1 cup jasmine rice
2 cups water
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
salt

1. Bring rice and water to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to a simmer, stir in coconut milk, tomato paste, paprika, cayenne, red chili flakes and salt and cover, cooking until rice is done.
2. Fluff rice gently with a fork before serving.

Makes 4 servings

1/2 teaspoon saffron
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 small onion, minced
1 teaspoon ginger puree
1 tablespoon ground coriander seed
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
3 cups cauliflower flowerets
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
salt
water

1. Heat saffron in a saucepan over medium-high heat until lightly toasted. Stir in the coconut milk, onion, ginger, coriander seed and turmeric. Cook until reduced to a thick sauce and onion is tender.
2. Meanwhile, bring water to a boil and add the cauliflower, cooking until just tender. Drain.
3. Season sauce with salt to taste and pour over cauliflower. Sprinkle cayenne pepper over top to serve.

Makes 4 servings

16 ounce flank steak
4 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 stalk lemongrass, finely chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

1. Marinade flank steak in fish sauce, lemon juice, lemongrass and basil overnight.
2. Heat a large wok or heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Thinly slice the beef and fry until cooked through. Serve sizzling hot.

Makes 4 servings

There's really no theme tonight, I just happen to have some ingredients and needed to fire off a dinner for the website. Usually I'm into it, but tonight's Friday and I don't really feel like cooking and I just wanted to fire off something as quickly as possible. I had planned to make a nice little meal around this Thai Beef, which I've already done a few similar dishes of. I suppose that's still what I did. I actually liked how tender the meat was and the sort of "is it fishy or is it notness" from using so much fish sauce, which is more salty than anything. I'm sort of a sucker for anything with lemongrass, so this won me over for simplicity. Plus, it's really cheap, quick and easy and can be thrown into basically anything, like a stir-fry or in a spring roll like I was originally going to do.

Instead, I made some Red Rice to throw it on. This was basically spicy Coconut Rice with a mixture of tomato paste, cayenne, red chili flakes and paprika to give it the red color. I think the paprika was a bad idea because it gave it a bit of a Southwest Chili flavor. On its own or with another dish it would've been fine, but it didn't really go with the Thai beef that well to me.

I already kind of did a Curried Cauliflower dish, but this one is different! This one contains a sauce! and saffron! and more exclamation marks! I also totally overcooked the cauliflower, leaving it very mushy. So that definitely sets it apart from the last time I made it, because I'm not sure the last time I totally overcooked cauliflower. That ruined it for me, so I can't really say for sure if it would've been good otherwise. I'd just stick to the original recipe or make a cauliflower soup, I reckon.