Leftovers

I don't normally post about stuff like this but I felt at I had to!  I am currently enjoying the leftvoers from the Thai Pork and Green Beans meal and it's even better reheated!  How is that possible?  I have no idea how but it is!  The lemongrass is even more noticeable now and it is lovely!  I am also eating it with basmati rice from last night's vegetable korma (not blogged) so maybe that's it.  Either way, I'll be making this again!

Lemongrass Virgin No More!

I still didn't what I was going to do with lemongrass so at about 4ish I started doing some recipe searches.  I figured it would be something Thai since they use lemongrass a lot.  I was ready for a soup or something along those lines.  I came across a recipe that called for lemongrass AND green beans!  Score!  I modified it, as I always do, to use what I had.  It was a light recipe and we count our calories so I did keep it light but still yummy.

After I started mincing the lemongrass it occurred to me that I had NO idea which part was the edible part!  Google (and Matt) to the rescue!  I'm glad I had him look it up cause I was about to use the non edible part.  Turns out, the part that is used in cooking is the lower 3rd which is the white part and the light green part.  It was SO aromatic!  I had never cooked with lemongrass so I had no idea how citrusy it really smells.

Thai Pork and Green Beans

1 cup uncooked green beans, washed and cut into bitesize pieces
cooking spray
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 cup light coconut milk, divided
2 tbsp green curry paste 
1 tbsp packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp minced lemongrass
1 pound lean pork tenderloin cut into thin strips

2 cups cooked rice (jasmine prefered)


Steam the green beans over boiling water for 5 minutes or until tender.  Drain well and set aside.


In a measuring cup, combine 3/4 cups of  the light coconut milk, the green curry paste, brown sugar, soy sauce and lemongrass.  Coat a large skillet with cooking spray and set over medium heat.  Once hot, add the garlic and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Add the coconut milk and curry paste mixture.  Bring to a simmer.

Add the pork and reduce the heat to medium low.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the pork  is cooked through, about 12 minutes.  Add the green beans and remaining 1/4 cup of light coconut milk.  Simmer until hot, about 1 minute more.  Serve over rice


Serves 4

I *think* green curry paste can be purchased in the Asian section of the supermarket but I am not sure.  I got mine at Whole Foods.  This is actually not coconuty at all so if you don't like coconut, like I used to, don't shy away from this recipe.  This is also a mild dish (I made it mild so my 15 month old son could eat it) so if you like it spicy (and who doesn't??) you can minced jalapeno or Thai chili when you cook the garlic.

I'm so glad we are actually using the stuff from our vegetable box.  I was worried we'd just throw it all out.  Of course, that's only a small portion of the box used to, we still have a long way to go!

Organic Vegetable Box

I'm so excited! After years of talking about signing up for a vegetable box thing, we finally did it!  Unlike in other areas, the season here goes from November to April, and that's the only times we get the box.  That's fine by us though. They don't deliver, we have to pick it up but it is a local farm and it's only a 10 minute drive from our house (we live in the boonies!).  Today was our first pick up and the box contained dill (we left it for others to take cause we hate it), curly leaf lettuce, green beans, cherry tomatoes, one avocado, callaloo, lemongrass, sweet corn ears, and hibiscus flowers.  We could have added honey, eggs, hummus, etc but chose not to since this is our first year and we didn't know what to expect.

Some of those things we had never seen and had no idea what they were.  Callalo, otherwise known as edible amaranth and pigweed, is supposed to be a great spinach substitute though it needs to be cooked.  It is also known as bhaaji in the Caribbean and India.  I have no idea what we're gonna do with that but maybe I'll experiment with it for Thanksgiving dinner.   I don't know yet what I'm going to do with the hibiscus flower.  That's the nice thing about this sort of boxes, you get things you've never had before and wouldn't otherwise try.  It broadens your culinary horizons and encourages you to think outside the box, or in this case, INSIDE the box :P  I'm looking forward to find yummy recipes to use all these vegetables we will be getting every week from now until April.

These vegetable boxes are sold and put together by the farm close to us but they are a collaboration among several local organic farms.   This is a small operation so they have very limited numbers of shares and they sold out very quickly, I'm glad we got it at all as only a few days after they started taking subscriptions they had sold out had a waiting list.   They are trying to get the local food movement going in this area as well as raise awareness of local organic farmers.  I'm glad I'm getting all these yummy local, fresh and organic veggies but I'm also very happy to be helping local farmers because in these day and age, they are a dying breed.  I live in the outskirts of suburbia and I just have to drive 3 minutes to the west to get to the are where most of the food in Florida is grown yet we hardly ever see local produce in the supermarket.  It's a shame really because it is grown RIGHT HERE!  I'm glad we have box schemes like this one, everyone is a winner.  We have also considered the idea of getting local milk, especially since you can get it unpasteurized (GASP!!!!).

I'm off to eat my sweet corn now...the longer it sits the less sweet it gets!