I love baking blue corn bread, and now that I no longer bake with packaged butter, I am in the process of an experiment where I remake all of my baked dishes with fresh, homemade butter. I adapted my Chunky Corn Bread recipe for fresh butter, and, guess what? It turned out fantastic! (If I may say so myself…)

For this month’s Taste and Create, I was paired with Padmajha from Seduce Your Tastebuds. She is a fantastic cook with recipes that go way beyond my perceived comfort zone in the kitchen. Luckily, living here in Boulder, CO, I was able to rely on my friends at Savory Spice Shop to buy some fresh, high quality Fenugreek Seeds, Fennel Seeds, Curry Leaves, and Asafetida. With excellent ingredients, this dish turned out to be quite easy and incredibly delicious.

Here is the link to Padmajha’s recipe.

Here is what I did-

Ingredients:

• 5 Yukon Gold Potatoes (I found some local organic potatoes at Whole Foods)
• 1 28 oz. can of whole tomatoes, separated from their juices (It is not the season for fresh tomatoes, so I will repeat this dish once Colorado’s growing season is in full bloom)
• 1 TB olive oil
• a pinch of asafetida
• 1 TB cumin seeds
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 4 dried thai chilies
• 1 TB grated ginger
• 6-8 curry leaves
• 1 cup water
• sea salt

This meal is Maple Shallot Salmon, brown rice with a Maple Shallot Dressing, and parmesan peas (a personal favorite of mine). I marinated the Salmon for 30 minutes prior to baking it at 375 for 20 or so minutes. I also decided to make plain brown basmati rice so I could use whatever was left over to make home made rice milk. So, I made a dressing to pour over the baked fish and cooked rice. Finally, my favorite veggie dish- boiled peas in freshly grated parmesan cheese. I could eat these peas every day.

Salmon Marinade Ingredients:

• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 TB freshly grated ginger
• 2 TB soy sauce
• 1 TB water
• 1 tsp Aleppo pepper (which you can find at Savory Spice Shop)
• 2 green onions, chopped

I prepared the marinade in a small bowl and poured it evenly over my cold-water-washed, dried, and de-boned salmon that was sitting on a foil-covered flat baking tray. I preheated the oven to 375 and let the salmon soak in some flavors. Right before it went in the oven, I poured the juice of 1/2 lemon on top.

Meanwhile, I prepared some brown basmati rice, which took 45 minutes or so. I usually add something to flavor the rice as it cooks, but, making rice milk with the leftover rice prohibited that. Instead, I made this dressing to drizzle over the meal.

Maple Shallot Dressing Ingredients:

• 1 TB soy sauce
• 1 TB maple syrup
• 1 TB toasted sesame oil
• 1/2 TB dried ginger (fresh will work, of course. Just use a little less than dried.)
• 1 TB dried shallots (I bought mine, like ALL of my spices, from Savory Spice Shop)
• 1 green onion, chopped
• juice from 1/2 lime

This soup has a few different steps, but all are quite easy and worth the extra effort. Use fresh ginger root of you can’t find galangal. Also, I made this recipe with the Vita-Mix in mind. If you don’t have one, please let me know how the stock turns out using a standard blender.

Soup Stock Ingredients:

• 1 yellow or white onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 4 cups water (to start…you can add more as the stock cooks)
• 2 TB soy sauce
• 3-4 chunks of galangal root (pieces the size of your thumb)
• 5-6 thai chilies
• 1 small can of coconut milk

To start the broth, cut the onion into a few pieces and put it in the Vita-Mix with the garlic and some water. Puree this into a smooth consistency for a few seconds until it looks like a milky broth. Pour it into a stock pot to start the stock.

Add the rest of the 4 cups of water, the chilies, soy sauce, galangal root, and simmer for 30 minutes before adding the coconut milk.

While the stock is cooking, bake your tofu that has already been frozen, thawed, pressed, and marinated. I made a Ginger Baked Tofu from an earlier recipe.

When the tofu is done, remove it from the oven. Bring some water to a boil to cook some rice noodles. The noodles I used had me boil them for a few minutes and then drain and rinse in cool water.

When all of the components are done, pick out the large pieces of galangal from the broth. Then add some fresh spinach to wilt it. Put some noodles in a bowl, arrange some pieces of tofu, ladle on some broth, and add more soy sauce and sriracha to taste. Enjoy.

Fresh picked organic beans, home grown and canned. Here I drizzled a little walnut oil, champagne vinegar, sea salt, and pepper. Simple. Good.