my grand prize winning recipe

Something very cool and super-flattering happened to me last week. I won the grand prize in the Olson Recipe Maker Contest for my recipe for my Panang Curry Noodles.

Let me start at the beginning. Anna & Micheal Olson have an app which is a recipe generator. I downloaded right when it was introduced and have played around with it quite a bit since. How it works is you enter random ingredients that you’d like to use and this app creates recipe options using your list. It also includes tutorial videos with Anna & Michael. When I caught wind of the contest on Anna Olson’s Facebook she asked for anyone interested to submit their original pasta recipe for a chance to win a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer (& loads of other prizes). My recent Panang Chicken recipe came to mind and when I had a few moments to spare I entered the contest back at the beginning of this year. I’ve never entered a contest before, so I was really nervous & cautious, and of course never expected to win. Come to find out last week that my recipe was awarded the grand prize! So I’ll share it here (and feel free to try it and share it as well).

Panang Curry Noodles
3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons peeled & finely grated fresh ginger
1 to 2 tablespoons light-brown sugar
salt to taste
8 boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into large chunks
1 can coconut milk
3 tbsp Thai red curry paste
4 scallions, cut into 2-inch lengths and thinly sliced lengthwise
half a package of Thai rice noodles or 1/4 pkg of linguine

Boil noodles according to package directions, drain.
Whisk peanut butter, rice vinegar, soy sauce, grated ginger, brown sugar and salt, set aside.
Cook chicken thighs in a large non-stick skillet with 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Once cooked through remove from pan and set aside. Heat coconut milk in skillet until heated through. Add curry paste until fully incorporated. Add peanut butter mixture to pan and mix until combined. Add chicken and cooked noodles till just reheated through.
Serve with scallions and chopped peanuts for garnish.

Some notes about this recipe: 
• I came up with this based on my favourite item at Sahala Thai Restaurant on St. Paul Street in St. Catharines. There’s nothing better than the real deal, but when Owen arrived going out for Thai regularly just didn’t fit our lifestyle any more. So this is my riff on it.
• I recommend using light peanut butter and light coconut milk, the flavour is the same with those  substitutions. You could also use pretty much your choice of protein instead of chicken thighs here. Vegetarians - cubed eggplant or tofu would be great here!!
• With rice noodles this is similar to Pad Thai, but I almost like it better over jasmine rice.

Thank you Peace Point Entertainment, The Olsons, Kitchenaid and everyone involved in the judging process.

Here’s my prize in the kitchen! It fits in perfectly, I love it. The latest feature of a glass bowl will help ensure I will never under-mix another cake batter. 

Since it was shipped to me it also came with a bonus prize - feet of bubblewrap! A toy for me and a toy for Owen.