Vegan Thai Curry and Cookies!

I love Thai food. It ranks up pretty highly on my list of favourite ethnic foods, just below Greek and just above Jamaican and Mexican. Now, I loved Thai food before I even discovered the wonder that is curry. In fact I'm still relatively green when it comes to curries. I make a fierce Panang with tofu, use curry powder in my Jamaican Patty dough and obviously am a fan of curried ackees (as evidenced by my cooking video.) Thats about it for my curry experience. Yet when I saw the recipe for Yellow Curry with Pineapple and Peas by Nancie McDermott in her book Real Vegetarian Thai (which I picked up at the Strand on my recent trip to NYC) I knew I had to try it.

The end result of this dish is a very visually pleasing one. It has punches of red pepper and some refreshing bits of green to break up what would otherwise be a monochromatic (albeit happy sunshine looking) yellow dish. The pineapple does not stand out as much as I had thought it might, but this is a good thing. The subtle flavour of cooked pineapple blends well, but its the texture that makes the pineapple stand out when compared with the firmness of the potatoes. The overall taste is good, but I was not floored with it. I think my expectations were set a little high. This is not to say I won't make it again. It was exceedingly easy and rather fast. All in all it was finished in about 30 minutes, and I cleaned up as I went. Gotta love that.

Yellow Curry with Pineapple and Peas
1 can (14 oz) unsweetened coconut milk
1 to 2 TBL Yellow Curry Paste (I went with one and a half TBL yellow curry paste for this recipe as I like some bite but can't handle burning off my tongue with spice. If you still have to be told to adjust the spiciness to your liking then you probably haven't been cooking for long.)
12 oz potatoes, cut into bite sized chunks (The recipe says to peel them but I NEVER peel my potatoes because its a: tastier, b: more nutrients, and c: easier)
1 can (8 oz) pineapple chunks, drained
1/2 cup veggie stock
1 TBL brown sugar
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp salt
8 oz firm tofu, cubed
1 red sweet pepper, julliened
1/4 lb snow peas
3/4 cup frozen peas (I ommitted these on accident)

Shake the coconut milk can well. Spoon out 1/3 cup into a medium saucepan and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until it thickens about 3 minutes.
Add the curry paste and cook for about 3 more minutes, mashing, scraping, and stirring often to soften the paste and combine it with the coconut milk. Add the potatoes and pineapple chunks and stir gentle to coat them with the curry paste. Add the remaining coconut milk, veggie stock, sugar, soy sauce, salt, and stir well. Bring to an active boil, reduce the heat to maintain a gentle boil, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.
Add the tofu, red pepper, and peas to the curry and stir gently. Let the curry return to a boil and remove from the heat. Let stand for 5 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve hot or warm.
Serves 4 to 6

I firmly believe in having a little something sweet after a meal to cleanse the palate. A separately prepared dessert, a piece of fruit, a mint, anything like that. And for the longest time I struggled with what to have after Thai, Japanese, Indian, or any Asian inspired dish. Then Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero came to my rescue with their Peanut Sesame Ginger Cookie recipe from their book Veganomicon. I'm not a big cookie person. Never really have been. These are an exception. I LOVED these cookies. The peanut butter flavour is subtle enough to not overwhelm the delicate sesame notes, and the ginger is definitely present but not too aggressive. Even my friend who isn't the biggest fan of ginger really enjoyed these. I made some substitutions to the recipe out of necessity and will try to follow it to the letter next time to see how different the effect is. Not too sweet and featuring traditional flavours of the region these cookies really are the perfect following to your next Asian dinner.

Peanut Sesame Ginger Cookies
Makes 42 (I halved the recipe when I made them and they came out perfectly)
2 1/4 cups flour, all purpose, whole wheat pastry, white whole wheat, or any combo of these.
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup nonhydrogenated vegan shortening, softened
1/2 cup chunky peanut butter (I used reduced fat just cause I like the consistency better)
1/4 cup brown rice syrup (I used agave because I didn't have brown rice syrup)
1 1/4 cup sugar (I used half light brown sugar half white, to make the cookies chewier and to make up for the lack of brown rice syrup) plus additional sugar for rolling (I rolled mine in turbinado sugar instead of white)
1/2 cup soy milk (used vanilla almond milk)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
5 ounces candied ginger, diced finely (it was so hard to not eat this before using what I needed!)
1/3 cup each white and black sesame seeds, or 2/3 cups of just one kind.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease two cookie sheets.
Sift the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, ground ginger, and cinnamon, and set aside.
In a large bowl, use electric beaters to cream the shortening until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the peanut butter, rice syrup, sugar, soy milk, and extracts. Continue to beat until creamy, 4 to 5 minutes. Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon stir in the flour mixture, then add the candied ginger and stir until a very firm dough forms. You can use your hands toward the end to mix the dough (I found my dough was too sticky at this point, possibly from halving the recipe, so I added flour 1 TBL at a time until I had a stiff but tacky [not sticky!] dough.)
Roll scant TBLs of the dough into walnut size balls. Roll each ball in the sesame seeds, then roll in a little sugar and place on a prepared cookie sheet, leaving about 1 1/2 inches of space between each cookie.
Flatten the balls just slightly (she says its optional, I think its most likely vital) and bake for 10 to 11 minutes for chewy cookies (I opted for 10 minutes and got perfect cookies,) up to 14 for firmer, crunchier cookies.
Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to remain on the baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool.