Thai Red Curry & Angel food cake failure

Welcome to 7th Kitchen!

I have realized that I have not made Thai curry for a while so I decided to make Thai Red Chicken curry last night. As I have mentioned before, I use Thai curry paste so making Thai curry at home is really easy this way. I used whatever vegetable I had in my fridge and pantry.

This time, I used onion, carrots, celery, red bell pepper, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, basil and zucchini. Normally, I tend to make it super spicy and we had to cry and blow our nose while we are eating so this time I tried to make it mild. Since it is mild, the color is not really red. It looks like white curry instead of red curry.

Anyway, it tasted really good. I think it was little too mild. My husband told me that it could be a bit spicier. The fine line between too spicy and perfect spicy is very difficult, I think. But I will keep trying to come up with the perfect spiciness.

Well, I also have to talk about my failure "Angel Food Cake"... It looks OK in the picture, right? But it was really chewy and the texture was like a had marshmallow. My husband even joked that we can put this on our chest and use it as a bullet proof vest :-) It was that chewy and funny texture.

The worst part is that I used the boxed cake mix. I thought these things are "fool proof". Oh wait, then that makes me a "fool"....

Anyway, I know exactly what I did wrong. It was just a careless mistake. This cake mix comes with two packages. One with egg white mixture and the other is flour mixture. You are suppose to add 1 1/3 cup of water and whip egg white first. I read 1/3 cup instead of 1 1/3 cup. That was a big mistake. When it was whipped, it looked really chewy like marshmallow but I didn't think too much because this was my first time making this cake using this cake mix.

I added flour mixture and tried to mix them together but it was not working too well. Only then, I realized that something is wrong. I read the box again and realized that I am missing a while cup of water. I added the 1 cup water immediately and hoped that everything goes well somehow when I bake it.

So that is how this cake came out as hard and chewy. It tasted good but the texture is so weired. I have to come up with an idea to use it for something else or make it into something different. If you have any good idea for making chewy angel food cake into something wonderful, please let me know.

Cabbage with ground pork

Welcome to 7th Kitchen!

I had a whole cabbage in my fridge which was waiting for me to use. Normally, when I want to use up lots of cabbage, I make Okonomiyaki (Japanese savory pancake) but yesterday I wanted to try something new with cabbage.

I was searching through Internet and I come across with this cabbage dish on a Japanese recipe site. This dish is like cabbage roll. I think the ingredients are same. It is just not rolled but kind of layered and stacked together. So instead of rolling the ground pork, you layer them in a bowl. I think it is easier than rolling. And looks pretty cool when you cut it.

My mom makes cabbage roll in winter and her cabbage rolls are in simple consomme and I like that also but I made it with tomato puree this time because the one on the Internet was using tomato sauce and I had tomato puree in the fridge which was also waiting to be used.

I had all the ingredients at home except for ground pork so I went to buy ground pork at the store near by. I tried two stores but they did not have ground pork today. However, I really wanted to make this dish today. I thought what I should do and then remember that I had this attachment for the Kitchen Aid stand mixer which ground meat.

Actually, I never used this attachment before and I had been wanting to use it so it was a great opportunity to try this. I bought some sliced pork and ground it at home. It worked out great. I was able to make beautiful ground pork.

When I was using this attachment, I realized that you can also make pasta with this attachment. I never made fresh pasta so I think this will be my next mission.

I love the Kitchen Aid stand Mixer and the attachment! I think everyone who likes cooking appreciate this piece of equipment. If you are interested, you can also purchase it from Amazon.

Anyway, I did not think my husband would like this cabbage dish since he mentioned something before that he is not keen on cabbage roll. However, to my surprise, he liked this cabbage dish. Maybe he liked the tomato flavor.

By the way, I was talking to my friend the other day and she told me that my blog somehow motivated her to enjoy cooking again. It made me so happy to hear that. She used to enjoy cooking but I think it became routine and she kind of forgot how she used to enjoy cooking. I am so glad that my blog was able to remind her that cooking is fun! Her words motivated me also. I wish we live close by so we can enjoy cooking together!

Also, I really appreciate all the compliments and support everyone is sending me. I am motivated by everyone's compliments! Thank you so much!

Let's enjoy cooking and eating!

Chicken Milanese

Welcome to 7th Kitchen!

We had two pieces of chicken fillet left in our fridge from yesterday so I had to use these two pieces of chicken cutlet. I decided to make Chicken Milanese.

Here is how I made them.

For 2

Ingredients

Chicken fillet 2 pieces

Flour 1/4 cup

Egg 1

Bread Crumbs 2/3 cup

Salt & Pepper 1 tea spoon

Arugula 1 cup

Rome Tomato 1

Shallot 1

Cucumber 1/2

Olive Oil 3 table spoons

Lemon Juice 1/2 lemon

Honey 1 table spoon

Olive oil for pan frying 2 table spoon

Butter 1 table spoon

1. Prepare flour, egg and bread crumbs in a shallow container, separately.

2. Sprinkle salt and pepper to the chicken. Coat chicken with flour, then, egg and then bread crumbs. Leave it on a flat surface.

3. Cut Tomato, cucumber and shallots into dices.

4. Mix lemon juice, olive oil, honey, salt and pepper in a bowl. Add tomato, cucumber and shallots and mix with the dressing.

5. Add 2 table spoon of olive oil and 1 table spoon of butter in a pan and wait until it gets hot.

6. When the pan is hot, add chicken and pan fry them until it is golden brown. Flip them and cook the other side also.

7. Mix Arugula into the tomato, cucumber bowl and mix it well.

8. Place chicken on a plate and put the salad on top of the chicken.

9. Add Parmesan cheese shaves if you would like. (I did not do this yesterday but it could have been great if I did)

I only had Japanese bread crumb (Panko) so I used that but I think it works with any kind of bread crumbs. It was crispy and really good. I like having tanginess (the salad, in this case) with my cutlet. I think it balances out very well.

For the side, I made garlic toast (again!!!). I wonder when will I be tired of these garlic toast. So far, I am not tired of them :-)

Have a happy cooking!