Red Curry Shrimp Dumplings & Green Vegetable Curry

Also on my theme week using Wonton Wrappers, I made Red Curry Shrimp Dumplings and equally as delicious Green Vegetable Curry with Coconut Milk over Jasmine Rice.  Both dishes packed a ton of flavor and I had a ton of fun creating Asian takeout style meals at home!

First, before I tell you about these recipes, I first want to tell you about my favorite Asian ingredients.  If you like eating this style of food, here are some ingredients I think you should always have on hand.  And yes, some of them are "cheat" ingredients (meaning they make your life much easier!)

I always have red and green curry paste.  One of my favorite ingredients!  I also always buy :90 second Uncle Ben's Microwavable Rice.  It's an awesome, easy product to have around!  And the squeeze ginger.... it lasts longer and I love it.

Okay back to the dumplings.  They take some prep work, but they are pretty simple to put together and cook.  And look how gorgeous they turn out!

Red Curry Shrimp Dumplings

Inspired by Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

3 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger (from a 2-inch piece) or 2 big squeezes of your ginger bottle

2 scallions, very thinly sliced

3/4 pound shrimp (peeled and deveined) (I bought mine pre cooked and already peeled and deveined- make it easy for yourself!)

4 teaspoons red curry paste

1 teaspoon fish sauce

24 wonton wrappers (from a 12-ounce package)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Instructions:

In a small skillet, heat 1 teaspoon vegetable oil over medium-high. Add 2 tablespoons ginger and scallions and cook, stirring, until scallions are slightly softened and mixture is fragrant, 2 minutes. Remove from heat. In a food processor, pulse shrimp until finely chopped. Add ginger mixture, curry paste, and fish sauce and pulse a few more times.

Place a spoonful of the shrimp mixture in the center of each wonton wrapper. With a wet finger, moisten edges of wrapper, then bring all 4 corners together, pinching at top to seal.  In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 teaspoon vegetable oil over medium-high. Add dumplings, seam side up, and cook until golden brown on bottom, 1 minute. Carefully add 1/2 cup water to skillet, and cook until water is almost evaporated and dumplings are tender, 3 minutes. 

Continue to cook until water evaporates, 1 minute (reduce heat to medium if dumplings begin to overbrown). Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon ginger, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Serve dumplings with dipping sauce.

Quick, simple, beautiful and delicious.  Can't beat that.

And because I can't just have dumplings for dinner, I also made a Green Vegetable Curry.  I love curry dishes because curry paste mixed with coconut milk is one of my all time favorite combinations.  I could drink the broth ... not that I did or anything....ummm...

This dish mixed together a ton of vegetables, you can really use anything you have on hand.  It was another dish inspired by Martha Stewart.

Green Vegetable Curry

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

3 tablespoons green curry paste

1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, stems trimmed, halved if large (I used half shitake, half portabella)

Handful of Broccoli

4 heads baby bok choy sliced

1 red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 can (13.5 ounces) unsweetened coconut milk

Cooked jasmine rice, for serving

Instructions

In a large skillet or wok, heat oil over medium-high. Add curry paste and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add mushrooms, broccoli, bok choy, and bell pepper and cook 5 minutes. 

Add coconut milk and bring to a boil. 

Reduce heat and cook at a rapid simmer until beans are crisp-tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Serve over rice and enjoy!

Both these dishes I will make again in different ways.  This was DEFINITELY a favorite of the week.

Curious what else I made using Wonton Wrappers?

Cara's Baked Salmon Rangoon with Apple.  Combining salmon, goat cheese, sesame oil, ginger and apples... I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  But they were quite good.  I was really impressed!

 Emily's Turkey Ravioli with Spinach Cream Sauce. Only I used swiss chard because I didn't have spinach and ground chicken instead of turkey.  I don't think this dish was quite as pretty as the others, but wow did it have a ton of flavor.  I loved every bite and I enjoyed it even more the next day! I mean c'mon, spinach cream sauce?  How could it be bad!  One other big thing I changed was I added cream cheese AND boursin cheese in the filling.

I also made a sweet dish- Mini Pumpkin Pies! I got this recipe from Dashing Dish and I really didn't change much.  I can totally see myself making these again for parties!

So there you have it.  My week in Wonton Wrappers.  By the end, my husband was definitely sick of eating bite size meals but I know he enjoyed it.  I do love theme weeks!  If you're going to buy the ingredient, why not use it in a variety of different ways, especially when they give you so much in each package : )

What is the best meal you've made with Wonton Wrappers?

Taco Bites

I had a few recipes in my queue that I've been wanting to make using Wonton Wrappers so I decided to make a whole week of meals using that ingredient.  First up were these tasty Taco Bites.  Do you like tacos?  Well here's a new way to eat them!  We all know I love everything in mini form and love using my cupcake pan to make savory dishes.  This is an easy recipe that I know I will make over and over again in many different ways!

It's pretty simple really.  You spray your cupcake pan.  You put a wonton wrapper in each one.  You saute up some ground meat (I used ground sirloin) mixed with taco seasoning.  Add that to the wonton. Sprinkle cheese on top.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20ish minutes.  Keep your eye on them and don't let them burn.  Take them out, add salsa and any other toppings you like.  Serve with side salad. 

Boom.  Dinner done in a flash.

 PS, Do you like my pictures?  I borrowed a friends Cannon Rebel T2i.  I'm leaning towards getting one.  I have no idea what I'm doing yet, but I can't wait to learn more.

Baked Taco Bites
Ingredients:
12-16 Wonton Wrappers
1lb Ground Meat of Choice (I used Ground Sirloin)
1/2 package of taco seasoning of choice
Sprinkling of Shredded Mexican Blend Cheese 
Salsa
Avocado (optional)
Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Put a little oil in a hot skillet.  Add your ground meat and mix to brown the meat.  Add taco seasoning mix and stir well.  Once cooked through, turn off the heat and put aside.  Grab your cupcake pan and spray with cooking spray.  Add one Wonton Wrapper in each mold.  Then spoon some meat in each cup, about 2-3 spoonfuls.  Add the cheese on top and bake for 25-30 minutes or until your wontons start to crisp up.  Remove from cupcake pan and serve with salsa and avocado on top.

This is one of those recipes I know I'll make again.  It's the perfect party food! I also know I could do a million different things- turkey or chicken tacos?  Most definitely.  Maybe even a tofu taco or a fish taco!  I can't wait to explore the possibilities!

What kind of taco would you fill in those tasty, crunchy mini shells?

New Years Eve Dinner: Beef Wellington

Special Occasion Dinner Alert!  This would be a perfect Anniversary Dinner or Valentine's Day Dinner.  On Sunday of last week, I prepped this meal of my mom's Leek Soup, Individual Beef Wellingtons with Swiss Chard and Sweet Potato Gratin and Maple Glazed Salmon.  After everything was all ready, we headed down to the South Shore to see our friends Stef and Mike's new house and celebrate the New Year together.

All I had to do was cook the Wellingtons, Salmon and reheat the Gratin before dinner.  None of my photos are that fabulous because, well, I was so excited to eat!

Let's start with the showpiece recipe: Individual Beef Wellingtons.  I took inspiration from many different sources- Simply Recipes, Ella Says Opa, and Tyler Florence.  In the end I combined high quality filet mignon, sauteed delicious portobello and shiitake mushrooms, prosciutto and dijon mustard and wrapped it in a flaky puff pastry and cooked it to a perfect medium rare.  The flavors were so well balanced it didn't need a sauce!


Individual Beef Wellington Recipe
Ingredients
4 Filet Mignon
Salt and pepper
olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 lb mushrooms (we used half portobello mushrooms, half shiitake)
4 thin slices prosciutto
2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
7 ounces puff pastry (needs 3 hours to defrost in refrigerator if using frozen)
2 egg yolks, beaten
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400°F. Heat a tablespoon or two of oil in a large pan on high heat. Season the fillet generously with salt and pepper. Sear the fillet in the pan on all sides until well browned. Remove the fillet from the pan and let cool. Once cooled, brush the fillet on all sides with mustard. Heat a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Cook the mushrooms and onions until soft and onion is opaque. Transfer mixture to food processor and pulse a few times. Roll out your puff pastry.  Cut 4 sheets big enough to cover the filets. 

Lay the prosciutto on the pastry.  Place the beef in the middle.  Add the mushroom mixture on top. 

Wrap up the beef securely.  You can use plastic wrap to make sure it stays in a tight shape but I didn't do that. Brush the edges of the pastry with the beaten eggs. Chill for awhile before baking. Place the pastry-wrapped fillet on a baking pan. Brush the pastry again with beaten eggs. Bake for 25-35 minutes. The pastry should be nicely golden when done. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing. 

 The other dish I made was a Maple Salmon which is so simple to make.

Maple Salmon
Ingredients:
1 pound salmon
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Instructions
Marinate the salmon in the maple and soy for 20 minutes. Cook the salmon in a preheated oven set to broil for 5-10 minutes. (Pour some of the marinade over the salmon several times while cooking.)

And the last dish I made was Smitten Kitchen's Swiss Chard and Sweet Potato Gratin.  Over the last couple years, I've made this dish many many times.

I loved using Smoked Gruyere cheese.  It made this vegetarian dish taste like there was some bacon in it!  This has a bunch of steps, but its totally worth it in the end.

Swiss Chard and Sweet Potato Gratin

Ingredients

1/2 stick of butter

1 small onion, chopped

2 pounds of swiss chard, leaves and stems separated and both cut very finely

2 cups of half and half

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

4 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into rounds

dried parsley and thyme

salt and pepper

1 1/3 cups of grated Smoked Gruyere Cheese

Instructions:

Cook onion in 2 tablespoons of butter in a large pan or pot.  Add the chard stems and salt and pepper. Increase heat and add chard leaves by the handfuls. Season with salt and pepper then transfer to a colander and drain well.  To make the sauce, combine half and half and garlic in a saucepan and bring to a simmer.  Melt two tablespoons of butter in another saucepan and stir in flour.  Cook roux, whisking  then slowly whisk in warm cream and boil.  Season with salt and pepper. 

Then assemble gratin by first preheating oven to 400.  Spread sweet potatoes in the baking dish and a handful of the cheese. 

Spread the greens over the mixture and sprinkle with salt and pepper and then pour the béchamel sauce over. 

Repeat 1-2 more times and sprinkle the remaining quarter cup of the cheese.  Bake gratin for around an hour.  Let stand 10 minutes before serving.  

 And that was our New Years Dinner!

What's your go-to special occasion meal?

2011: In Photos

Yes, I'm aware it's 2012.  But I'm not ready to let go of 2011 yet.  One more post...I promise...

I'm copying this from Katie who originally stole the idea from Liz.  I think it's a good one.

2011 in Photos.

JANUARY

Hanging out at the beach on Cape Cod, first day of 2011.  Was warm enough to wear flip flops!

Mid January- meeting up with my favorite bloggers for the very first time!

FEBRUARY

Finished FIRST in my age group at the Foxboro 5K!

Ran the Hyannis Half Marathon in the snow.  Ran the whole thing with Becky by my side! And this may be the first time I met LB.  Soon to be LC.

MARCH

Major PR in the National Half Marathon, finishing my last mile in 7:43.

APRIL

Ran the Boston Marathon on two months of training.  Yes, you read that right.  My two favorite on-the-run girls jumped in beside me in final 6.2.

Also turned 29 in April.  The last year of my 20s....

MAY

Went to my first of what I hoped to be many Red Sox games and vowed to follow baseball again like I'd done in the past.  Didn't last long...

Spent Memorial Day Weekend on Cape Cod and witnessed the most beautiful sunset

JUNE

Let's call June Blogger PR Month.  Ran the Foxboro 5K and PR'd...

Followed by the Mini-NYRR 10K with fellow bloggers. PR'd barely.

JULY

Slip and Slide on the Cape, July 4th Weekend

Went on many walk/runs through various parks with my husband...

AUGUST

Ran my last race of 2011 by trying to pace Theodora to her first sub 2 hour half.  She more then succeeded, I fell off the pace and finished in 2:01.  

Deep down I had a feeling I was already pregnant (I was!)

Indulged in my favorite pasta dish of all-time: Lobster Ravioli from La Cantina

Finally met Cara and hang out with Elina again : )

SEPTEMBER

Visited my family in Omaha, Nebraska and got these professional photos done.  I didn't know then, but it would be the last time I would see my Papa Jack.

OCTOBER

In October I flew back to Nebraska to celebrate my Papa's life

NOVEMBER

Finally announced my pregnancy on the blog!  By this point, I was already 13 weeks...

Also hosted Thanksgiving with my family....

DECEMBER

And the biggest thing to happen in December was the birth of my nephews! 

Hope you enjoyed my year in photos.  I take a million photos every year so it was fun to choose my favorites from the best events of 2011.

I've thought about setting goals for 2012 but decided that I really only have ONE goal for this year....

And that goal is...

To have a healthy, happy baby BOY come MAY 2012!