RECIPE: Thai Cucumber Salad

Goes great with my Thai Chicken Curry...

Ingredients:
3 large cucumbers, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded & cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped small
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
1/2 cup chopped peanuts

Directions:
1. Toss the cucumbers with the salt in a colander and leave in the sink to drain for 30 minutes (no more than 30 minutes or the cucumbers will absorb too much salt. I learned this the hard way). Rinse with cold water, then drain and pat dry with paper towels.
2. Whisk together the sugar and vinegar in a mixing bowl until the sugar has dissolved. Add the cucumbers, jalapeno peppers and cilantro. Toss to combine. Sprinkle chopped peanuts on top before serving.

RECIPE: Thai Curry Chicken

I was never a fan of yellow curry until I tried this...

Ingredients:
1/2 cup flour
salt & pepper to taste
5-6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
5 Tb. butter
1 medium onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 green peppers, seeded & diced
3 Tb. yellow curry powder
1 - 15oz. can stewed tomatoes
1- 15oz. can coconut milk (lite or regular)
dash of Worcestershire
dash of hot sauce (Tapitio or Sriracha is better than Tabasco)
1/2 cup currants (next to raisins at grocery store)

Directions:
1. Coat chicken with flour seasoned with salt and pepper

2. Heat 3 Tb. butter in large skillet over med-high heat. Add chicken and lightly brown on all sides. Remove from skillet

3. Preheat oven to 350

4. Add remaining butter to pan and melt. Add onions, garlic and green peppers and saute until soft, 5-8 minutes. Stir in curry powder and cook 2 minutes longer.

5. Stir in tomatoes and coconut milk. Heat to simmering and season with Worcestershire, hot sauce & salt and pepper to taste. Stir in currants and remove from heat.

6. Arrange chicken breasts in casserole dish and pour sauce over. Bake uncovered for about 45 minutes.

I like to cut my chicken breasts into large bite-size pieces after they're done cooking. This is great served over white or brown steamed rice with Thai Cucumber Salad (recipe to follow).

Brunch at Local 360

Considering the 20 minute wait and the fact that the place was packed at 12:30 this afternoon I assumed the brunch must be amazing. I've eaten at Local 360 for dinner once but was less than impressed. Ordered the popular fried chicken dish w/ collard greens and grits based on a friend's suggestion. Chicken was over-cooked, had some strange bacon foam in the middle, collard greens were cold and under-seasoned and the grits were under cooked and flavorless. Anyway, back to my brunch experience. After careful consideration (based on my first experience here), examining every plate that passed my way while waiting for a table and asking the server's suggestions I decided on the biscuits and gravy with eggs. Nothing too fancy, certainly not a difficult dish to prepare and if this is one of only 6 breakfast items you have on your menu I would expect it to be delicious. Biscuits arrived cold and hard. Gravy was dark brown, quite flavorful and had bits of meat in it. A fan of the gravy. But aren't biscuits supposed to be soft and fluffy? Did I miss the memo? Are we now doing hard and crunchy biscuits? If so, I stand corrected. These were the best ever! In addition to the hard crunchy biscuits my "over medium" eggs were inedible because they contained more white "snot" than one would normally get with over easy. Hence, why I always order over-medium. My dining companion ordered the chicken fried steak and eggs. It was mediocre. I've had better at CJ's. The weird part was the gravy that came on it. Not the same as mine. It was slightly sweet and had a seasoning overkill that we couldn't identify. Not the usual suspects like rosemary, thyme or sage. Almost an anise flavor, perhaps fennel? Either way they would be doing themselves a HUGE favor if they replaced the gravy on the chicken fried steak with the type they serve with the biscuits. Next up would be making soft and fluffy biscuits and cooking eggs as they are ordered. When it all comes down to it I was not a fan. Good thing they have a great burger, which I've never actually ordered.