

The recipe is as follows 2 shots tequila ( I prefer Jose Quervo), 1 shot of Cointreau ( or if you're like me and want to take the cheap way out Triple Sec) and a good glug of lime juice.  They are yuuuuummmmmmmmy!!  The glass looks so big because I bought a mini bottle of tequila.  Also in front the lovely beverage is my awesome penguin pot holder compliments of my mom.

For a garnish I added mint to mine.  I know it's not traditional, but it looked so pretty!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next we move on to the chicken.  When I make this I don't fry them in oil as the recipe calls for, I boil them in water on medium until cooked through.  I fry the curry paste in oil as the recipe instructs, but instead of high-test coconut milk I use the lite.  I really can't taste too much of a difference and it cuts down quite a few calories.  I then add the half can of water, a few dashes of Worcester, 1/4 cup of light brown sugar and 2 tbsp of molasses ( I don't know if the molasses is necessary, but I skimped on every thing else so I figured what the hay).

 
Sorry for the quality of the picture I was in a hurry and the sauce smelled so good.  After letting it simmer for 20-25 minutes I shredded the chicken and let all the curry goodness soak in.

We also added mashed up avocado and feta cheese, which is best if you buy it in the block and crumble it yourself.  These tacos are what I refer to as a party in your mouth, hey get your mind out of the gutter folks, in other words it was full of spicy curry perfectly paired with the cucumber salsa, crumbled feta and mashed avocado.  I would give this recipe a solid 9 out of ten.

The finished product.  It's a little blurry, but only because I was way to anxious to take a bite out of this sucker!

And after the dishes are almost done it is time to relax.  What's that you say?? I'm watching an Iron Chef America after cooking and scarfing a most excellent dinner, yes I am, game set and match beotches.