Veggie Curry – How to do it

It’s been hot, and humid, very much like South East Asia, so it is a natural to consider Thai food for this type of weather.

Now I never really sorted out the whole veggie curry thing, I can do meat curries, but it’s too hot for meat.

So off to the lab / kitchen and start the task of researching and testing various curry recipes, looking for a rich and proper mouth feel, a balanced flavor, and a the expected bite without being overly harsh….

I can go on and on and on about how to make curry paste, but this is all about the technique to take a curry paste and create a sauce to coat the veggies with a rich and thick glaze of multi layered flavor.

Wikipedia says:

Thai curry refers to dishes in Thai cuisine that are made with various types of curry paste; the term can also refer to the pastes themselves. Thai curry is made from curry paste, coconut milk or water, meat, vegetables or fruit and herbs.

Red curry is a popular Thai dish consisting of curry paste to which coconut milk is added. The base is properly made with a mortar and pestle, and remains moist throughout the preparation process. The main ingredients are garlic, shallots, (dried) red chillies, young ginger, shrimp paste, salt, kaffir lime peel, coriander root, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns and lemongrass. Common additives are fish sauce, sugar, Thai eggplant, bamboo shoots, thai basil, and meat such as chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, frog, snake or duck. Tofu, or vegetables such as pumpkin, can be substituted as a vegetarian option. This dish normally has a soup-like consistency and is served in a bowl and eaten with steamed rice. The standard red curry paste contains shrimp paste, which renders it inappropriate for vegetarians. There are, however, vegetarian red curry pastes available.

So I’ll start with a prepared curry paste from my local Thai market, or if all fails one can find some “American” curry paste, a can of coconut milk, some onion, some garlic, a few fresh mushrooms, some kaffir lime leaves from the same Asian market, and of course more chili’s. For this specific dish I’ll use broccoli and potatoes, but eggplant, zucchini, cauliflower, butternut squash, and pumpkin all work just as well.

Curry sauce trick #1, Precook / steam the veggies. And Drain, Drain, Drain…. Make sure all your add-ins are cut to about the same size..

Curry sauce trick #2, Use a screaming hot wok, and add just a tsp of oil, let it spider, then add a cup of coconut cream from the top of a can of coconut milk into the wok and reduce to thicken.

Curry sauce trick # 3, Stir in the chilli paste and fry until aromatic and until the oil has clearly separated from the cream. This is going to get thick…. Add your fish sauce, (or just soy for the vegans) and palm / brown sugar now and do a basic flavor balance.

Curry sauce trick #4, add your veggies, and the rest of the can of coconut milk, toss to coat and heat to cook through, and reduce the sauce.
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Hearty Lentil Soup

I’ve been entirely too lax about my eating habits, falling back to stuffing myself at breakfast, eating a large lunch, eat dinner and then snack all evening. (Mostly because it is too hot to cook , and what I’ve been eating is SOOO TASTELESS….)

The high temperature and humidity have also limited my exercise, so I am putting on weight faster than I would have ever thought.

(Way too many fruit iced teas, sorbets, and entirely too much ice cream. But at least no soft drinks.)

Time to get back to the basics of a Mediterranean diet. Less meat, processed sugar, less fat, more fiber, etc, etc.

Researching said Mediterranean / Mid Eastern diet, I came up with a tasty, low fat, meatless soup, that cooks quickly (therefor causes less heat), in a pressure cooker.

Lentil soup is a soup of lentils, served hot. Lentil soup is usually vegetarian, but can also be made with meat stock or pieces of meat. Red or green lentils may be used. Other ingredients may include vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, celery, parsley, and onion. Common added flavorings include garlic, cumin, lemon juice, olive oil, and vinegar. It is sometimes garnished with croutons or chopped herbs.

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Sour Cherry Soup with Champagne

The cherry season is about over, at least for locally produced. As such I went looking for cherries to make a cherry syrup, and bought a large bag of somewhat expensive fruit. I was miffed at the cost but wanted to make the syrup so pay I did.

Now when I got home, I washed them and popped one into my mouth.

This had to be one of the most mouth puckering sour events of my life. Very similar to a warhead. Of course I had to check a second one…. After a bit of research, I discovered I had purchased sour cherries.

Sour cherries, unlike their sweet counterpart, are too sour for some people’s tastes to be eaten fresh. (They are for my taste-buds) They can be used in cooking, especially in soups and pork dishes, cakes, tarts, and pies. Dried sour cherries are commonly used in cooking, both dried and fresh are used in combination with sugar, which balances the acidity and brings out the fruit’s aroma and flavor. Thus a variety of liqueurs, desserts, preserves and drinks are made with sour cherries or sour cherry syrup.

The sour cherry, is native to much of Europe and southwest Asia. It is closely related to the wild cherry, but has a fruit that is more acidic and so is useful primarily for cooking. The tree is smaller than the wild cherry (growing to a height of 4–10 m), has twiggy branches, and its crimson-to-near-black cherries are borne upon shorter stalks.

There are two varieties of the sour cherry: the dark-red morello cherry and the lighter-red amarelle cherry

Sour cherry soup is a soup made with sour cream, sugar, and whole fresh sour cherries, chilled and slightly sweet. This soup is a summer delicacy in several European cuisines. The dish has been adopted by the Austrians, Poles, Slovaks and Germans. Hungarian-Americans and Hungarian-Canadians brought the soup to the New World.
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Polenta, Creamy and Basic

While doing research on my Chicken Fricassée, I came across, yet again, a dish I’ve avoided. My first encounter was just that underwhelming….

Wikipedia says :

Polenta is made with ground yellow or white cornmeal (ground maize) originally made with Chestnut meal in ancient times. It can be ground coarsely or finely depending on the region and the texture desired. As it is known today, polenta derives from earlier forms of grain mush (known as puls or pulmentum in Latin or more commonly as gruel or porridge) commonly eaten in Roman times and after. Early forms of polenta were made with such starches as the grain farro and chestnut flour, both of which are still used in small quantity today. When boiled, polenta has a smooth, creamy texture due to the gelatinization of starch in the grain, though it may not be completely homogeneous if a coarse grind or a particularly hard grain such as flint corn is used.

Polenta was originally and still is classified as a peasant food. In the 1940s and 1950s polenta was not topped with luscious sauces but eaten with just a little salted anchovy or herring. The overreliance on maize as a staple food caused outbreaks of pellagra throughout much of Europe until the 20th century and in the American South during the early 1900s. Maize lacks readily accessible niacin unless cooked with alkali, which nixtamalizes it.

Since the late 20th century, polenta became a premium product. Polenta dishes are on the menu in many high-end restaurants, and prepared polenta can be found in supermarkets at high prices. Many current polenta recipes have given new life to an essentially bland and simple food, enriching it with meat and mushrooms sauces, and adding vegetables, beans or various cheeses into the basic mixture.

On the premise that my first encounter should not be my last, and the belief that the person cooking the polenta, just really did not understand the food or the cooking method, (It really was quite horrid, something like uncooked library paste, that was over salted…), I will attempt to do this on my own…

As this is such a versatile dish, I’ll start with a basic recipe, that of a creamy polenta with cheese.
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Meatless Mondays – Baba Ganoush

In my search for something hearty, and heart healthy I’ve looked to the Mediterranean cultures. One dish from the Levant is smoked / roasted eggplant that is mashed with garlic and tahini. With the rich smokey flavor of the eggplant, the subtle bite of the garlic, and the smooth creaminess of the tahini, this just begs to be spread over warm pita bread.

Background

Baba Ganoush is a Middle Eastern spread and dip is similar to hummus, but uses eggplant rather than chickpeas. This is a vegetarian/ vegan recipe and is particularly hummus-like, since it uses some chickpeas for a thicker texture. For a RogueChef twist I’ll smoke the garlic cloves with the eggplant.
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Looseing the fat – Balsamic Vinaigrette

As I have started to eat a good many more salads, and I took the time to examine the label on a prepared salad dressing.

The amount of add fat, sugar and salt, plus all the chemicals to enhance, smell, taste, color and mouth feel, left me astounded. Granted I was aware these thing were not all that good for me, but I really did not expect them to be that bad..

After returning from the trash can, where I had deposited all the prepared salad dressings, I conducted research as to the construction of a good, somewhat healthy vinaigrette.

A vinaigrette is a emulsion of salad oil and vinegar, often flavored with herbs, spices, and other ingredients. IUsed most commonly as a salad dressing, but can also be used as a sauce or marinade.

There are many ways to prepare vinaigrette but the basic recipe is to slowly add 3 parts of oil at room temperature to 1 part of vinegar, using a whisk, until it emulsifies into a creamy sauce. Salt and pepper are added for taste. Herbs are sometimes added to enhance flavor.

A high quality wine vinegar and olive oil are preferred. The addition of a small amount of mustard or egg yolk can help keep the oil and acid in an emulsion. In France, vinaigrette is often prepared once a week in large quantities while in the other Mediterranean countries it’s always made just in time, sometimes at the table, and always with olive oil.

A balsamic vinaigrette is a sauce made by adding olive oil and other seasonings, including chopped onion, into balsamic vinegar.

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Irish Soda Bread

St. Patrick’s Day, and the celebration of all things Irish, even if they’ve never been to Ireland, see my rant (Bacon and Colcanon, Real Irish Food)

One authentic thing served at this time of the year is Irish Soda bread, a type of quick bread in which bread soda (or baking soda) is used for leavening rather than the more common yeast. The ingredients of traditional soda bread are flour, bread soda, salt, and buttermilk. Other ingredients can be added such as raisins, egg or various forms of nuts.

The buttermilk in the dough contains lactic acid, which reacts with the baking soda to form tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide. In Ireland, the flour is typically made from soft wheat; so soda bread is best made with a cake or pastry flour (made from soft wheat), which has lower levels of gluten than a bread flour.

Various forms of soda bread are popular throughout Ireland. Soda breads are made using either wholemeal or white flour. The two major shapes are the loaf and the “griddle cake”, or farl in Northern Ireland. The loaf form takes a more rounded shape and has a cross cut in the top to allow the bread to expand. The griddle cake or farl, is a more flattened type of bread. It is cooked on a griddle allowing it to take a more flat shape and split into four sections.

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Meatless Monday – Vegetables in Garlic Butter Sauce

I have an old friend popping by with her new beau. I’d promised dinner and a look at his resume, and maybe a pointer on where to find a decent job.

Kicker is he is very close to vegan, does dairy, but no eggs. So I am looking at my baked tortellini Alfredo, a spinach salad with feta and nuts, and some other form of vegetable. Looking in the larder, I find onions, broccoli, zucchini, red bell pepper, some celery that really needs to be used, likewise with a couple of carrots and some bok choy. This sounds like a perfect time to practice my wok and roll…

As the main dish is Italian, I suppose I really can not go full bore asian on the veggies, so maybe a butter / olive oil and garlic sauce. Which will also fit well with the rather large ciabatta I have proofing.

What I want is A rich, buttery sauce with herbs and garlic, maybe grated Parmesan or Romano cheese. Something I can toss choa’d vegetables in.

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