Donut Army

Day Two called for something quick and simple, so I made a chicken massaman curry. Pan-fry some chicken until it is cooked through. Then, prepare a sauce from coconut milk with massaman curry paste, brown sugar, fish sauce, lemongrass, garlic, and ginger. I'm still not quite confident that I really know how to chop up lemongrass; it seems to me that there is always another "tough outer layer" to be removed and then, before you know it, you don't have anything left. If you have tips, please send them. Bring the sauce to a boil, add the chicken, and simmer 30 minutes. I served over jasmine rice. This recipe was called Roy's Homestyle Chicken Curry and came from Cooking Light magazine. It is named after the Roy Yamaguchi of Roy's Restaurant fame. In all, I've had more flavorful curries. But, there was a subtlety and simplicity to this dish that was nice. Plus, again, it required dirtying very few dishes, and was something that could be assembled, put...

Anticipating breakfast, I put together one of my new favorite tea breads -- a spiced zucchini bread. The recipe I am using comes from the now-defunct Penzey's One magazine. Even if the magazine is no longer, Penzey's is still a great source for quality spices. For this bread, I used both the zucchini and yellow squash. It also calls for canned pineapple. The recipe calls for an 8-oz can; I only had a 20-oz can and decided to go ahead and use all of it, which should have made the bread too wet. But it didn't. I was sure to squeeze the pineapple chunks thoroughly, in order to remove as much liquid as possible. The only other change I made to this recipe was to use 1/2 brown sugar and 1/2 white sugar where the recipe called for sweetener. This was on a lark, just to see if it made any considerable improvement. I didn't taste any difference in this particular bread, possibly because it's already so dark and sweet. The finished product looked like this. A litt...

My favorite version for eggplant parmesan comes from Cook's Illustrated . I've learned to vary this recipe to my own tastes -- namely, double the amount of sauce they call for. I have also learned that they ask for far more flour in the dredging process than you really need; you can safely use half, or even a third or a fourth of what they call for -- you can always start with less and add more. The bread coating is also more than what is needed, but should only be reduced by about 25%. Begin by slicing, salting, and draining your eggplant. Then, dredge the slices in flour, eggs, and a combination of bread crumbs and Parmesan. The secret step in this recipe is to bake the eggplant slices before adding them to the casserole. This creates a barrier to the tomato sauce, keeping the eggplant from getting soggy. While the eggplant is baking, make your sauce. Assemble the casserole. Just 15 minutes until dinner! This was served with a simple garden salad. The cucum...

Also in this week's farm box was a mystery melon. The farm said we were either getting watermelon, canteloupe, honeydew, or Galia. The interior of this melon is green, so it's either honeydew or Galia. The exterior doesn't look like anything I know, though. Regardless, it's delicious. I sliced it open, chopped it up, and added it to some cubed pineapple, mango and canteloupe for a fruit salad in the morning. Now, I agree that fruit salad is delicious in and of itself. But sometimes, on special occasions, I like to dress it up. My favorite so far is the Basil-Lime Fruit Salad from Cooking Light magazine (March 2008). Make a simple syrup of equal parts sugar and water. Remember -- don't make too much of this stuff. In application, a little goes a long way. Here, I've made a syrup from 1/2 c water and 1/2 c sugar. Bring to a boil and let sugar dissolve, about one minute. Remove from heat. Grate lime rind. I find the simplest way to make grated c...