Quick Curry Noodle Soup (and 5 More Favorite Curtis Stone Recipes) for Souper (Soup, Salad, & Sammie) Sundays

This week ends our six months cooking with Curtis Stone as our featured chef at I Heart Cooking Clubs. (Next week we start cooking with blogger and cookbook author, Heidi Swanson.) So this week we are saying Hooroo Curtis! (Goodbye Curtis!) and I am saying goodbye with a recipe I have been wanting to make from the beginning, his Quick Curry Noodle Soup. 

The recipe calls for shrimp and snapper but I couldn't find local snapper that looked good so I replaced it with some locally-made organic tofu, pressed in my tofu press and cut into cubes. I also added very thinly sliced carrots and some baby bok choy. My changes are noted in red below.

Curtis says: "This brothy soup is heavy on aromatic Thai flavors like lemongrass, ginger, cilantro, and coconut milk. The Kaffir lime leaves are not essential, but if you can get your hands on a bunch, they will take the dish to the next level. Freeze leftover leaves and pull them out again for your next curry."

Quick Curry Noodle Soup
Adapted from Good Food, Good Life by Curtis Stone
(Serves 4)

1 shallot, coarsely chopped
2 Fresno chiles, seeded to lessen heat if preferred, and coarsely chopped
3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 lemongrass stalk, coarsely chopped
1 Tbsp chopped peeled fresh ginger
10 fresh cilantro sprigs, leaves removed from stems and stems and leaves reserved
2 Tbsp canola or olive oil
2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
2 cups water or light broth (I used light veggie stock)
1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 lb skinless snapper fillets, cut into 1-inch pieces (I used pressed firm tofu, cubed)
3 oz thin rice noodles, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes and drained
4 kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced, optional
1 Tbsp fish sauce
Grated zest and juice of two limes
kosher salt, to taste

In a food processor or blender, process the shallot, chiles, garlic, lemongrass, ginger and cilantro stems with the oil until pureed as smoothly as possible, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally as needed.

Heat a large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add the chile paste and saute for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is fragrant. Add the coconut milk and water or broth, cover, bring to a simmer, and simmer for about 10 minutes, until flavors have blended.

Add the shrimp, snapper (or tofu), noodles, lime leaves, and fish sauce to the coconut broth and simmer for 3 minutes--until the seafood and noodles are just cooked through. Stir in the lime zest and juice and season to taste with salt.

Divide between bowls, sprinkle the cilantro on top and serve immediately. 

Make Ahead Note: Curtis says that the recipe can be made through step 2, up to 1-day ahead. Keep the coconut broth separate and refrigerated and bring to a simmer before proceeding to the next step.  

Notes/Results: I love how quickly and easily this curry noodle soup comes together and how good it tastes. I made the curry paste in my Vita Mix blender, poured it into the pan and prepped the shrimp, tofu and veggies while the coconut curry broth simmered and flavors blended. You can adapt this one to your preferences with little effort--subbing in different proteins and veggies and increasing or decreasing the heat and changing up the noodles, or using veggie noodles. I did remove the seeds from the chiles so it had a mild kick--which is the way I like it. It really hit the spot for a rainy, carb-craving day.

I always like to end my cooking time with our featured chef by sharing my favorite recipes that I cooked during our time with them. Here's five of my Curtis Stone picks although I really enjoyed all of his recipes that I made. Interestingly enough, my favorite five recipes--the ones  were either fish, soup, or fish soup!

This Tomato Consommé with Cucumber and Watermelon Balls was visually stunning, delicious, and perfect for a humid summer. It was also a perfect balance of the sweet melon and the savory tomato broth.

 

His Braised Mahi Mahi Opah Puttanesca is an easy one-pan fish dinner that was delicious with the spice and the tangy flavor and  the briny olives and capers. I served it with zucchini noodles for a healthy dinner.

Speaking of fish, Curtis's Grilled Mahi Mahi Tacos with Pico De Gallo were delicious with their flavorful cilantro and garlic marinade and a chunky fresh pico de gallo. One of my favorite fish taco recipes ever.  

What's with all the fruit soup? ;-) The Watermelon and Summer Berry Soup also needs a mention because it's like a watermelon agua fresca meets a fruit salad. It was terrific on its own, and even more amazing with a scoop of yogurt or vanilla ice cream. Perfect for summer and especially lovely on the table for Memorial Day or July 4th. 

 

Finally, the first dish I cooked with Curtis was this Thai Soup with Mahi Mahi and Shrimp Dumplings. The flavors and the notes of sweet, salty, spicy, savory and tangy were so well balanced in this soup and who doesn't love tender little meatballs--these were of fish and shrimp and rich coconut milk broth?!

Seriously, it's hard to go wrong with a Curtis Stone recipe, but these are ones I think about long after I finished enjoying them! I'll definitely be back cooking with Curtis during our monthly Potluck weeks.

You can see how everyone said Hooroo Curtis! by checking out the picture links on the post.

We have some good friends in the Souper Sundays kitchen who shared some delicious dishes last week--let's have a look!
 

Shaheen of Allotment2Kitchen shared her Berbere Split Pea, Sweetcorn and Yellow Courgette Soup and said, "In recent years I have been exploring and enjoying more and more Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine. The last recipe I made was during Refugee Week.  I have to admit this Berbere Soup is not authentic, but it is inspired as I was given a little jar of homemade Berbere spice blend by one of the volunteers in my workplace."   

Debbie of The Friday Friends shared a salad and a soup this week. Her salad is this pretty Frida Kahlo-inspired Fruity Slaw and she says, "I've had this recipe for a while, but

To be honest---the sound of cantaloupe and strawberries and cabbage didn't sound that appealing to me, but make it I did and... it Was SO GOOD!!  I loved it.  Just the right amount of sweet from the fruit and crunch from the cabbage. While this might not seem "Mexican" inspired, think of this---artists always use fruit in their paintings. It's common. Still Life paintings--lots of fruit."

Debbie also made soup and said, "This is what I made for my Sunday Soup---Chicken and Kielbasa Soup--- and it was so, SO good. The description in the magazine says that there is something satisfying about that snap that comes when you bite into a chuck of Kielbasa, and that its smoky flavor begs to be added to cold-weather dishes. AGREED!"
  

 
Here at Kahakai Kitchen, I made a Black Bean, Radish and Cheese Salad to go with fish tacos for a Frida Kahlo-inspired dinner for a Food 'n Flix and Cook the Books crossover event. It's a very simple and easy salad but it gets lots of flavor from the peppery radish, the crumbly cheese, cilantro and tangy vinaigrette.  

 
A big thank you to Shaheen and Debbie for joining in this week!

Souper Sundays is back with a new format of a picture link each week where anyone interested can post their soups, salads, or sandwiches any time during the week and I post a recap of the entries the following week.)

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here. 

If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you.

On your entry post (on your blog):

• please mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and link back to this post.
• you are welcome to add the wonderful Souper Sundays logo (created by Ivy at Kopiaste) to your post and/or blog (optional).

An InLinkz Link-up

Have a happy, healthy week!