Sticky Rice with Mango

Growing up, I wasn’t a fan of any Asian foods except a little Chinese.  Pork Fried  Rice is still a favorite.  As I’ve aged, I’ve branched out with Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, etc.  I keep finding new things that I end up adoring.

One of those things has been Thai Sticky Rice.  I’d had plenty of Thai food, but have always skipped dessert.  Usually because I’m too damn full, but rice for dessert never sounded appealing.  Then a friend had me try it a few years back and I realized …

I was an idiot.  A HUGE idiot.

I’m very lucky that I have two Asian markets not far from my house, so finding sticky rice (or sweet rice) wasn’t a problem.  This is one of the easiest, tastiest, completely awesome-est desserts you can make.  I crave this stuff too much to always eat out, so I’m happy this is so easy to make.

 

Ingredients:

1 cup Sticky Rice

1 cup Coconut Milk

2 tbsp Sugar

Pinch of salt

Now, I do not have a rice cooker.  But this can easily be made in the microwave and doesn’t take a lot of time.

Put the rice into a microwavable bowl.  Cover the rice with about a cup or so of warm water (water level should be above the rice) and let this soak for at least 10 minutes.  After it’s done soaking (and don’t skip that step!), put in the microwave, cover with a plate or whatever, and cook for 3 minutes on high.

Take out and stir it well.  Put it back in for another 3 minutes.  Keep cooking at 3 minute intervals until all the rice is cooked – looks translucent.

While that’s cooking, you can prepare the coconut milk.  Usually found in cans, shake it up a bit first.  Pour the coconut milk into a small saucepan, on medium heat.  Add the sugar and salt and allow to cook for a little bit.  DO NOT BOIL.

When the rice is done, pour the coconut milk in with the rice.  It’ll absorb quickly and be a bit mushy.  This is what you want it to look like.

I like it with mango, but feel free to add whatever or nothing at all.  This is so easy and so awesome.

Juicy Turkey Burger w/Better than Fries side

I did this for the competition a while back.  I hate turkey, no matter how it’s cooked.  I just don’t like the flavor of it and I only eat it once a year.  But these came out so well, that I am making them more again this summer, minus the ginger snaps.

Juicy Turkey Burger

Ingredients:

3 lbs. ground turkey

1 small yellow onion, diced

¼ cup of ginger snap crumbs (or substitute bread crumbs)

1 tsp. thyme

2 tsp. Meat Magic (combination of spices by Chef Paul Prudhomme)

2 eggs

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

3 cloves garlic, minced

In a bowl, toss in the ground turkey, thyme, Meat Magic, salt, pepper, and eggs.  Using a rolling pin, I took the ginger snap cookies and ground them down to bread crumb consistency.

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Toss into the bowl.  Dice up the onion and garlic then sauté it in the olive oil.  While this is sautéing, you can start work on the potatoes.  Let the onions and garlic cool a bit, until you can touch the oil without hurting yourself.

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Put all of it, oil included into the meat mixture.  The added oil will help keep the turkey juicy!  Mix well and make patties as thick/thin as you like.

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Cook as you desire.  It’s apparently summer here for the day, so I’ll be grilling!  These turned out so good, and the ginger snap gave it a really nice flavor.  I swear, I never would have thought it was turkey!!!

Better Than Fries Side

Ingredients:

Russet potato

Olive oil

Sea Salt

Pepper

Butter

Wash and dry your potato(s).  Carefully slice down, not going all the way through.  After slicing, wash them again, fanning out the slices a bit.  Place on a non-stick baking sheet.  Melt down butter and drizzle over the potatoes and then drizzle with olive oil.  Sprinkle with pepper and sea salt.  Feel free to sprinkle rosemary or other herbs you like on your potatoes!

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Bake at 425 for roughly 40-60 minutes, depending on how big of a potato you picked out!  About 20 minutes in or so, I pulled them out to drizzle a bit more oil on them.   This makes the skin nice and crispy.  You can just pull the slices out when it’s done.

Also, add cheese in the final 5 minutes for even more tasty goodness!!

Oh, and here you go – me when I cook.  Yes, those are headphones – I need the music to drown out any noise from the ever irritating roommate and allows me to focus.

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