I-tal Curry

This recipe came from a cookbook we brought back from our honeymoon in Jamaica. We found that the local food was delicious (especially since we're huge fans of curry) and it seemed a perfect souvenir for our new home! We didn't have everything that we needed to make this, so some ingredients (sweet potatoes, pumpkin, green cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, green beans) we just skipped and it still came out tasting great!

1 lb potatoes (about 2 medium potatoes)

1 lb sweet potatoes

12 oz peeled and seeded pumpkin

1/2 small green cabbage

1 large carrot

1 red, green or yellow pepper, de-seeded

1/2 cauliflower

8 oz green beans

1 scotch bonnet pepper, de-seeded and chopped

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 spring onion

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

1 onion, chopped

6 allspice berries

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 tsp curry powder

1/2-1 cup coconut milk

1 tsp garam masala

1. Cut all the vegetables into 1-inch pieces.

2. Heat the oil in a large skillet, add the spring onion, thyme, onion, allspice, garlic and curry. Keep stirring until lightly browned.

3. Add coconut milk, depending on amount of vegetables and your taste, and mix in. Add the potatoes. Allow to cook for about 5 minutes.

4. Add the rest of the vegetables and hot pepper to taste. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, for another 5-10 minutes, until vegetables are just cooked. Add water at any time if needed, but only enough to prevent sticking. Sprinkle on the garam masala at the end.

Curry Chicken Pot Pie

This is a delicious dish shamelessly borrowed from Alton Brown. A great combo of curry and comfort food! I've made a few changes from the original, but only things that simplify the overall recipe. For the original, go here.

Ingredients

• 4 cups frozen vegetable mix, peas, carrots
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 2 cups cubed cooked chicken
• 1 package puff pastry sheets (not bowls)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

If you don't have leftover cooked chicken, simply cut up raw chicken into small cubes and saute in olive oil. Add a some red pepper flakes if you feel daring!

Put frozen veggies in a microwave safe dish and gently warm according to directions on package. It's ok if they're a little under-done since they'll be going in the oven shortly.

In a saute pan heat 1 tablespoon of butter and sweat the onion and celery. In another saucepan, heat the broth and milk. Add 2 more tablespoons of butter to the celery mix and cook out the water. Add the flour and curry to celery mix and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in the hot milk/broth mixture and cook until thickened. Add the parsley, salt and pepper. Toss the vegetables and the chicken. Pour into a shallow baking pan, or a large terra cotta pot base (lined with foil if using terra cotta), and top with a full sheet of puff pastry (packages typically have two full sheets per box). Place into the oven and cook until puff pastry has browned and the mixture is hot and bubbly, about 25 minutes.

Eliachi Gosht (meat cooked with cardamom)

I recently had a birthday and received a fair number of cookbooks. One of them is a wonderful cook/history/philosophy book called "50 great curries of india" by camellia panjabi. In this book she tells the reader about the background of indian cooking from different regions with the idea in mind that someday you will be making your own curries at home. Half the book is preparing you for improvising your own recipes so that you can cook just like the regional cooks.

Here's one that sasha and I tried last night. The flavors are subtle, but definitely there. Not satisfied with the rules, we started making changes in the middle. We were satisfied with the results:

Serves 6

2.25 lbs of lamb (on or off the bone)
1/2 cup plain yogurt
35 green cardamoms
1/2 cup oil (any kind will do, according to the book. We used Sesame Seed Oil)
2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 teaspoon chile powder (we used traditional chile powder, I think next time we'll try to use a more traditional Asian pepper or birdseye pepper)
2 tsp coriander powder
3 medium tomatoes, sourish variety, finely chopped (the author talks a bit about tomatoes in the beginning of the book "Even when ripe the Indian tomato is slightly sour in taste, compared to European or American varieties. Its acidity level is also much higher. When using tomatoes for curry-making, avoid sweeter Italian tomatoes." (p. 38))
salt

1. If the lamb is on the bone, wash it in warm water. Whisk the yogurt with a fork in a bowl.

2. Grind the whole green cardamoms in a blender with a little water, or in a coffee grinder without water and then mix with a little water to make a paste. (we went the coffee grinder route with the cardamoms, coriander seeds, and black pepper. It was so cool. sasha laughed at me and called me a dork.)

3. Heat the oil in a cooking pot. Add the cardamom paste and the pepper, and fry over a low heat for 2-3 minutes. Add the meat and the turmeric, chile, and coriander powders, and saute for 10 minutes, stirring all the time to prevent the mixture from sticking to the bottom of the pot, adding water if necessary. The secret of success with this dish lies in making sure that the meat and spices are fried for a full 10 minutes without allowing the spices to burn. Therefore it is essential to keep the heat low and use the recommended amount of oil.

4. Lower the heat and add the yogurt, tomatoes, and salt to taste, and continue to saute for a further 5 minutes. Add about 4 cups of water (we only used 2, this is supposed to be a "thin gravy" but we were worried about diluting our mixture too much), cover the pot, and leave to simmer over a low heat until the meat is tender.

The recipe suggests serving it with chipatis or rice. We chose the latter, since it was less work (but the chipati recipe in the back of the book looks remarkably like a certain director's tortilla recipe). This was pretty easy, took us about an hour to prepare and maybe an hour to simmer (at the end of step 4). The leftovers look great, I'm staring at them right now.

Coconut Curry Chicken

Coconut Curry Chicken

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 1/2 onions, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped roasted garlic
7 ounces canned coconut milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes

*Note: we added 6 redskin potatoes (cut into 1/8ths), about a Tbsp of curry, used 13.5 oz of coconut milk, substituted minced garlic for roasted, and upped our crushed red pepper flakes to two dashes.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). In a large skillet, fry chicken breast in vegetable oil until the chicken just begins to brown. Stir onions, green bell peppers and red bell peppers into the skillet with the chicken.

*Note: we put our potatoes into the oven early with about 6 oz of the coconut milk, a healthy dose of olive oil, and some salt & pepper to get them started.

Saute until the onions are translucent. When the vegetables are translucent, stir in the garlic and coconut milk. Let the mixture cook 5 to 8 minutes before removing the skillet from the heat. Season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes (and 1 Tbsp of curry). Transfer the mixture to a 9x13 inch baking dish and bake in a 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) oven for 45 minutes, or until the vegetables cook down and the chicken is tender.
I thought this went really well. We served it over Saffron Rice (a store-bought package we got from Meijer). I think in the future I'd add more curry, and maybe some spices that compliment curry (I was thinking cumin, but sasha suggested tumeric). We didn't have it in the oven for 45 minutes either, it was closer to 30.