Thai Coconut Red Curry and Rice Noodles

It's been a while since my last post. I haven't stopped cooking, I just haven't had time to write. I'm working on completing my Masters in Linguistics and have a 40-60 page research paper due (kinda like my thesis) in a few weeks. Needless to say, writing even more than I have to is not always on my agenda. However, I have just submitted a second draft of the entire paper for editing... So I'm almost done and am feeling like writing a good blog post!

So I had tried to make this Thai soup on the weekend that called for 1/4 cup of coconut milk. The recipe was a fail, but thankfully I had all the leftover coconut milk to use up! I had planned on using a recipe that called for a can of diced tomatoes... Alas when I opened the can I realized it was seasoned with Italian spices... No go for a coconut Thai curry noodle dish! So I decided to just wing it and make my own recipe... And it worked PERFECTLY.

Ingredients

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp minced ginger

1 tbsp Thai red curry paste

1 tbsp fish sauce

3/4 cup coconut milk

1 1/2 tbsp peanut butter (smooth or chunky!)

2 tbsp brown sugar

chili sauce, to taste

1/2 cup snow peas, sliced on an angle

1/2 cup each, red and orange pepper

1/4 package rice noodles (or enough to serve 2 people)

Directions

1. Place rice noodles in a large bowl. Cover with boiling water and let sit.
2. Saute garlic and ginger in a pan with some vegetable oil until soft.
3. Stir in curry paste until fragrant (30 seconds or so - don't burn it!)
4. Add in fish sauce, coconut milk, peanut butter, and sugar. Stir well.
5. Bring to a boil. In the meantime, rinse and drain the noodles. They should a little harder than al dente.
6. Once sauce has come to a boil, add snow peas and peppers.
7. Reduce heat and simmer.
8. Once sauce has reduced until almost the desired texture, stir in the rice noodles.
9. Heat on low until sauce is at desired thickness and noodles are cooked to preference.

Seriously... This recipe was amazing. I wouldn't change a thing - except maybe I would make more next time! This made about 2 servings.