Curries

26 September 2015

A two curry day.

Lunch: Vegetarian cauliflower curry.

For lunch today we made cauliflower curry. We had some leftover curry and a new curry spice blend from Penzeys we wanted to try, so we used this for lunch. You could substitute any vegetable I guess.

The curry spice blend was mild. While eating the curry, we both came up with a bunch of tweaks we would make to the dish the next time we make it. For example, I would probably add shredded/dessicated coconut to the spice mix and toast that, and use coconut milk over vegetable stock and omit the cornstarch slurry. The coconut combination should work to thicken the curry without the cornstarch.

Ingredients

  • 1 onion
  • Garlic - we can both take a lot of garlic, so we used the rest of a head of garlic we had on the kitchen bench. Use as much or as little as you like.
  • 1 pound Cauliflower (give or take)
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 potatoes
  • Vegetable stock
  • Curry powder
  • Optional: Dried chilis. We would slice this up first next time, rather than putting it in whole. (We used “sanaam” chilis from Penzey’s)

Preparation

  1. Dice your onion, garlic, carrots and potato.

  2. Heat oil in your pan. Add the onion and garlic.

  3. When the onion and garlic start to soften, add your curry powder and dried chili (if using). Stir the curry powder around to release some of the aromatics in the curry powder.

  4. When the onion and garlic is nicely softened, add your carrot to the mix and stir. Add your cauliflower also.

  5. Add the vegetable stock and bring to a simmer.

  6. Add the potato and bring to a boil, until the potato is soft and ready to eat.

  7. Add your cornstarch slurry and cook for a couple of minutes to cook out the cornstarch.

Serve.

We had our curry with raw flour tortillas that Paul cooked in the oven, as replacement naan/roti.

Dinner: Chicken curry with dhal fry.

Paul’s mother had given him a mason jar of dhal fry awhile back and it had sat in the pantry for ages. We decided to use this to accompany our chicken curry. However, neither of us had any idea how to make dhal fry, so we winged it. Our dhal fry may not be what dhal fry is supposed to be, but it was tasty!

We also added dried bean curd sticks into our curry, as I love these. Paul also loves these, though is a much more recent convert. He’d never had them before. They are great as they absorb all the flavour of whatever you are cooking them in. Yum.

We went for a much hotter curry than the one we had for lunch, using a vindaloo curry mix.

Ingredients

Serves 4.

  • 4 chicken thighs
  • 1 onion
  • Garlic
  • 2 carrots
  • 4 potatoes
  • 1 tin of diced tomato
  • 2 Dried bean curd sticks, broken into 4 pieces each
  • Vindaloo curry spice mix
  • Dried chili (again, we used the Penzey’s sanaam chili)
  • 4T White wine vinegar

For the dhal fry:

  • Half an onion
  • Paul’s mother’s jar of dhal fry…this was an assortment of lentils and spices.

Mise en place

  • Dice your onion and garlic.
  • Dice your carrot.
  • Chop your potato. We did half-moon pieces.
  • Chop the dried chili.
  • Sprinkle the vindaloo over the chicken thighs
  • For the dhal fry, dice the half onion

Preparation

  1. Heat oil in a large pot. Add the chicken thighs and brown. Take the chicken thighs out when browned and set aside.
  2. Add the vindaloo powder and dried chili to the pot and fry lightly.
  3. Add your onion and garlic and cook until it starts to soften.
  4. Add the carrot and diced tomato. Add water and vinegar to deglaze the pot.
  5. Add your chicken back to the pot and simmer for 45 minutes (or longer if you get distracted and forget to set a timer).
  6. Add the potato about half an hour before you intend to eat so it cooks but retains its shape. Start your dhal fry about the same time you add the potato.
  7. In a separate pot, add the dhal fry and enough water to cook the lentils. As we had never cooked lentil before, I boiled water in our kettle and kept a close eye on the lentils, adding water as necessary so it cooked and did not dry out. I kept the water to a minimum so it was less of a soup and more of a mashed potato consistency. It took around 25-30 minutes to cook the lentils.
  8. When the lentils are done, transfer to a bowl. Return the pot to the heat, add oil and brown the onion. I browned the onion so it had charred bits in it that added great texture to the dish.
  9. When the onion is done to your liking, add the lentils back to the pot, take off the heat and stir to combine.

Serve your curry with dhal fry on the side. As I made the dhal fry deliberately on the dryer side (Paul thinks it could be a touch more wet next time), if you want to thin out the dhal you can do this by adding spoonfuls of the curry sauce to the dhal fry!