Kow Pad Kapi ข้าวคลุกกะปิ (shrimp paste fried rice)

What could I make with green mango, pork belly, dried shrimp and cilantro?  I had almost all the ingredients for kow pad kapi.  It's a Thai dish that will definitely make your taste buds dance...sweet, salty, sour.  This dish makes me miss Tena and P-nut and Sen Yek Sen Yai in N. Minneapolis.

The kapi seasoned rice is served with sweet pork, dried shrimp, fried eggs, green mango, cilantro, green onion, shallots, chilies and lime.  Its the perfect marriage of flavor and texture.  I researched tons of pictures and recipes and recalled what I enjoyed about the dish in Minneapolis.  This is what I did tonight:

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked rice

2 garlic cloves
1 - 1 1/2 tbs kapi - shrimp paste
1 tsp sugar
1/2 lb sliced pork belly
2 tbs palm sugar or brown sugar
3 tbs soy sauce (more to taste)
3 tbs fried shallots
3 eggs
1/2 cup dried shrimp
sliced shallot
green onion
cilantro
green mango
fresh chilies
limes

The Rice
1. heat some oil in your wok and brown the garlic
2. add kapi and sugar (you may need to add a little water to help the kapi dissolve)
3. add cooked rice and mix well

Sweet Pork
1. caramelize the palm sugar or brown sugar

2. add sliced pork and stir
3. add soy sauce and let simmer for 20 min (add a little water if it gets to sticky during the cooking process)
4. mix in the fried shallots when the pork is done

- fry the dried shrimp in some oil for 1 min.

- thinly slice your fried eggs

- slice all the herbs, shallots, green mango and chilies

- dress the rice with all of the ingredients and served with a wedge of lime

Got Mac n' Cheese?

Earlier this year, while celebrating Brandon's birthday at Twin City Grill in the MOA, the Hoyes introduced me to one of their favorite dishes there.  The Mac n' Cheese, really?!  It's your birthday and you want mac n' cheese?  Birthday boy gets what birthday boy wants.  Birthday girl would have gone for lobster...just saying.

Our very cute waiter brought out this hot and bubbling little cast iron dish.  It had a golden panko topping that perfectly crunched when you went in to dish it up.  There were pieces of bacon peeking through the golden topping.  The cheese sauce was velvety and creamy but not too thick.  It coated the el dente Cavatappi pasta just perfectly.  The first bite was an unexpected yummyness.  It was like no other mac n' cheese I've ever had.  The bacon was thick, sweet and salty, married perfectly with bits of tomatoes and cheesy pasta.  I could have eaten an entire bowl of the just the bacon.

So, I'm friend sick and thought of this delicious dish that we shared together and tried to create it myself.  After a week of researching recipes, 2 days of prep and trying to recall every taste of it, I came up with this:

Not too bad right?!  It looked good and tasted pretty good too, if I can say so myself.  It had the golden crust, pieces of brown sugar bacon, tomatoes, caramelized onion and a creamy sauce baked in a cast iron pan.  What could I serve with this mac n' cheese?  ... Fried chicken!  I am down south now ;)

Oh man! I could do a blog just on this chicken!  It was moist and had a light and crispy seasoned flour coating.  The best part was seeing the cleanest bones and hearing the great reviews from the son and other half.

I hope I can make this for you guys soon.  Miss you!

Let me know if you want the list of ingredients I used for the mac or chicken.