Thai Red Curry Poutine

I made this Thai Red Curry Poutine  a few weeks back sparking lots of interest in a recipe.  I was kinda making it up as I went, throwing stuff together somewhat haphazardly.  At the time I was only thinking about how best to stuff my face with some left-over french fries that were hanging in my fridge so my how-to specifics here are a bit vague. When I posted this on social medial many of you asked about a recipe so I thought I should try and write one out. Granted, I'm going off memory here so measurements might be a bit wonky but more importantly, this is the type of dish you can gauge more on appearance.  If the gravy is too thick, add more coconut milk.  If it's looking too soupy, let it simmer down.  This gorge-fest is a far cry from rocket science.  You can wing it.  Have faith!

Ingredients

• Some left-over french fries or baked potato
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1/2 ground meat (beef, pork, or chicken...)
• 2 thinly sliced green onions (keeping the whites and greens seperated)
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 TBSP minced ginger
• 1+ TBSP Thai Red Curry Paste (or more if necessary for taste)
• 1/3 cup shredded, mild white cheese like Mozzarella or Provolone
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
• dollop of plain yogurt or sour cream
• lime wedge

Directions

1. Reheat your french fries on a baking sheet in 350 degree oven
2. In a pan sauté the white parts of the green onions with the red curry paste.
3. Add the ground meat, minced garlic, and ginger cooking it all together. (I used ground pork but you can use whatever.)
4. Once the meat is kinda cooked and broken up, stir in 1/2ish the can of coconut milk and simmer lightly. You want to cook it down so it thickens into a "gravy". Add more or less coconut milk if necessary. You can also add more curry paste if you need to.
5. After heating your fries (or baked potato?) top with the "gravy" and the cheese and melt it in the oven.
6. After heating it up, remove from the oven and add the green onion tops,fresh cilantro, dollop of sour cream (or yogurt) and then squeeze with fresh lime.

If I had any sense about me I would have topped this all off with some runny-yolked egg and called it breakfast but you know...  Still good! And for anyone in need of council, I'm here for you.  Like I said, my measurement are roughly a guess at good estimates so let me know how it goes if you make this, which you should probably plan to do ASAP. Enjoy!

Ham & Cheese Strata

With Spring holidays approaching here's a simple recipe you can create with some left-overs.  This ham and cheese strata is pretty basic.  Nothing fancy.  These items just happen to be the things our house tends to have on hand after Easter dinner.  You can substitute other ingredients too.  Peppers, onions and other watery-type vegetables are best sauteed first so they release their moisture prior to baking but for the most part feel free to use whatever.

Ingredients:

• Left over biscuits or bread
• Ham
• Cheese
• Eggs
• Milk
• Parsley

Directions:

1. Combine eggs and milk in a bowl and add your biscuit/bread and give it a good coat.
2. Let it sit in the fridge overnight soaking up the egg mixture.
3. The next morning add the ham and cheese to the bowl and thoroughly coat it. (At this stage you can almost add whatever you want. Onions, peppers and cooked potatoes make great additions.)
4. Pour out into a buttered, oven safe baking dish.
5. If the mix appears dry, with no excess egg mixture add more, whipping another egg or two with a splash of milk. Pour that over the top of your strata mix where it will pool at the edges.
6. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 or so minutes until the strata puffs slightly and the center is cooked through.

Happy Spring everyone!