WC's Ca Ri Ga (Vietnamese Chicken Curry) by Danielle

Yay! Reader Danielle is the guinea pig for a new feature I'm calling "Readers Cook Wandering Chopsticks' Recipes." I know! Sooo original right? ;) What exactly is this? It's my attempt to be more interactive with some of my non-blogging readers, while giving me a blogging break every now and then. It's also useful for actual feedback since I really don't measure when I cook and only estimate amounts when I write up the recipe. I know, sooo unscientific. Here's the blurb from the Readers Cook WC Recipes index page:

"Not a blogger but want to be featured on my blog? It's easy. Send an email to me at wanderingchopsticks [at] gmail [dot] com with photos and a summary of your experience cooking any of my recipes. Too salty? Too sweet? Directions too confusing? I want to know. Use your real name if you wish or make up a name. Photos can be step-by-step, just of the finished product, or people chowin' down on my recipes. Just make sure to keep it clean. If you're a blogger and wish to hijack my blog, you may also send me photos and a write-up. To avoid duplication, think of it as a guest-post on my blog. While you're welcome to briefly mention the guest-post on your blog, please don't republish the same photos and the entire write-up that you send to me on your blog. I will, of course, link back to you in the guest-post, but I like to keep the content of my blog original. Otherwise, if you have a blog and made any of my recipes, please let me know and I'll link to your post on the recipe's original post. Please be aware that if you email photos or write-ups to me, I reserve the right to edit them if necessary. I will, of course, always acknowledge where they came from. You retain full copyright. I'll post these entries on a first-come, first-served basis, whenever I need a break from blogging. I'll shoot you a quick email to give you a heads-up. But really, aren't you reading my blog every day? ;) Now let's have some fun folks!"

I can't believe I just quoted myself. I'm such a dork! Sounds simple enough right? In other blogging news, if you haven't noticed, I've now created a "directory" with links to major categories and a quick recap of what you'll find. The directory link is at the top of the sidebar so you can easily access it from every page. The top of the sidebar also includes links to the recipe index with more than 200 original recipes by yours truly; restaurant index with more than 135 reviews; and random musings which are now separated by thoughts on blogging, family, food, and travels. The main directory link, however, also includes Fun Food, Guides and How To's, and Quilting. Also, if you haven't noticed, my Flickr icon includes random photos from the blog. So if a particular picture strikes your fancy, you can click on it, and it should include a link back to my original post so you can get more info on the recipe or restaurant. Consider it a random snapshot of my archives. If there's no link, then I probably uploaded the photo but haven't gotten around to blogging about it yet. OK, enough of my jibber-jabber, ya'll wanna see what Danielle has to say about my Ca Ri Ga (Vietnamese Chicken Curry) recipe, right? From Danielle:

As promised, I am reporting back to you on the Ca Ri Ga recipe you so graciously posted...just for our cooking group. We followed your recipe as is but made some minor adaptations. We substituted half of the white potatoes with the khoai lan trang (whitish flesh sweet potatoes found at Asian markets). We used chicken thighs, and drummettes. The chicken and potatoes turned out so tender and flavorful. I think we were heavy handed in adding too much water as well as with the coconut milk; thus, we had to add many tablespoons of curry as well as fish sauce to compensate! End result? Very yummy but I am sure, not so healthy curry!!

Anyhow, my cooking group loved the curry served with the banh mi baguettes. We had left over as you can probably guess, we ended up with a huge pot! I brought some home to my sis and her boyfriend; they both raved about it! Her bf stated that this was probably one of the best curry that he has ever tasted!! He was quite impressed when I told him that your recipe did not require that we marinade the chicken as most other curry recipes we know asked for the chicken to be marinaded.

My sister and I added a small dollop of the Chili Garlic / Tuong Ot Toi Viet-Nam (not the paste one) to our bowl of curry just before eating...and we both agreed that it was perfect!! Yum. Now she wants me to cook this recipe with her again next week!! I am attaching the Ca Ri Ga photo as well as a couple of desserts we made that day: Banh Khoai Mi & Che Chuoi. Let me know if you like to have the recipes although I bet you already have your own for these two desserts :)

The recipe makes a double batch of Banh Khoai Mi. Banh Khoai Mi 2 packages of frozen khoai mi (grated cassava)--found in the frozen section at most Asian markets 1 package of frozen shredded young coconut (found next to the frozen cassava) 1 can of condensed milk 2 Tablespoon of white flour Preheat oven to 400. Combine all the above ingredients, and pour onto 2 square baking pans. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Don't overbake as the Banh Khoai Mi may become too dry. To serve, cut into square bars.

Yay Danielle and your cooking group! And yay her sis and boyfriend for having great taste. OK, OK, I'll stop patting myself on the back. But they did a great job huh? By the way, I actually haven't posted a recipe for che chuoi (Vietnamese banana tapioca dessert pudding), but I do have one for Che Bap (Vietnamese Dessert Soup with Corn and Tapioca Pearls in Coconut Milk). ***** 1 year ago today, Wontons Stuffed with Ground Pork and Turkey, Bamboo Shoots, and Cabbage.