Ever crave something a little different?

I’ll admit I’m somewhat of a picky eater (OK, very picky), but I love ethnic dishes. I’m talking about entrees beyond burritos and pasta.

My favorite is Thai food. These are two of the best recipes I have. Both are easy to make, but are time consuming and can be tricky.

Each requires patience and some practice. Both are real crowd pleasers — very impressive at dinner parties.

A few hints … Be sure and leave the Pad Thai noodle a little hard after soaking. They’ll continue to cook in the wok. If they are too soft, you’ll end up with a mushy ball. It still tastes good, but the noodles should actually be separated from each other. And roll those spring rolls very gently. That rice paper is fragile. It’s unlikely any two will look alike. That’s OK.

Have any ethnic dishes to share? I'll whip them up and post the results online and in the Reporter-News.

E-mail me your recipes by CLICKING HERE

Pad Thai
Ingredients:
Pad Thai noodles
2-3 eggs
chopped green onion
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 Cup chopped dry roasted peanuts (unsalted)
1 bag bean sprouts
1/2 Cup sugar
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
fried tofu/chicken cubes/shrimp
Garnish:
Limes
Crushed red chili peppers
Directions:
Soak noodles in warm water until barely hard; don’t cook completely. Heat oil in a wok or large pan. Add noodles a little at a time with onions. Add eggs and Fish Sauce. Stir until noodles soften. Add tofu/chicken/shrimp, sugar, sprouts and about half the peanuts. Stir.
Garnish individual servings with peanuts and crushed peppers. Squeeze fresh lime juice on top.

Spring rolls
Ingredients:
Rice paper
Rice noodles
Baby shrimp (salad sized)
Red leaf lettuce
Cucumber
Rice noodles
Directions:
Immerse rice paper in water. (Using a jelly roll pan with just enough water to cover the bottom works best.) Lay the rice paper flat. Fill will above ingredients and fold like a tortilla.
For dipping, make a side of peanut sauce:
Boil:
Hoisin sauce
Peanut sauce
a little water
1 teaspoon sugar
a little garlic
a little hot sauce

Posted by · September 28, 2005 12:45 AM · Comments (0)

I have a few fears and even more faults.

And right up there with heights and spiders is under-cooked chicken. This leads to one of my flaws: consistently over-cooking chicken.

I don’t burn it, but just heat it rather excessively. Yes, the pink coloring goes, but I’m left with rubbery or dry results. This happened again when I prepared a reader-submitted recipe for a nameless chicken veggie casserole. Oops.

I loved this recipe because there were no actual measurements for the ingredients. There was, however, a bake time — which I exceeded. Fear drove me to do it.

Follow the directions and I think this will turn out great. It’s a nice combo of chicken with fresh squash and zucchini.

Let me know how it works out for you submit your comments, or e-mail me a recipe to try by CLICKING HERE

As fall approaches, I’m looking for recipes for homemade soups, breads or anything Halloween related.

Chicken veggie casserole
Ingredients:
2 to 4 boneless chicken breasts
garlic salt
seasoning salts
honey
ranch dressing
shredded cheese
plain bread crumbs
canola or vegetable oil
one yellow squash
one zucchini
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut the squash and zucchini into round slices.
Squirt lines of ranch dressing in bottom of a 9 by 13 inch baking pan, and place the slices on top. Smother the chicken breasts in oil and roll in bread crumbs until completely covered. (If you would like additional flavor, add seasoning salts to bread crumbs). Place breaded chicken breasts in baking pan on top of the veggies. Sprinkle salts and garlic on top, followed by a small amount of oil and ranch. Drizzle honey over entire contents. Bake for 15-20 minutes, remove and sprinkle desired amount of shredded cheese on top. Put back into oven and six to eight minutes.

Posted by · September 21, 2005 12:37 AM · Comments (1)

Never judge chocolate by its appearance.

It’s still chocolate and it’s gonna be good. Remember this when you take your “Earthquake Cake” out of the oven. I thought I had done something severely wrong — again.

But I think our dessert-loving friend Vi, who submitted this recipe on the “One Teaspoon from Disaster” cooking blog, put it best when she said, “This is to die for. It will look awful — hence the name.”

I say cover this mess of a dessert with a dollop of whip cream, a scoop of vanilla ice cream or warm fudge drizzle. Yum.

In my quest for chocolate desserts, I also received a variation of this cake made with melted caramels. The recipe for “Turtle Cake” is below.

Meanwhile, keep emailing your recipes by CLICKING HERE

Earthquake Cake
Ingredients:
1 cup chopped nuts
1 cup coconut
1 German Chocolate cake mix
1 box powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup margarine
8 oz cream cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom only of a 9 X 12 inch pan. Prepare cake mix as directed and pour over nuts and coconut. Mix remaining ingredients and spoon over cake.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.

Turtle Cake
Ingredients:
1 German chocolate cake mix
1 (14 oz.) bag caramels
1/2 C. evaporated milk
3/4 C. butter
1 C. chopped pecans or walnuts
2 C. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small saucepan, combine caramels, evaporated milk and butter. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until caramels are melted.
Prepare cake mix to package directions. Spoon 1/2 batter into greased 9x13 inch pan. Bake for 15 minutes.
Pour melted caramels on top of cake. Sprinkle with chips and nuts. Spoon remaining batter over all. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely in pan and cut into bars.
Tastes great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Posted by · September 6, 2005 6:35 PM · Comments (1)