Season to Taste: Do you like it Spicy?

chili peppers (Photo credit: marzbars)

Last year I had such a bad sinus infection. Nothing seemed to help except spicy food.  Some spice leaves you with the burn a while, and some, like wasabi, is gone once the food is swallowed.  Lately my tolerance for spice has increased.   I really love and crave Thai food.  Spicy Thai food. There's just a great combination of flavor all balance by a bit of bitter and some musky taste like cumin or a curry.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The problem with ethnic cuisine  is that it often requires a bunch of ingredients I won't use enough to justify their purchase or which I just don't know how to use.  Eventually I find a jar of something in the fridge and wonder what I was thinking. Plus, a lot of foods are made with fats and I don't use much.  At my house, "ethnic" means "not European or Mexican." People used to cooking cuisines from other parts of the world probably have similar issues with European food. I do have friends for whom "ethnic" means "olives that aren't green, pitted (pimentos optional) and in a jar of brine." Dinner with me is an education for them


What I usually do is adapt. I try for the flavor without fat and too many specific ingredients.  Last night I made a Thai-Inspired Sweet Potato salad my husband really loved. Here's what I did but you should experiment and use what you like.  The idea is a combo of flavors, sweet, salty, sour, bitter with a undercurrent of musky spice:

1 1/2 lbs of any combo of any Yams/Sweet Potatoes, I used one Garnet and one Japanese.  I large-diced these and cooked them in salted water until just tender.  I also had some crushed ginger and a piece of parsely in the pot. Remove from heat, drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
wash and tear
2 cups of baby kale aand add to the still warm sweet potatoes
Add:
1/2 white onion chopped and sauteed then
2 cloves of garlic pressed on to that.  Add some water if necessary.
Don't overcook this, it is just to take the "raw" off the onion and garlic. 
Remove from heat, add
1 teaspoon cumin and 
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander (start light with this and then add more if you dig it.)

chop together a handful each of  fresh
cilantro 
basil and
parsley 
Sliver any combo and amount of fresh hot peppers - I used jalapeno and anaheim and I removed the seeds and veins without letting my fingernails getting any pepper under them.
Sliver 1/2 sweet red pepper
Add all the peppers and herbs to the sweet potatoes

grate a knob of ginger making sure that you collect the juice.  To this add a
 chili pod (I used an Indian chili - use what you have or what you like) or some red pepper flakes,
 a 1/2 tsp oil, (I am really miserly with oil.  Here is is needed to carry flavors, but you may wish to use more. I used olive oil but canola or a good peanut oil would be fine
and a few tablespoons of rice vinegar (I use rice vinegar I infuse with ginger and keep in the fridge - I think it's safe to do that. I haven't died yet, but I am no food safety specialist.)

Juice of one to two limes (I think two is better)
a bit of lime zest

Depending on how much heat you like remove some or all of the dried chili from the dressing. Add the dressing to the sweet potatoes

 Add
Sprinkles of Fish sauce to taste
1 TBSP (or more) Shredded unsweetened coconut
1 TBSP (or more) Dry-roasted, salted or unsalted, peanuts
Season to taste with Salt, Pepper, chopped scallions or whatever you like.  Some people would add a little honey but the sweet potatoes are sweet enough to me.


Serve at room temperature.

You could use shredded cabbage instead of kale.

I didn't think I had enough hot peppers in mine and would have used two limes but I only had one and they were really expensive. I would also add more cilantro leaves and some torn basil as I served it.


I served this with a sauteed boneless skinless chicken breast cooked with the other 1/2 of the onion cut into slivers,
adding green curry paste and water at the end of cooking.  


It was really yummy.