Chiang Mer II

Tried it again, this time including mushrooms and cilantro as promised. But I also added a full 6oz can of tomato paste and a drained 14.5oz can of diced tomatoes (no salt added). Then I made one other change, after Paul surprisingly was willing to try it: I used extra-firm tofu instead of chicken.

Ingredients:
EVOO
1 onion, diced
2 or 3 carrots, diced
1 to 3 cloves of garlic, finely diced, or to taste
1 package pre-sliced baby bella mushrooms (or plain ol' white mushrooms)
1 pack or two handfuls fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
1 pack extra-firm tofu
1 6-oz can tomato paste
1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes (no salt added)
4 to 5 Tablespoons of mild curry paste
1/2 pack (1/2 lb) spaghetti or fetuccini


Please ignore the indisputable proof of my alcoholism in the background and just focus on the foreground.

Drain tofu, slice into cubes, and spread in an even layer on paper towels. Top with a cutting board (or something flat and stiff) and top with a few heavy kitchen objects. This is to press the tofu a bit and get out all the extra moisture. Leave it like this until you're ready to cook it.

Next put the water on to boil for the pasta. The rest of the meal should take just a little longer to cook than the time to cook the pasta start to finish.

Sauté the onions, carrots, garlic, and mushrooms in a teensy bit of EVOO until soft. Add tofu and continue to cook until tofu is heated and veggies are starting to brown.

Add curry paste and stir to coat everything. Cook until heated.
Add tomato paste and stir to coat everything again; keep cooking!
Add diced tomatoes, and cook until everything is hot.

At this point, pasta should be finished cooking and drained; add it to the pan and stir it all up. Remove from heat and serve!

The curry paste I use has PLENTY of salt in it, so I haven't added any anywhere else; also, it's spicy enough for me already, so I didn't add any pepper, but you certainly could, or you could use a hotter curry paste to begin with.

We both liked the tofu! It basically had the consistency of mild cheese like you get in some Indian dishes, and tasted like the sauce. And it was much healthier for us! I'm excited and plan to purchase extra-firm tofu to substitute in to more dishes from now on. I'm also excited that we now have a really delicious and not-too-difficult dish we could prepare for a vegan guest.


Yum!

Chiang Mer

My sister and her friend have had this dish twice at Spice Island in Pittsburgh (the restaurant owned by East Side Girl's hubby), and they both love it even though it is much more spicy than they prefer. I recently bought a jar of mild curry paste from the Indian secion at Wegman's and decided to try to reproduce the dish, and I did pretty well with Hannah's help!

Spice Island's menu describes the dish like this:
Chiang Mai Noodles
Wheat noodles in red curry sauce with minced chicken, hot peppers, carrot, mushroom, onion, and cilantro.

I was going for not so spicy, and I didn't have mushrooms or cilantro, so here's what I did:

Ingredients:
- 1/2 lb of spaghetti, cooked & drained
- 1 big or 2 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 carrot, diced
- mild curry paste
- tomato paste
Optional:
- sliced mushrooms
- fresh cilantro
- 1 can crushed tomato, drained

Directions:
Cook the spaghetti

While I waited for the water to boil etc. I made the rest:
- Heat a little oil in a pan (the curry paste is oil-based, so only use just enough to cook the veggies)
- Sautee the onion and carrot in the oil until soft
- Add the chicken and sautee until cooked through
- Add 4 generous Tablespoons of mild curry paste
- Add a hearty squirt of tomato paste (about 2 Tablespoons)
- Continue cooking until sauce is heated and everything is done
- Add the cooked, drained spaghetti and stir it around with the heat still on low until everything is mixed and delicious-looking
- Scoop it onto a plate and enjoy!
The above made two perfect medium-large helpings, one for me and one for my hubby.

The "mild" curry paste I had still packed plenty of bite for my tastes, so I wouldn't add any hot pepper, but would definitely add mushrooms and cilantro if I plan ahead better next time. However, the dish was delicious without them.

The other thing I will definitely change next time is to use a little less curry paste and add a whole small can of tomato paste, and perhaps also a small can of crushed tomatoes (drained as much as possible). It was delicious, but I think it would have been even better with some more tomato, even if I had to cook it longer to get rid of the extra liquid. If adding the crushed tomatoes is going to give me a lot of extra liquid, I would just brown the chicken quickly at first but not cook it completely so that it could cook the rest of the way as the sauce simmered and reduced.

I hope to make this again soon with the added ingredients, so I'll let you know how it turns out then!