Feast Your Nose On This: A Curry Dinner

Mmmm. You're either a curry person or you're dumb not. Here is a three recipe feast for those of you in my pro-curry camp, adapted from Atlas' and Kayte's Vegetarian Express:

Fruit & Spice Pilaf

• 1 cup raw quinoa (the original recipe called for couscous. My instructions below are for quinoa)
• 2 Tbls butter
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 apples, peeled and diced
• 1/2 cup chopped mixed dried fruits (I used raisins)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• Salt, to taste
• 1/3 cup toasted sliced or slivered almonds (I used walnuts)

1. Rinse the quinoa and combine it with 2 cups water. Bring to boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes on medium or until water is absorbed, cover and let sit for five minutes, then fluff with a fork.
2. As the quinoa cooks, melt the butter in a skillet on medium heat. Add the onion and saute until translucent.
3. Add the diced apple into the onion saute, cover, and let cook for another 3-5 minutes or until the apple has softened. Stir the dried fruit into the apple-onion mixture.
4. Add the cooked quinoa to the skillet. Pour 1/2 cup water into the skillet and sprinkle in the spices. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes, until everything is well-mixed and heated through.
5. Salt to taste. Add the nuts. Serve. (Alternative:  set the toasted nuts aside in a serving dish and let people sprinkle on their own, to taste.)

Creamed Curried Vegetables

• 2 large carrots, roughly chopped
• 2 medium potatoes, scrubbed and cut into large dice
• 3 cups cut broccoli florets (save the stalks for another recipe)
• 1 cup peas
• 2 Tbls flour
• 3/4 cup whole milk or whole plain yogurt
• 1-2 tsp curry powder, to taste
• Salt, to taste
• 1-2 Tbls minced jalapeno pepper, optional

1. Place the carrots and potatoes in a large saucepan with enough water to cover all but an inch of their volume. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until nearly tender, about 10 minutes.
2. Add the broccoli and peas. Cover and cook another 5 minutes or so, until broccoli is tender-crisp. 
3. As the broccoli & peas cook, dissolve the flour in the milk (or mix into the yogurt) and then stir in the curry powder. Add the mixture to the vegetables, followed by the jalapeno (if using). 
4. Cook, uncovered, another 2-3 minutes until the liquid has thickened. Season to taste with salt.  

Cucumber Raita

• 1 large cucumber, peeled, quartered, and diced
• 1 cup whole plain yogurt
• Salt & Pepper, to taste
• Fresh dill weed, optional

1. If cucumber seeds are large and watery, remove before dicing the cucumber (if small, leave them in). 
2. Combine the cucumber and yogurt in a serving dish and mix thoroughly. Season to taste with salt and pepper (and dill, if using).

Why I love this dinner: The vegetable curry has a snappy zip to it. The simple raita is cool and refreshing. The pilaf is sweet and simple. It's a great combination of flavors to have on one plate. If you're a lover of curry (or suspect you might be) I encourage you to recreate this meal in your own kitchen. It's a great way to warm up as this autumn weather gains hold over summer's warmth, and it's surprisingly quick to make.

Brown Rice & Resolutions

As part of my new year's resolutions I decided to make at least 24 new sauces (or dips or dressings) in 2012. Sometimes it's too much to make an entirely new main dish, but a new salad dressing seems doable. And I'm happy to inform you that January isn't even half over and I've already succeeded in making a new sauce! (Please, hold your applause until the end. Thank you very much, though, thank you.)

from The New Laurel's Kitchen:

     Stroganoff Sauce

1 cup buttermilk
1 Tbls cornstarch

1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic (optional)
1 Tbls butter
1/3 - 1 1/2 cups mushrooms, sliced

1/4 tsp salt or 1 Tbls shoyu
black pepper

Combine buttermilk and cornstarch and set aside. Saute onion and garlic in butter until soft. Crush the garlic with a fork. Stir in mushrooms and cook just until tender. Remove mushrooms and juices from the pan and pour in the buttermilk mixture. Stir and cook until thickened, then return the mushrooms and their juices to the pan. Season with salt (or shoyu) and pepper.

The recipe claims to taste "like a sour cream sauce," and I suppose it does. And I even cheated a bit when I made it by substituting vinegar in milk rather than using the buttermilk that was called for (tell me I'm not the only one who doesn't ever have buttermilk on hand?) I also used dried mushrooms instead of fresh (soaked in boiling water for 10 mins to reconstitute), and they worked great.

Overall, I'm happy with the sauce, but I admit that when I first tasted it I thought it was just okay. What took it from okay to happy? Putting it on the bestest, most delicous rice ever.

I made this rice almost as an afterthought (had to put my sauce on something) and am still amazed by how wonderful brown rice is when done right. I'm not kidding. I'm a convert. No more brown rice in the rice cooker,  not ever again. This is the way it should be:

from Nourishing Traditions:


     Basic Brown Rice I
     (unsoaked rice)
    

2 cups long-grain brown rice
2 Tbls butter
2 Tbls extra virgin olive oil
3 cardamom pods
4 cups stock or combination of water and stock
1/2 tsp sea salt

In a heavy, flameproof casserole, melt butter and olive oil. Open cardamom pods and add seeds to the casserole. Saute rice in butter and oil, stirring constantly, until rice begins to turn milky. Pour in liquid, add salt and bring to a rolling boil. Boil, uncovered, for about 10 minutes until water has reduced to the level of the rice. Reduce flame to lowest heat, cover tightly and cook for at least 1 1/2 hours or as long as 3 hours. Do not remove lid during cooking. Serves 6-8.

My rice took exactly the 1 1/2 hours on the stovetop. And. It. Was. Wonderful. It sounds ridiculous, to say rice tasted wonderful. But I'm serious, cross my heart and everything. Wonderful.

Sauce + Rice = superb side for dinner and delectible leftovers for lunch (which I'm eating right now). Very, very pleased with this receipe attempt! (This is what I'd hoped for, starting Wellcookbooked!)

You may now applaud.