After making fried eggs and shrimp, I needed to do something with the extra tomatoes and red onion. I looked in the fridge and saw some tofu and fresh egg noodles that we often pick up at the local Asian supermarket. With a few other ingredients, I whipped up this super easy curry tofu noodle stir-fry.

We enjoyed the dish so much, I made it again a few days later. The first time, I added a little too much hot curry powder for Hungry Bear's taste. My heat tolerance is off the charts, so it was mild for me. The next time I made it, I threw in a little coconut cream to soothe the heat and sweet petite peas for some color.

The main flavors of the dish came from the curry powder and a little sweetness from the tomatoes and coconut cream. If you like a sweet heat, add the coconut cream. We actually preferred it without the cream. At the store down the street, we can find a plethora of fresh egg noodles. I've made the dish with thick, round noodles and thin, flat noodles (pictures 3 and 4 in the slideshow). We liked the thin, flat noodles better.

It's a simple but flavorful dish that can be prepared in less than 20 minutes. And it was a great way for us to clean out the fridge.

Natural Light versus Lowel Ego Light

Another thing I want to point out in the slideshow is the last three pictures. I picked up a set of Lowel Ego lights after Jaden of Steamy Kitchen recommended them. The third to last picture is a shot of the noodle dish with natural lighting (kitchen window). I use the Lowel Ego lights in the last two pictures in the slideshow.

The pictures with the Ego lights are decent, particularly the close-up shot (last picture). The Ego lights are a little harsh compared with natural light, which is softer and more pleasant. This was my first time using the lights, so I'm sure I can improve the picture quality with better light placement. Overall, I'm pleased with the Ego lights, but I need to play with them a little more.

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After Hungry Bear made her Hawaiian marinated chicken last week, we still had three pounds of unused chicken thighs. I needed to figure out what to make with them before they went into the freezer, where they would be forgotten. We are really bad with frozen meat and don't plan ahead enough to thaw it out.

I had a craving for green chili chicken stew, but couldn't find a recipe to my liking. Hungry Bear loves sweet potatoes, so I made braised chicken curry with yams, which is based on a Ming Tsai recipe. I've been tweaking this curry over the years. The dish calls for orange-flesh sweet potatoes, a.k.a. garnet yams.

The biggest changes to the original recipe are the omission of the banana and adjustments to the curry powder. I think there is enough sweetness from the yams, so there's no need for the banana. I've also adjusted the amount of chicken stock and added peas for some color.

The key ingredient is the curry powder. Ming recommends this Madras curry powder, but I'm not a fan of this brand or other brands found in most supermarkets. They're not bad, but I prefer a hot curry powder mix that we picked up at Bombay Bazar, a local Indian market. My issue with the Madras curry powder may also stem from the quantity used in Ming's recipe, 1/3 cup or 5 tablespoons. That's way too much. And it doesn't have any heat. Okay, my definition of heat is a little lot skewed.

The modified braised chicken curry recipe is finally dialed into our tastes. It's easy to make and it's one-pot cooking. There's a nice balance of heat and sweet from the yams and peas. Served over rice, it's a very filling and satisfying dish. If you leave the sweet potatoes a little firm, they'll retain their shape and the curry will look nice and pretty. On the flip side, if you cook the yams a little longer, they'll get mushy and thicken the sauce. Either way, it's a great curry to try out.

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One of my favorite ingredients is hot Italian sausage. Hungry Bear loves sweet petite peas. Add some mushrooms, garlic, orecchiette, a sprinkle of Parmigiano Reggiano and you'll have a tasty pasta dish that can be prepared in 30 minutes.

Hungry Bear likes pasta dishes without tomato sauce because the individual flavors of the ingredients are not dominated by a tomato taste. Recently, we've made most of our pasta without tomato sauce. Our current favorite pasta is an orecchiette with hot Italian sausage.

This pasta dish is simple to make. We really like the spiciness from the hot Italian sausage complimented by the sweetness of the peas. The orecchiette gets coated by the juices from the sausage and mushrooms, so the pasta dish isn't completely dry. I try to make the dish a little healthier by draining off some of the fat/juices from the sausage. But if you remove too much juice, you'll lose a lot of flavor and there won't be enough juice to coat the orecchiette. It's a fine balance between flavor and fat.

To complete the meal, make a side of sautéed broccolini with garlic. You can also combine the broccolini with the pasta and have one big bowl of happiness and deliciousness!

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I love cabbage! Stuffed cabbage, cole slaw, corned beef and cabbage, kimchi, cabbage soup... I love all things made with cabbage. If I'm at a restaurant and I see a dish made with cabbage on the menu, it's usually the one I order. I'm not sure how or when my admiration of cabbage developed, but it runs strong and deep.

Several years ago, I was enjoying some Thai larb and it suddenly occurred to me that I wanted to create a dish with similar flavors. But, I wanted to add a vegetable to balance it out and also make it healthier. Naturally, I immediately thought of using cabbage.

So I turned it into a stir fry dish served on rice. I wanted something simple, healthy and easy to prepare. The outcome was stir fried cabbage, ground beef and mushrooms. The flavors that I borrowed from Thai larb are the saltiness from the fish sauce and the tanginess from the lime.

I added some kick with Vietnamese chili garlic sauce. And over time, I added sweet petite peas and mushrooms. The end result is a really good dish that goes nicely with jasmine rice. The highlight is the crunchy, salty shredded cabbage that is complimented by spicy, tangy ground beef and sweet peas.

There's nothing fancy about this dish, but it has turned into comfort food for Hungry Bear and me. When I make this dish, I usually stir fry a very large quantity of it so we can have leftovers for the next few days. It's a common practice for us to make mass quantities so we don't have to cook every day.

I love this dish because it has healthy cabbage in it, takes less than 45 minutes to prep and cook, and is prepared in "one pot"... ok, wok. If you want to make it more posh, use flank steak or ground Kobe beef. Better yet, just call it Deconstructed Stuffed Cabbage. 

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