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Recipe: Spicy Caribbean Curry Chicken Salad

Coronation Chicken Salad with Fat Cat Caribbean Curry Sauce

Looking for a great recipe for leftover rotisserie chicken? Then give our Spicy Caribbean Curry Chicken Salad a try. Using the classic dish, Coronation Chicken, as inspiration, we mix cooked chicken with dried fruit, nuts and spices to create a tropical blend of complex textures and flavors. To extend the dish’s curry base, and to supply some wonderful chile heat, we’ve also stirred in some of our award-winning Caribbean Curry hot sauce. Feel free to substitute your favorite fruits and nuts, or add more Caribbean Curry (for added spice), to personalize the dish — either way it’s delicious!

Here’s what we did:

Coronation Chicken Salad with Fat Cat Caribbean Curry SauceIngredients:

1 lb. leftover rotisserie chicken meat, cubed into 1-inch pieces
1/2 large onion, diced
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 teaspoons tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 cup chopped almonds, walnuts or pecans (or a mixture of the two or three)
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cups raisins (or dried cherries or craisins)
1-4 tablespoons Fat Cat Caribbean Curry sauce (depending on desired heat level)
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Add oil and onions and cook onions, stirring frequently, until onions have softened and become slightly caramelized, about 5-7 minutes.

Add tomato paste and curry powder. Stir to combine and cook another 2 minutes until well-combined.

Turn off heat and transfer mixture to large mixing bowl. To bowl add chicken, mayonnaise, nuts, raisins and 1 tablespoon of Fat Cat Caribbean Curry sauce.

Stir well, ensuring all ingredients are evenly distributed, and taste for salt and heat. Adjust as needed. If more heat is desired, add more Fat Cat Caribbean Curry sauce, one tablespoon at a time, until desired heat level has been achieved. (Two tablespoons of sauce should produce a medium spice level.)

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 1 hour, or up to 4 hours, to allow flavors to meld.

To serve as a first course, spread some lettuce on a plate and mound about 1 cup of salad atop the lettuce.

For a sandwich, spread mixture on a slice of bread, top with a leaf of lettuce, top with another slice of bread and serve.

Enjoy!

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Recipe: 15-Minute Purry-Purry Chicken Cutlets

15-Minute Purry-Purry Chicken CutletsSometimes you just need a quick weeknight meal, and this simple recipe is exactly that — our go-to main course when we’re short on time but still looking for a home-cooked dinner. Making it couldn’t be simpler. Set the oven, mix a few ingredients together and viola — instant dinner. In most cases, we’ll use our award-winning Purry-Purry Sauce as the flavor-base base, but you can produce equally delicious results with our Caribbean Curry and Cat in Heat sauces as well — just substitute them for Purry-Purry Sauce in the recipe below. Also, feel free to switch out the chicken for pork, fish, scallops or shrimp — either way, it’s still delicious.

Here’s what we did:

Ingredients:

4 chicken cutlets, about 6 oz. each
2-3 tablespoons Fat Cat Purry-Purry Sauce (depending on desired heat level)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons panko breadcrumbs (or coconut flake)
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Set oven to 425F.

On a foil-lined baking sheet, spread out chicken cutlets and season lightly with salt and pepper.

In a small mixing bowl, stir together the mayonnaise and Fat Cat Purry-Purry Sauce until well blended. Taste mixture — if more spice is desired, add another tablespoon of Purry-Purry Sauce. (If sauce is too spicy, add another tablespoon of mayonnaise.)

Using the back of a spoon, spread a thin layer of the mayo-Purry-Purry Sauce mixture over the top of the chicken, making sure to coat the surface of the chicken evenly and completely. The mayo-mixture will baste the chicken as it cooks, keeping it moist, and also serve as a means to infuse the flavors of the sauce onto the meat.

Once done, lightly sprinkle a layer of breadcrumbs over the top of the cutlets, creating a thin, even coating. (The breadcrumbs will provide texture to the dish.)

Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, or until cutlets are cooked through and golden brown..

Let cool for 5 minutes before serving, and serve alongside your favorite vegetable with more Purry-Purry Sauce on the side, for dipping.

Enjoy!

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Recipe: Seared Salmon with Caribbean Curry-Butter Sauce

Salmon with Caribbean Curry-Butter Sauce

In our opinion, fancy food doesn’t always have to be fancy, and food that’s simple to prepare doesn’t always make a simple dish. Take this recipe, for example, which couldn’t be simpler to make — or more luxurious on the plate. Quickly sear some salmon slices in a hot pan and then make a quick sauce for the fish using butter and of our Caribbean Curry sauce. The sauce’s aromatics, chilies and spices form a fabulous foundation, and the butter serves both as an emulsifier, an extending vehicle for the sauce’s spices and a means to calm the sauce’s habanero-based heat some. It’s a pretty rich dish, so we recommend keeping it as an appetizer, but the portion below could also be used as a main course — double or quadruple it if making it for a crowd. Feel free to substitute other seafood as well, like halibut, flounder, shrimp, clams, crab or lobster — all are equally excellent replacements for the salmon.

Here’s what we did:

Ingredients:

4 oz. salmon
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons Fat Cat Caribbean Curry
1/4 teaspoon salt
large pinch of black pepper
pinch of paprika
1/2 teaspoon chopped parsley (for garnish – optional)

Instructions:

Slice salmon into half-inch wide strips.

In a bowl, mix vegetable oil, salt, pepper and paprika. Add salmon strips to bowl and coat evenly with mixture.

Heat a pan over medium-high heat. Once hot, lay salmon strips in dry pan and sear, 30 seconds per side. Flip and sear other side, another 30 seconds, then remove salmon and set aside.

Turn off heat and take pan off burner so it cools down some. Once cooled a little, add butter and swirl until it’s evenly melted but not brown.

Add Fat Cat Caribbean Curry and swirl together to make a broken sauce. Do all this off the heat, so the butter doesn’t burn and sauce does not splatter.

Return salmon to pan (still off-heat) and use a spoon to coat fish with sauce.

Plate salmon, spooning the remaining sauce atop the fish to finish.

Garnish with a sprinkle of chopped parsley and enjoy.

Makes 2 appetizer portions or one main course.

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Recipe: Jason Wilson’s Caribbean Curry Jam with Red Peppers and Peaches

Fat Cat Caribbean Curry JamOur good friend Jason Wilson (creator of popular Fat Cat recipes like Ginger-Panko Island Onions and Cilantro Rice with Grilled Habanero Pineapple, to name a few, let his creativity fly with this unique condiment, which uses our spicy Caribbean Curry sauce as a base. The inclusion of sweet red peppers and peaches serve both as a means to calm the heat of our Caribbean Curry sauce and as extenders of the sauce’s spices. Fiery and exotic, it’s a delicious addition to sandwiches, as a glaze atop grilled fish or pork, or as a pass-around appetizer atop cream cheese and a cracker. Pepper jelly should enjoy the complex flavors here.

Here’s what he did:

Ingredients:

2 large red peppers
3 peaches
1 3/4 cups apple cider vinegar
1 bottle Fat Cat Carribean Curry
8 cups sugar
Pinch of salt
2 packages of fruit pectin

Instructions:

Finely chop the peppers and peaches and add to a large pot. Over medium-low heat, sweat the peppers and peaches slowly until the ingredients begin to soften some and released some of their juices, about 5-10 minutes. You are not looking for color here, only softening, so please cook low and slow.

Once the peppers and peaches have started to soften, add the vinegar and raise heat.

Bring mixture to a boil and add sugar and salt. Stir to dissolve.

Add Fat Cat Carribean Curry, reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until mixture has reduced by 1/3 and fruit and vegetable mixture has completely softened.

Using a slotted spoon, remove about half of the fruit and vegetable pulp and set aside. Then, with a hand mixer, puree the mixture until smooth. If you don’t have a hand mixer, then blend everything in batches using a blender or food processor.

After blending, return everything to the pot, including the pulp you’ve previously set aside, add the pectin and bring the mixture to a boil again, stirring occasionally. Skim off any foam that forms once the mixture is boiling again.

Boil for 5 minutes more, then turn off heat and let mixture cool for about 10-15 minutes.

Fill well-sterilized mason jars with mixture and seal per package instructions.

Mixture will set into a jelly over the next day or so. Refrigerate after opening.

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Recipe: Spicy Winter Squash Soup

In our humble opinion, few flavors capture the spirit of autumn and winter better than winter squashes, like butternut, acorn and pumpkin. For us, their creamy consistency and sweet flavors just seem to take the chill out of the air and comfort the soul.

One of our favorite ways to eat them is in soups — particularly when the squash is slow-roasted and, as in the recipe below, blended with various aromatics and spices, as well as our Fat Cat Caribbean Curry sauce for heat and brightness. Talk about the spirit of the season in a bowl!

Feel free to use frozen butternut chunks or canned puree if you don’t feel like working with the raw vegetable, and adjust the seasonings and heat level to your liking.

Here’s what we did:

Ingredients:

1 hard squash, like acorn, butternut or pumpkin, about 2-3 lbs. in weight
1/2 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
4 teaspoons vegetable or olive oil
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1-2 tablespoons Fat Cat Caribbean Curry
salt and pepper

Instructions:

Set your oven to 425F.

Carefully split the squash into two equal halves — do not remove the seeds and skin at this point — and lay cut side up on a baking sheet. Coat the squash with 1-2 tablespoons of oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, then roast the squash for 45 min to 1 hour, or until tender when pierced with a knife.

Once cooked, set the squash aside and let it cool.

Set a heavy pot over medium heat, add the remaining oil and saute the onion, garlic and ginger until soft but not brown, about 5-10 min. At that point, add the curry powder and nutmeg, stirring to combine, and lower heat to simmer.

Once the squash has cooled, scoop out the seeds and set aside*, then peel — which should be very quick at this point, since the squash will be very soft — and add the flesh of the squash to the pot, incorporating it well with the aromatics already there.

Add the broth to the squash mixture and, using a stick blender, puree until smooth.

If you don’t have a stick blender, you can puree the soup in batches with a food processor or blender (use the low setting on the latter).

Once smooth, stir in the Fat Cat Caribbean Curry and adjust for salt and spice level.

Serve in a bowl and enjoy.

* NOTE: For a quick, healthy snack, spread the cooked squash seeds on a foil-lined baking sheet, spray with cooking spray and coat generously in your favorite spice rub (or even chili powder, if that’s what’s available). Roast at 375F for 10 minutes, cool, toss and eat!

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Video: Quick Caribbean Curry Lamb Chops

Cooking with Canes: Recipe Seven — Quick Caribbean Curry Lamb Chops

Our favorite South Florida tailgaters, Fonz and Gary (who makes a comical appearance this time by hiding behind Fonz during the opening seconds of this video), offer us another spectacular parking lot-based recipe, this time set in the Adler Lot at Soldier Field in Chicago. On the menu: Quick Caribbean Curry Lamb Chops — an easy recipe for the grill that makes great use of our Fat Cat Caribbean Curry sauce. Enjoy!

Click here to view more “Cooking with Canes” videos.

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Recipe: Couscous with Spicy Sauteed Vegetables and Tofu

 

Here’s a quick, flavorful vegetarian/vegan recipe that provides a perfect meal for those hot summer days (as well as those chilly winter nights). Plus, it’s a great pantry and fridge cleaner — especially when you’ve reached the tail end of the lifespan of those veggies in the crisper. While we’ve included ingredients like zucchini below, the dish works just as well with cauliflower, broccoli and more. And outside of a little bit of chopping, the whole thing can be put together in less than 30 minutes! What could be better? We like to spice up the flavors by adding our Fat Cat Purry-Purry Sauce to the mix, which we think deepens the aromatics and adds some chili-infused heat. For more intense heat, add a couple tablespoons of Fat Cat Mexican-Style Habanero or Fat Cat Caribbean Curry to the dish.

Here’s what we did:

Ingredients:

4 medium zucchini, cut into quarter-moons about 1/2-inch thick
1 medium onion, cut into 1/2-inch thick pieces
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp ginger, minced
1 large tomato, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces, or 1 14.5 oz can of tomatoes, drained
1 14.5 oz can of chick peas, drained
1 lbs of firm tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes and pressed free of water
1 cup dry couscous
3 cups vegetable broth
1 tsp curry powder
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
3 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup Fat Cat Purry-Purry Sauce
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons mint, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

In a small saucepan, bring 2 cups of vegetable broth to a boil, then add the couscous, stir well, turn off heat, cover and let couscous reconstitute until cooked, about 10 minutes.

In a non-stick pan over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon olive oil and saute tofu until brown on one side. Once browned, add 1 tablespoon more of olive oil and brown other side of tofu cubes. (No need to brown all sides of the tofu cubes unless you want to — this is done so the tofu holds its shape in the mixture.)

Once browned, remove tofu to a plate, add remaining olive oil and raise heat to medium high.

Saute zucchini until it starts to brown, about 3 minutes, then add onion, garlic and ginger and curry powder until fragrant, about 30 seconds longer.

Stir in tomatoes and chick peas until well combined, then return tofu to the mix.

Raise heat to high, add couscous, remaining broth and Fat Cat Purry-Purry Sauce and stir until everything is evenly mixed together and nearly all the liquid in the pan has been absorbed by the couscous.

Turn off heat, stir in parsley and mint, salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Enjoy!

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Recipe: Spicy Curry Veal Patties (featuring Nine’s Mine Ranch veal)

Our good friend Rebecca Reis-Miller of Growing Synergy (and the Lake Nona Deli and Market, which also carries our products) not only inspired this wonderful, flavor-packed appetizer but also supplied us with its key ingredient: Nine’s Mine Ranch ground veal. According to Growing Synergy, Nine Mine’s Ranch “sells humanely raised, never-caged veal from St. Cloud, FL and Nashville, GA;” the product is distributed to local markets and restaurants in the Orlando area via Growing Synergy.

While visiting Rebecca one night at the Lake Nona Deli, she gave us some ground veal and challenged us to come up with a Fat Cat-infused recipe for it. We took it home and cooked up a bit to taste it — to our surprise, it proved to be much deeper and richer in flavor than what we normally associated with veal, which is often mild in taste, but it also still possessed the meat’s delicate nature. Pretty impressive. With that as our foundation, we started experimenting. Ultimately we created two recipes, the first of which appears below. Thanks for the inspiration, Rebecca!

Here’s what we did:

Ingredients:

1 lb. Nine’s Mine Ranch ground veal
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup plain/unseasoned breadcrumbs
1/2 white onion, shredded or grated
1/2 green bell pepper, shredded or grated
1 serranno chili, shredded or grated (optional)
1 tablespoon Jamaican curry powder
1 clove of garlic, shredded or grated
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons Fat Cat Caribbean Curry Sauce, plus more for dipping
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Put veal in bowl and, using a hand grater, shred the onion, green pepper, serrano pepper and garlic directly into the bowl on top of it. Then add the parsley, egg, bread crumbs, Fat Cat Caribbean Curry Sauce and curry powder and combine with hands under ingredients have blended together well.

Once combined, cover mixture with plastic wrap and set in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour (or overnight, if desired), so the mixture and chill and solidify some and so the flavors can meld.

When ready to cook, remove mixture from refrigerator and form into 3-inch-wide patties, making anywhere from 8-10 patties total. (These are appetizers, after all.)

Heat oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat and sautee patties until golden brown on both sides and cooked through, about 4-5 minutes per side.

Set on plate and dip into more Fat Cat Caribbean Curry Sauce if desired. Serve two patties per appetizer portion.

Enjoy!

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Recipe: Caribbean Curry-Spiked Hummus

Hummus is one of our favorite everyday recipes, partly because it packs such a flavorful wallop and partly because it’s so darned easy to make. Blend just a few common ingredients, adjust your seasonings and voila! We especially like it spiked with some of our Fat Cat Caribbean Curry sauce, which gives the classic Mediterranean dip a complex twist, thanks to the chili sauce’s sweet start and spicy finish. We think it makes the perfect party dip.

Here’s what we did:

Ingredients:

1 can of garbanzo beans (appx. 15 oz.), drained
1 tablespoon of cumin seeds, toasted, or 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
3 large cloves of garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons of tahini or sesame paste
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon (for garnish)
1 – 2 tablespoons of Fat Cat Caribbean Curry Sauce (depending on desired level of spiciness)
Pinch of paprika (for garnish)
Salt and pepper to taste
Pita chips

Instructions:

Toast cumin in a dry pan until fragrant, about 30 seconds over medium heat.

Add garlic, cumin, tahini, garbanzo beans, parsley and1 tablespoon of Fat Cat Caribbean Curry Sauce into a food processor and blend until all ingredients are pulverized and combined, about 1 minute.

With processor still going, stream in the olive oil until the mixture takes on a creamy consistency, about 1-2 minutes more.

Add lemon juice and adjust salt and pepper to taste. Also, add more Fat Cat Caribbean Curry Sauce if more spiciness is desired. Blend to combine.

Scoop into serving bowl. Garnish with a sprinkle of paprika and drizzle with remaining olive oil. Serve with pita chips.

Enjoy!

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Recipe: Jason Wilson’s Ginger-Panko Island Onions

Jason Wilson (the talented cook behind such wonderful recipes as the imaginative “Nogales Freeze-Out” and the “Badasssss Caramelized Onion Fajitas” — both available in the Recipes section of our site) caught Fat Cat fever (not to be confused with “Cat Scratch Fever”) while vacationing on the Gulf coast of Florida. To ease his sudden Fat Cat craving, he created this delicious, addictive side dish, which works well both as a pairing for grilled fish, burgers and the like as well as a satisfying beverage accompaniment (like, if you’re relaxing on a beach with a cool beer in hand and suddenly want to nosh on something crispy and delicious). What we like best is that it takes our fiery Caribbean Curry sauce down a somewhat Middle Eastern path, creating a unique, spicy, exotic spin on the classic onion ring.

Here’s what he did:

Ingredients:

2 large sweet onions (like vidalia or walla walla), peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch rings
2 cups canola oil (or enough to cover onion rings completely in a frying pan)

Dipping Mixture:

2 eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup Fat Cat Caribbean Curry

Crispy Coating Mixture:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon fresh black pepper
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup panko breadcrumbs

Dipping Sauce:

1/4 cup Unflavored Greek Yogurt
1/4 cup Fat Cat Caribbean Curry
1/4 teaspoon cumin
Handful of chopped fresh mint

Instructions:

Heat canola oil in a pan to 350 F.

In small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs and Fat Cat Caribbean Curry sauce. Soak sliced onions in mixture for 15 minutes or up to an hour.

In another bowl, mix together the ingredients for the Crispy Coating Mixture and then place into a shallow dish (which makes it easier for coating of the rings later — trust us).

Place the panko breadcrumbs into another shallow dish beside the first.

Remove the onion rings from buttermilk mixture and place on a plate. Save the buttermilk mixture and set near to the other bowls.

Dip and coat the onion rings in the flour mixture, coating them well, then dip them back into the buttermilk mixture, then coat them generously in the panko, creating a thick breading.

Fry briefly in hot oil (turning once) until onion rings are lightly brown on both sides and crispy.

Place paper towels on a large baking sheet to drain the excess oil from onion rings.

When ready to serve, reheat the onion rings on a parchment-lined baking sheet at 400 F for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Meanwhile, combine the ingredients for the Dipping Sauce, put in a side dish, serve the rings and dip away….

Enjoy.