Why'd You Have to Go and Make Things So Complicated?

Things I'm happy to have done in the last couple days include
1) Spending hours upon hours outside in the gorgeous spring-like weather.
2) Purging my google reader of blogs I feel guilty for not reading.
3) Making classic dishes I often forget are in my arsenal.

The last of these means I have a recipe to share! (um, it's been forever since I've posted a recipe.) One today and another later, perhaps. Whenever I make these two dishes I forget to take pictures, so I put off blogging about them, and then I realized today it was silly to wait any longer. A) these foods do not photograph well, and B) I may never remember. So because it's still winter (despite what the DC forecast may say), here is a soup for you. A hearty, vegan soup you will adore. I mean this earnestly because everyone in our family goes wild for this soup, including Sam, which is a tall order when it comes to vegan recipes. And as most soups do, it only gets better over time, so you can look forward to the leftovers this ginormous batch will yield.

Curried Lentil Sweet Potato* Soup
Adapted from Kayla Jones

1 large onion, diced
7 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup ginger, freshly grated
2 T curry powder
1 c carrots, diced
1 c red bell pepper, diced
5 c sweet potato, diced
2 cans coconut milk
2 c brown lentils, rinsed
6 c vegetable stock
1 t salt
1 lime, juiced

Saute onion, garlic, and ginger until onion starts to become translucent. Add the remaining ingredients, except lime juice, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for at least 45 minutes, or up to a few hours, until the soup has become very thick and stew like. Add lime juice right before serving. Garnish with cilantro, if desired. 

(*also, you may note this recipe seems to go against what I said in my previous post about sweet potatoes. I guess they aren't really spotlight-hoggers in this soup, so I can get on board with it. What can I say? I'm a complicated woman.)

promises, promises

I don't know, guys. This ol' blog is sure struggling stay alive. But despite it being four years since I graduated college, there is still something about the  start of a new school year that makes me want to buckle down and get things done. I apparently never keep my blog promises though, so I am not promising anything. (Because then, when I do come back here, y'all will be super excited-- I just KNOW it!)In the meantime, last week was my sixth wedding anniversary. And Sam and I went out on a real live date, and let me tell you, those are very few and very far between. We went over to Shirlington to finally see Midnight in Paris, and I loved it with all my heart. I am so glad I knew nothing about the plot. It was such a lovely surprise. I kind of want to own it so I can watch it again and again. And now I have been researching plane tickets to Paris all week. (Purely hypothetical at this point.) (Also, random tidbit: did you know I studied French for seven years? C'est vrai.)
After the movie, we wandered over to Thai Shirlington, a place introduced to me by one of my all-time favorite people, Amanda. Even at 9 pm the weather was fantastic, so we sat outside to enjoy our Thai feast.
There was coconut shrimp, tofu musaman, and green curry. All delicious and wonderful. 

 

And then for dessert there was stuffed roti dough. Sam saw the mysterious thing on the menu and wanted to be adventurous. Something about a taro root jam stuffed into deep fried roti dough topped with taro root ice cream and and taro root chip. It was fun and cool, and I would totally get it again, but Sam testifies that it changed his life. It made him a better person, and I almost thought he would begin glowing or crying tears of pure gold he loved it so much. Moral of the story: I love marriage. I love Paris. I love Thai food. Yum.

peter, peter, pumpkin eater

Yesterday I went to a church activity, and, long story short, I ended up with a gallon-sized ziploc bag of raw, cubed pumpkin in my fridge. I was originally going to just bake it, puree it, and freeze it, but then I remembered a curry recipe my sister sent me in January that would be easily adapted* to accommodate the pumpkin.

So, let's not dilly-dally, shall we?


Pumpkin Curry

1/2 yellow onion, sliced
1 small chunk fresh ginger, grated
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 t red curry paste
1 t yellow curry powder
1 t cinnamon
2 cans coconut milk
3 T fish sauce
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 c water
1 c cubed pumpkin
1/2 c cubed potato
2 carrots, cut into small pieces

Microwave the potato and pumpkin for 4-5 minutes, until it's about half-way cooked, then set aside.
First saute the onion until it just starts to soften. Then, add the ginger, garlic, curry paste, curry powder, and cinnamon. Cook on medium heat for 3-4 minutes.
Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, brown sugar, and water.
Simmer for about 10 minutes or so, then check the seasonings and add more, as needed.
Add the potato, pumpkin, and carrots and simmer until the veggies are cooked through.
If it's too thick, add more water, just make sure it doesn't dilute the spices too much. If you do need to add more spices, make sure to simmer for a couple minutes to give them time to infuse their flavor into the liquid.
Serve over jasmine rice.

*The recipe my sister sent uses kabocha squash, chicken, red bell pepper, and peas instead of the veggies I used, but that is the beauty of curry: you can really adapt it according to whatever you have in your fridge.

Say Goodbye to Your Waist

Can I just say that I am shocked and appalled that I have never posted about curry? I mean, curry is my claim to fame! Curry was the first dish I could make well! Curry makes life worth living! How have I not posted about CURRY?

I know there are some people out there who don't like curry, and let me just state for the record, I don't understand you. Curry is all we will eat in heaven (plus ice cream), and in the Garden of Eden, Eve and Adam and all the animals ate only curry. That is a fact, friends. A fact.

Like I said, curry is the first dish I mastered. When I was 16, I lived with my sister Amy for a couple months, and she became my inspiration. Green curry was a staple on her menu, so we ate it often. I had never eaten curry, and was a little afraid of the unknown, but it was love at first bite. She liked to make it a touch spicy, so I would guzzle glass after glass of water, and then curse my stomach for not being able to hold more curry. Late in the night, after my stomach had acquired more room, I would steal into the fridge, like a thief in the night, to gobble up the leftovers. This should adequately illustrate that I take curry very seriously.

Amy and I have tinkered with the green curry recipe together and on our own, and we've worked things out quite well. The lovely thing about cooking, though, is it doesn't have to be exact. Curry is great because you can modify it to be as sweet, spicy, or creamy as you choose. I like green curry because it has a fairly mild taste-- not when it comes to spiciness (because you can make it super spicy), but it's not the boldest flavor of all the curries. To me it is a soothing, comforting, warm, and wholesome taste. But if green curry isn't your thing, don't worry, I promise to neglect curry on this blog no longer. More curry recipes are coming your way. (But, really, how could you not love green curry?)

Green Curry a la Courtney and Amy

2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
about 1-2 inches ginger, grated
1-2 T green curry paste (Asian aisle in the grocery store. I've used Thai Kitchen and World Foods brands and they both work well.)
8 chicken tenderloins, raw, cubed
1 can coconut milk (I prefer Chaokoh brand, full-fat. Light coconut milk only results in sadness.)
1/2 c water
2 T brown sugar
3 T fish sauce (Asian aisle-- this is not an optional ingredient, btw, no matter how much it grosses you out.)
1 small can bamboo shoots, drained and rinsed
Peas
Red bell pepper, sliced thin

Saute garlic, ginger, and curry paste in a medium sized pot for a couple minutes to release the flavors. Pour in the coconut milk and let this simmer/heat for a couple minutes. Stir in chicken, water, sugar, and fish sauce and simmer until the chicken is cooked through. Taste the curry and add more sugar, curry paste, water, as needed. Add bamboo shoots, peas, and bell pepper, then reheat all the way through. Serve over jasmine rice. The flavors continue to meld together when they sit for a while, so be sure to enjoy the curry as leftovers the next day.