Green Curry Chicken with Asparagus

I found this recipe in the "Foodland Ontario" 2013 calendar that I picked up at "Cooper's CSA Farm & Maze" when I got my CSA box.  There are a lot of great recipes in this calendar so if you see one, grab it!
I only had bone-in chicken thighs on hand, so my photo does not look as lovely as the one in the calendar that uses boneless so they can be cut into chunks.  I think next time I will make the effort to use boneless for presentation purposes, but the flavour is phenomenal and it is super-easy to create!

GREEN CURRY CHICKEN WITH ASPARAGUS

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp green curry paste

2 tbsp coconut oil (or whatever oil you prefer to use for cooking)

1 lb skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into chunks

1 can light coconut milk

375g asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1" pieces (mine were a little too big...I was rushing unfortunately!)

1 tbsp fish sauce or soy sauce (I used 1/2 tbsp of each as I have them on hand!)

1 tbsp lime juice

2 tsp liquid honey

1/2 tsp grated lime rind.

• In a large deep skillet, cook onion, garlic curry paste and oil over medium-high heat, stirring until softened.  
• Add chicken and saute until lightly browned (approx. 5 minutes).  Add coconut milk, 1/2 cup water and asparagus;  bring to a boil.  Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes or until the juices run clear when chicken is pierced with a knife tip.
• Add fish sauce, lime juice, honey and lime rind.  Stir to blend and serve over a bed of rice, or on its own with flat bread for sopping up the delicious curry sauce!
• ENJOY!  

Red Pepper and Lime Soup

Since we had an abundance of bell peppers and cayenne peppers (shown) in our CSA boxes from "Cooper's CSA Farm & Maze", I decided to whip up this Mexican-inspired soup!!!  I added an entire, fresh, large cayenne pepper (sans seeds and ribs!) to the double batch of this soup I made, so it has quite a kick!!!  Use fresh limes for this recipe as the bottled variety doesn't have as fresh a taste.  I decided to pressure can my soup (as you can see I also made potato leek soup!)  so that I have fresh, homemade soup on hand when the weather turns really chilly!!

RED PEPPER & LIME SOUP

Ingredients:

1 large onion, chopped

4 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 small fresh red chili, sliced

3 tbsp tomato paste

3 3/4 cups vegetable stock

Finely grated rind and juice of 1 lime

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Cook the onion and bell peppers gently in the oil in a large saucepan, stirring occasionally, over medium high heat until they are softened but not coloured.
• Stir in the garlic, chili and tomato paste.  Add half the stock, then bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer gently for about 10 minutes.
• Let cool slightly then puree either with an immersion blender, or in a food processor or blender.  Return to the the pot and add the remaining stock, the lime rind and juice, and salt and pepper.
• Bring the soup back to the boil, then serve immediately!