Essential Weekend Reading and Thai cooking (GRC #7- Red Coconut Chicken Curry)

I'm not sure if this is a total blogger faux pas but I'm going for it.  My blogging dream is to have readers biting their nails in anticipation for my next amazing and hilarious post.  I've been trying to impress you all with my culinary adventures and my health-related escapades as of late.  I watch about a million hours of reality TV just incase there is someone that I can't not make fun of on a public forum.  I look for inspiration everywhere.  This week, that inspiration came from another blog.  Which I am now going to blog about.

Truth is, there aren't a ton of blogs out there that make me excited.  I have some favorites but nothing that gets me running across the room to my laptop whenever I see a new post pop up.  That all changed last night when I found 52 First Dates.  You have to check this out!  The writer (very Gossip Girl-eqsue  mystery woman), La Blonde, is in her 20's and trying to find love in this crazy city of Toronto (been there!).  She has a goal of going on 52 dates during the year and she blogs about each one.  I love her sense of humour and honesty.  If you haven't been on the site yet, catch up this weekend as date 18 is just around the corner.  I don't know how this girl doesn't have a TV or movie deal.  La Blonde is super charming and lets all of us girls live vicariously through her journey.  Love, love, love her.

I also love, love, love Thai food (smooth transition, n'est pas??).  I really enjoy the comfort and refreshing characteristics of a good curry.  This week, I ventured a bit outside of my usual ingredients and put together this Red Coconut Chicken Curry from Canadian Living as recipe #7 of the Great Recipe Challenge.

Red (sort of...) Coconut Chicken Curry 

Although the ingredients list is long, all of the components are really essential to create the depth and flavour profile found in a curry.  My grocery store was sold out of red curry paste so I went with green.  After doing a bit of digging around, I learned that there isn't a huge difference in flavour between red and green curry pastes.  It is mostly the color that is different and the ingredients you use to create a red curry taste or a green curry taste.  I left out the eggplant because I think it's the weirdest and most unpleasant vegetable on Earth.   However, I did add in some water chestnuts for a bit of texture and crunch.  If T liked shrimp, I definitely would have added some in.

Otherwise, this is a really fresh tasting dish.  If this is your main course served over rice, it will only make 2-3 portions.  Certainly not close to 6.  We give this a D&T stamp of approval with a 7.5/10.

Add a little international flavour to your weekend!

Please leave your comments and recipes in the section below or tweet me @darbyvt.