I have been postponing the first entry for this blog because I thought it would need to be profound or particularly thought provoking.
Something that would stand out… but it’s been 2 months and I got nothing that stands out. So I’ll just begin, softly and see how it all pans out.

The prime mover for this blog is food. By day,  I’m food scientist and by evening time I’d like to think I transform into a culinary maverick!  Unless you are Andy Ricker (owner of Pok Pok here in NYC), you tend to cook what you know.  Seeing as I’m Korean American, I’ll be cooking a lot of Korean with dabbles in other types of cuisines.  I’d say I’m passionate about food… passion makes me think of fire and what’s more fire-y than a Thai Curry (see the Pok Pok Thai food connection!)?

I love Thai food! What’s not to like about chilies, lime, ginger, sweet, aromatic, and savory combos.  This recipe isn’t super fancy but it is delicious!

Ingredients:
2.5 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breast (cut into 1.5” chunks)
1 medium onion
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1.5 cup of baby portobello mushrooms
1 cup snow peas (trimmed)
1 can of coconut cream (16 oz)
1 cup red curry paste (it’s a lot, but be generous it’s worth it!)
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar (or the legit kind from the Thai market)
3 Keiffer lime leaves
3 Thai bird chillies
Thai basil, a big handful

Woah, I guess that’s a lot of ingredients, it didn’t seem like it when I was making it…
So here is what you do, I’m going to give my recipes in the order I do it in my kitchen, the nerdy scientist in me loves efficiency so I like making every minute in the kitchen count.

Put the chicken cubes in with the onion that you have cut into long strips, cover the chicken and onions with water. Boil the chicken and onions over medium heat while you’re cutting the rest of the veggies. Cut all the veggies nice and long and don’t cut them too thin, you want to make sure that they won’t disappear in the curry as it cooks down. I only halved the mushrooms because they were on the small side.

At this point, your chicken should be cooked through (unless you have superhuman knife skills, in which case, you should grab a beer and chill for a moment… ), add in your coconut cream to get every drop I rinsed out the can with water and poured that water into the pot. Now you have the chicken, onions, initial water, coconut cream, and another can full of water in the pot. Now add the curry paste, fish sauce, lime leaves, and sugar. Let all of that come to a boil on med/high heat. Now add in all the veggies and chilies. I love it when the veggies still have a little crunch so I just let them warm through and then serve over rice.

In the famous words of the original Duck Commander, Phil, “this makes me happy happy.. happy happy happy.. ” enjoy!