Showing posts with label indian. Show all posts

Meatless Monday - Super Simple Yellow Curry

One of my favorite Indian dishes is curry.  Curry can be made a number of ways.  I really like Yellow Curry.  Curry can be made with or without meat.  Obviously I’ll be making a curry dish without meat.  One of my favorite recipes calls for adding potatoes to the dish.  This dish today is a simple curry that we make when we don’t really want a big meal.

So let’s get started..

Photo Credit - Renee Olson


Ingredients
Basmati Rice – We cook for two so we make 2 servings
Curry Powder
Coconut Milk
Naan Bread or Pita Bread

Process
To make perfect rice, I bring 1 ½ cups of water to a boil, add salt and 1 cup of rice.  Turn burner to low and cover the pot for 20 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Photo Credit - Renee Olson

To make the curry I open 1 can of coconut milk and add it to a pot.  Sometimes your milk may form a solid on top, it’s perfectly fine to use, just add the solids as well as the milk to the pan and warm through.

Photo Credit - Renee Olson


Add 2-4 tablespoons of curry powder to the milk to start and stir.  Now taste the curry, at this point you can add more curry if you’d like.  The more powder you add the hotter the curry will be.  I add my Naan Bread to a flat top cast iron pan and heat it on the back while I finish off the curry.


Photo Credit - Renee Olson
After the curry is heated through it’s ready to serve.


Photo Credit - Renee Olson

If you’d like at this point you can fine cube some tofu or add boiled potatoes to the curry.
Serve over rice or with heated Naan Bread or Pita Bread

Photo Credit - Renee Olson


I really enjoy Indian, Mexican and Thai flavors.  This is a really easy way to get into making curries. 

Did you try this?  I’d  love to hear how you made out.  Want to share a recipe with me, leave me a message here or send me an email at sosannas@sosannascloset.com

Namaste & Blessed Be
Sosanna
)O(
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Meatless Monday - Baingan Ka Bharta

For the last three years I've been working to clean up my diet.  I used to drink 3-4 32 oz McDonald’s Sweet Tea every day.  That’s over 300 calories per drink.  I was taking in over 1200 calories a day just in Tea.

Today the only beverage I drink is water all day and a green smoothie every other day.  I don’t eat processed foods at all and I am a vegetarian.  I do eat eggs and milk products so I’m considered Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian.

Before I became vegetarian I was very picky about my food.  I wouldn't try anything that looked too ‘strange’ or ‘different’ from what I was used to eating. That meant lots of fried food, lots of junk food and lots of drive through. One thing I never ate as a child was eggplant.   I never really even knew what an eggplant was until I was an adult, and never tasted one before a year ago.  Shocking I know.

One dish I tried recently is Baingan Ka Bharta.  Bharta is a smoky eggplant dish that uses cumin, onion and tomatoes to create a curry that can be served with rice and/or Naan.

Photo Credit - Renee Olson


Ingredients
1 eggplant
4 tbsp. oil (Canola, Sunflower or Olive) 2 for the eggplant and 2 for sautéing the garlic & onion
1 tsp. Cumin Seeds
1 large onion – chopped fine
1 tbsp. garlic – chopped fine
1” piece of ginger root – grated fine
1 green chili (remove most of the seeds – seeds = heat)
1 tomato – chopped fine
½ tsp. coriander powder
½ tsp. cumin powder
½ tsp. garam masala powder
1 glass of wine - add to chef throughout the cooking process


Photo Credit - Renee Olson


Photo Credit - Renee Olson
Process
Start out by preparing the eggplant to roast by cutting it lengthwise and scoring the inside of the flesh in a diamond pattern.  Add salt and olive oil to the top and place skin side down in a baking dish.  Place in 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until the flesh pulls away from the skin easily.  Scoop out and set aside.


Photo Credit - Renee Olson


Get a large pan on medium heat and add the olive oil.  Add cumin seeds to the hot oil and cook until they stop sputtering.


Photo Credit - Renee Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Olson



Add the onions and cook until clear then add the garlic and ginger and fry for about a minute. 

Photo Credit - Renee Olson


Next add the finely diced tomatoes and all the remaining powdered spices.  Cook for about 3-5 minutes and stir constantly to avoid the mixture from sticking.



Photo Credit - Renee Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Olson


Finally add the eggplant and cook for about another minute.
Serve over rice and/or with Naan.


Photo Credit - Renee Olson


This dish was pretty good.  We tried it several times adjusting the recipe.  Remember to remove most of the seeds from your chilies if you want to be milder in flavor.  I used only one and it was still a bit spicy. 

A lot of traditional Indian and Thai dishes call for ginger.  I recommend getting a fresh ginger root and keeping it on your counter.  You can always use it to make Crystallized Ginger Candy which is great for digestion!

Have questions?  Have a recipe you’d like me to try?  Feel free to leave a comment here or email me at sosanna@sosannascloset.com.

Namaste & Blessed Be
Sosanna
)O(
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Where To Eat in Greenville, NC

In keeping with my weekly trips to find something special to keep me in NC. Hubby and I took the bike for a nice ride to Greenville, NC. Greenville is about an hour from us. We took the back roads to avoid a lot of traffic and it was a really nice ride. I ended up being on the back of the bike for about two hours and got a little bit of a sunburn. Next time, I MUST use sun screen.

That being said, I made my weekly stop at the Tipsy Teapot. I LOVE the Tipsy Teapot. The location is amazing. They have lovely chairs outside where you can sit under an umbrella and have a choice of hot tea by the pot or even a nice iced tea in a "here" cup and not worry about adding trash to landfills.

Our next stop was a cute little Indian restaurant, Dale's Indian Cuisine, that is just down the block from Tipsy. When I heard the name I was skeptical. Dale's? Really? So we walked in and the first thing I saw was a buffet. I thought RUN!!! I'm so glad I didn't. I found a nice dish that I really enjoyed. It's called Navarattan Korma. It was AMAZING!


The price is very reasonable at 12.00 per person however ordering off the menu has its benefits as well. An entree is 11.00 however it doesn't come with an order of Naan.






So, now I've found a wonderful Indian place and a great Tea Shop right across the street from an amazing new age store called Sojourner, which I reviewed last week.

So far Greenville is looking pretty dog gone good.

One of my blog readers recommended that I visit a place in Wilson called Truly Unique. Thanks for the note Tina, I plan to try to get out that way sometime this week.


Namaste & Blessed Be
Sosanna
)O(
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