What's cooking at Jerk Castle . . .

Summer salad with watermelon, tomato, cucumber

and a few other things such as onion, advocado, mint and lime. Summer salad season is upon us (check out the Minimalist's 101 Simple Salads for the Season)

For this one, I improvised with what we had in the house and suprisingly, it worked pretty well. . . (we did not have any feta cheese which i've learned from a quick internet search of summer salad recipes many people believe is essential to a watermelon salad. . .i didn't really miss it too much but i'm not a huge feta fan-you'll have to decide feta or no feta on your own).

Here is a rough summary:

Watermelon chunks, sliced cherry tomatoes,  thinly sliced kirby cucumber, advocado slices and chopped onion (use red if you have it).  Then dress with a squeeze or two of fresh lime juice, a drizzle of olive oil, and chopped mint and salt to taste and there ya go. . . .

 i'm looking for many more summer salads coming my way. . .but for this coming week we will be in cape cod on vacation. . there is a lot of corn (you know how i feel about corn) and ice cream in my future. See you in a week.  

Spinach and Parmesan Dip

Lots of rave reviews of this dip at my sister's bridal shower last weekend. . . if you don't mind squeezing thawed cold spinach, this is the dip for you. Very easy to make and if you use reduced fat sour cream, somewhat low fat-ish.

I forgot to take a picture  but honestly, it looked just like the picture in the magazine-

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/spinach-parmesan-dip-00000000016160/index.html

Happy dipping. . . .

Also, continuing with this whole self absorbed blog thing, i thought i'd start posting food related articles i enjoyed reading mixed in with the recipes (that way you don't have to look far)  i recently enjoyed reading this article in food and wine magazine about the owner of Le Pain Quotidien. . . will definitely be stopping in to try their breads, jams and wine.

http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/farm-fresh-french-recipes

Red Curry Chicken

For those of you a little hesitant to try out a curry at home or those of you like me who don't generally order it at thai restaurants bc coconut milk is so fattening, this dish is super easy and really tasty using light coconut milk. My friend Todd introduced me to this recipe a while back and i made it for steven when we were first dating in an effort to impress him (i guess it worked). . . i had forgotten about it until last week when we had a curry craving. . . we will now keep it as a standby. 

The recipe  is right from the jar of the thai kitchen curry paste so you won't have to look far for it (the one on the jar that i just bought is actually for shrimp, so i had to just adjust the cooking time for chicken).

Adapted from my jar of curry paste and tweeked for chicken:

*In a large saucepan simmer one 14 fl. oz of coconut milk (if you are worried about fat- or should be-use light coconut milk) with 1/2 to 1tbsp red curry paste (i use 1.5 bc we like a kick) over medium heat for 5 minutes.

*Add 1 to 2 tbsp. (i used around 1.5) fish sauce (if you are going to do asian food, you better have this around), 2 tbsps. brown sugar, 1/2 cup frozen peas or other vegetables (we used a ton more veggies- not frozen- and added water chestnuts and bamboo shoots) and 1/3 cup water. 

*Simmer around 5 minutes stirring occassionally until the veggies seem a bit cooked but still a little crunchy. 

* Stir in cut up/cubed chicken cutlets (we had a little less than 1 pd of chicken cutlets that i cut into small stir-fry size pieces) and simmer for approximately 8-10 minutes checking on the chicken to make sure it is done.

Garnish with basil and/or cilantro and serve with rice.

Of course, here is a peek at ours:

My next attempt is chicken with chili and basil (my all time favorite thai food dish). . .i'll let you know how it turns out.

Please send over any tips. . .