Thai Curry Soup

• 2 ounces, weight rice noodles
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons minced lemongrass (if you can't find it just add an extra tablespoon of lime juice)
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
• 2 teaspoons red curry paste
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 can reduced fat coconut milk, 14 ounce can
• 1 cup peeled and deveined shrimp (or shredded cooked chicken)
• 4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• ¼ cups chopped cilantro
• ½ cups fresh sliced mushrooms
• 1 bag baby spinach, 6 ounce bag

Heat oil in saucepan, add onions and cook over medium heat until softened. Stir in garlic, lemon grass and ginger until aromatic — about 1 minute. Add the curry paste and stir. Pour in 1/2 of the chicken broth and stir until curry paste is dissolved, add the rest of the broth along with soy sauce and sugar. Let it simmer for 20 minutes, covered.

Stir in the noodles, coconut milk, shrimp(or chicken), and lime juice. Cook until shrimp is pink and done. Stir in cilantro, mushrooms and spinach until softened. 

Makes 4-6 servings

Beer Chicken Marinade

• ½ cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon cumin
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 tablespoons chopped onion(reconstituted from dried works)
• ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1½ cups beer(we used Dos Equis, anything light would work well)
• 4 pounds of raw chicken

Combine everything except for the beer and chicken in a large measuring cup, slowly add the beer.  Put the chicken into a zip top bag and slowly pour in the marinade.  Seal the bag and let rest in the fridge for at least 4 hours, but overnight is better.

Note:  This marinade also freezes well with chicken, if you don't need 4 pounds at a time, just omit the parsley until you thaw the chicken.