curry in a hurry

Greetings fellow eaters. I made a veggie curry, wanna see?

 The veg in question. Later I added mushrooms and frozen peas, because my dad loves frozen peas and he was partaking in this particular curry. That, and my mom asked me if I would put peas in for my dad 130,004,287 times during the making of this curry.

Chop the veg up. Put some effort into it!

Stir fry the veg (I like to use coconut oil) starting with garlic and ginger. Then add the firmest veggies in first, such as potatoes and carrots. After frying and softening the veggies a little, I added the curry paste.

I like to doctor the jarred sauce with a variety of India spices. It makes me feel like I actually cooked rather than mixed things around. Anything to boost the self-esteem, people!

Time to add in the softer veggies like peppers and mushrooms.

I love mushrooms in curries.

Yes, I finally added the peas, minutes before serving this on some quinoa. Quite the satisfying meal, and even tastier the following day!

dhal-ish doll

It was lentils with Lia night tonight...Food got cooked, almost burned the lentils but they survived. Here's what you do to make this super easy tasty dish. Is it considered dhal? I don't know but it does have some Indian inspired flavors.

To cook the lentils, I fried 2 big handfuls with olive oil and 3 bay leaves, just long enough to get them coated and hot. Add enough water to cover the lentils by a couple of inches and boil over a medium heat for about 30 minutes. Keep checking and adding water so they don't dry out. A veggie bouillon cube can really make lentils sexy and exciting.

Chop up some tomatoes like so.

Get yourself some yellow and red peppers and cut those up too.

Meanwhile, get some quinoa cooking. No stress, just 2 parts water and 1 part grain, simmer that like rice about 15 minutes.

The veggies go in the pot after sweating 3 cloves of minced garlic and a minced onion in a tablespoon of coconut oil. To make everything taste fantastic, you need spices. I added roughly equal parts (about a 25 cent sized plop) of ground turmeric, coriander, cumin, garam masala and a pinch of chili flakes. To season, add salt and sugar. Now you need some liquid. I used white wine, veggie stock and tomato paste.

The burning can be avoided by not getting carried away with a pre-dinner serenade. Check on this mixture to not let it dry out.

Asparagus are in season. Tasty stalks got quickly fried in olive oil and butter.

Bon appétit!

curry craving

Hello friends! Welcome to 2010, hope you all had a fantastic time ringing in the new year. My NYE 2009 post is yet to come. First I want to tell you about the green curry I made after a day of shopping at the sales. God I love sales. Got a pair of jeans, 2 cardigans and a long sleeved top for 80 bucks. Pretty amazing! As I was shopping my little heart out, I was very very hungry, and mentally going through my fridge to see what I could make. I started craving thai green curry. Creamy, spicy, sweet and warming curry. Yes. I ended up having to buy coconut milk, beer and coriander to complete my feast.

Mmmm beer.


The ingredients in question: garlic, ginger, onion, zukes, red pepper, carrot, celery, broccoli. And their little friends coconut milk and curry paste. P.S. this paste kinda sucked, buy the Thai Kitchen one instead. Mental note for next time.

Oh and cherry tomatoes decided to jump in at the last minute.

I pre-fried some tofu marinated with soya and pepper in some coconut oil. Next time I will cut the pieces up smaller.

For those of you unsure how to cook curry...it's just like soup. Start by frying your aromatics (garlic, ginger, onion). They make the house smell good and you can brag that you are an amazing chef though all you've done is heated the ingredients to release their aromas. It's all good. Then add the harder veg first as they take longer to cook. (Carrot, celery, broccoli.) Then the softer veg go in with coconut milk and the curry paste. Stir and simmer. Add more water if you see it's drying up. I like a lot of sauce. In the meantime have some grain cooking, like rice or quinoa or rice noodles. Combine and sprinkle with coriander. Enjoy!

It ended up tasting OK, but not spicy enough. Some spicy thai hot sauce cleared up that problem.

I couldn't very well eat this feast alone now, could I? Cristal came over and brought us some treats. Lovely little cakes from the bakery around the corner. I was blown away by this macha green tea cake. So green. So tea-y. Delish.



There was also a chocolate fondant cake and this here is some cranberry cake.

Hope everyone is recovering well from the festivities and has had a lot of fun. NYE post is up next with risotto, fireworks and general shenanigans. xo