Coconut Chicken Curry Soup

This to-die-for recipe comes from my sister-in-law Rachel Carpenter of John Day. She said it's a favorite for her and her husband Rod. It became my favorite from the first taste! It is worth the effort to find the ingredients you may not have on hand: coconut milk and red curry paste - both can be found on the Asian aisle at the grocery store. Definitely a new treasure for the recipe box!

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped - except for a few matchsticks for garnish
1/2 onion, chopped finely
1 red bell pepper, chopped finely - except for a few thinly sliced pieces for garnish
1 C. cooked chicken meat, chopped
1 C. uncooked rice
1 pint mushrooms, quartered
2 Tbsp. red curry paste (for less spice, use 1 Tbsp.)
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
13.5 oz can Asian coconut milk (lite, unsweetened)
6 C. chicken broth
Optional: 2 Tbsp. fish sauce and a few sprigs of cilantro
Note: Reserve some of the coconut milk, carrots, and red bell pepper (and cilantro) for optional garnish.

Directions:
In a medium soup pot, heat olive oil on medium heat and saute chopped onions, carrots, and red bell pepper for approximately 5 minutes. Add curry paste, brown sugar, chicken, rice, mushrooms and fish sauce stirring until curry paste is completely incorporated (2-3 minutes). Add chicken broth and coconut milk and stir for a half minute. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium and simmer 15 minutes, covered, until rice is cooked. Serve with a spoonful of coconut milk added on top with a few matchstick carrots and a slice of red bell pepper for garnish. Enjoy!

Magic Chocolate Flan Cake, a lighter version

I have to add one dessert before getting to some healthy eats to kick off the new year. Be prepared – this is a scrumptious dessert! Rozanne Mullin of John Day, my sister-in-law, made this cake for a recent birthday party and shared the recipe with me. It's called a "magic" cake because it is made by first pouring the cake batter in the bottom of the bundt pan, topped with the flan mixture, and while it cooks, the cake and flan mixtures "magically" switch places.
She originally found the recipe in a "Cook's Country" magazine and made adjustments to lower the fat content. She used fat-free sweetened condensed milk and 1/3-fat neufchatel cream cheese. It still tasted pretty devilish – like something you shouldn't eat very often! This is definitely not a low cholesterol treat as it calls for eight eggs and four egg yolks, but it serves 16 - so share with family and friends!

Cake ingredients:
1/2 C. caramel sauce, ice cream topping
1/2 C. plus 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/3 C. cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 C. buttermilk
1/2 C. sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Flan ingredients:
2 (14-oz.) cans sweetened condensed milk, fat-free
2 1/2 C. whole milk
6 oz. cream cheese, (1/3-fat neufchatel cream cheese is optional and works well)
6 large eggs plus 4 large egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions for Cake:
Place oven rack in the center of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 12-cup nonstick Bundt pan. Microwave caramel until easily pourable, 20-30 seconds. Pour to coat the bottom of the pan. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in bowl and set aside. Combine chocolate and butter in large bowl and microwave at 50 percent power, stirring occasionally, until melted, 2-4 minutes. Whisk buttermilk, sugar, eggs and vanilla into chocolate mixture until incorporated. Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Pour batter over caramel in prepared pan.

Directions for Flan:
Process all ingredients in blender until smooth, about 1 minute. Gently pour flan over cake batter in Bundt pan and place pan in large roasting pan. Place roasting pan on oven rack and our warm water into roasting pan until it reaches halfway up side of Bundt pan. Bake until toothpick inserted in cake come out clean and flan registers at 180 degrees, 75-90 minutes. Transfer Bundt pan to wire rack. Let cool to room temperature, about 2 hours, then refrigerate until set, at least 8 hours. (Remove roasting pan from oven once water has cooled.)
Place bottom third of Bundt pan in bowl of hot tap water for 1 minute. Invert onto a completely flat cake platter by placing the platter over top of Bundt pan and gently turn platter and pan upside down. Slowly remove pan, allowing caramel to drizzle over top of cake. Serve.

Serves 16

Chinese Chicken with Rice

I discovered a recipe for a Chinese steamed bun filling which also works well served with rice. The ingredients are fairly basic, and the result is delicious! Served up with Jasmine rice, everyone in the family loved it, even my pickiest eater - now that’s saying a lot!

Ingredients:
1 lb. chicken, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
4 green onions, sliced
2 Tbsp. fresh ginger root, chopped (use 2 tsp. powdered ginger if you don’t have fresh on hand)
2 Tbsp. light soy sauce
2 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil, plus 1 Tbsp. for cooking chicken
2 Tbsp. white sugar
ground black pepper to taste
1/4 C. water

Directions:
Chop chicken into bite-sized chunks. Heat a skillet over medium heat, add 1 Tbsp. oil. Cook chicken until no longer pink. Season with salt and set pan aside.
Mix together green onions, ginger, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, oil, sugar and pepper. Stir into the meat. Add water, mix thoroughly, warm through and serve with rice.

Serves 4-5