A Little Kosher Asian Italian Fusion- Pizza!

One of my favorite pizzas from my childhood was from Pizzicatto in Portland, Oregon. They have some great pizza types, and my favorite was the Peanut Chicken Pizza, a sort of Thai, always amazing dish. I thought I would do my own take on this, because I have a very specific way of doing pizza, and I was hoping to share it to the world, at least to the people who read this blog!

I like an extra sweetness to my pizza so I always caramelize an onion to go along with the sauce under my cheese and toppings. Making your own sauce is also a good idea, as cans of tomato sauce are so much cheaper and easier to find kosher than other marinaras. I like to put 2 parts Basil, 1 part thyme, 1 part oregeno, along with some sugar and salt into a pot with a can of tomato sauce along with some paste depending on how much I am making. Test your own recipe and you can make exactly what you want in a matter of a few minutes for simple pasta or pizza heaven.

Jamie was a little tired of Asian lately, so I have been making some Pizzas and Pastas and soups for her, but I thought that it would be nice to get back into it with a mixture of both. Instead of peanut chicken I am switching it up and making Almond Chicken Pizza


Heres how you make the Almond Sauce for your veggie chicken!

1/2 cup Almond Butter
3/4 cup Boiling water
2 tbsp Soy Sauce or Terriyaki
Lime Juice
1 tsp Minced Ginger

Boil the water and add the soy sauce, Lime Juice and Ginger.  After mixing together add almond butter and constantly stir until you have a nice thick paste.

Now making the pizza is fairly easy; find a dough recipe you like online or buy some dough in the super market. If you want a more artisan dough - use Peter Reinhardt's recipe here, he is the bread master, and his cookbook, The Bread Baker's Apprentice is a must buy for those who are more interested in bread baking.

Make two batches of the sauce so you can mix one with your back of Morningstar chicken strips and have some for dipping. At the end of making the bag of strips, add one of the sauce batches and sautee until the strips begin to burn a little.

Carmelize the onions quickly by sauteeing one onion in 2 tbsp butter. After 2 minutes add a tsp of Salt and a Tbsp of Sugar. Mix ingredients and let sit for five minutes until soft and nice.

Stretch the dough, add the sauce, onions and cover with your cheese. After this add the chicken and any other toppings you might like.

Check it.

Spicy Sesame Tofu, Korean style.

This is a lovely little diddy I put together to go along with the bibimbap meal. Tofu is called dubui in Korean, and is a prominent component in Korean cuisine.

This is a super quick dish that requires only 1 minute on each side of the tofu to get some color, and then garnishing with the sauce, green onion and sesame seeds.

1 lb Tofu, Soft 
1 Green onion (scallion)


Sauce Recipe
1 tbsp Soy Sauce
1 tsp Sesame Oil
1 clove minced Garlic
1 tsp Sriracha or other hot sauce
1 tsp water
1 tsp sugar
1 spring onion


First heat pan, add 1 tbsp oil, heat 1 inch blocks of tofu until it has color, 1 minute on high for each side.


Remove from heat and garnish with sauce, leave to cool and eat when hot or room temperature.

What a long time it has been...so I want to come back with a BI BIM BAP!

I know its been many months, too much time between posts. But lets get right back into it, and bring back some good oldies that have been sitting on the camera for all that time.

I want to take my first trip into Asian food with you because it has long been a favorite of mine. I remember eating with my father at both Korean grills where we would grill our own meat, as well as at classic Korean restaurants that would start with a plethora of Banchan, which are the entire collection of Korean salads.

If you are interested in the most famous of Korean foods, Kim Chee, DON'T EAT IT! It has lots of shrimp for its flavoring and pickling process, and I will include a vegetarian kim chee for you to make at home in a little bit.

But onto our dish of the evening. Bibimbop literally means "mixed rice bowl," and as all Asian cuisines do, it varies greatly all over Korea how it is eaten. The variation we are going to make includes VeggieBeef Strips, Fried egg (as opposed to raw), carrots, sprouts, and bok choy (not traditional).

Served over rice, these various components should hold their own flavor and be a special component of the dish. For the bok choy recipe, I used my earlier cooking method, but all of the other recipes are listed below, notice that they are super simple.  This dish is incredibly easy, and a true crowd pleaser. One thing that is nice about the recipe is that it works to have the vegetables at room temperature (as long as the rice is hot), so you can make them ahead and finish your protein right before dinner.

Beef Recipe
8 oz beef or veggie beef
2 tsp Soy Sauce
1 tsp Garlic
1 tsp Sesame Oil
1 tsp Sugar
1/2 Tsp Black Pepper


Combine ingredients and do a quick sear on your beef, 3 minutes. Don't put extra oil in pan.

Carrot Recipe
1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
2 medium carrots, grated
1/2 tsp Salt


Sautee carrots for 3 minutes until a little soft, remove and add salt

Mushroom Recipe
1 tbsp Vegetable oil
10 Shitake Mushrooms
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp Salt


Sautee garlic for 30 seconds until slightly fragrant, add mushrooms and sautee until slightly brown and beginning to soften, about 3 minutes. Remove and add salt.

Sprouts Recipe
1 tsp Vegetable oil
1 cup Mung Bean Sprouts
1 tsp Sesame Oil
1/2 tsp salt
Sautee sprouts for 2 minutes, remove and add sesame oil and salt.

For the eggs, you can either make egg strips from an Asian style egg ommlette. I prefer frying them and getting a nice yolk all over your rice. Enjoy!

Once you have completed everything, arrange it beautifully. Here is a failed fried egg that had to become scrambled.

Jamies PotStickers!

Jamie David has always loved Potstickers, and searching around for vegetarian options, I found many recipes. This is a combination of many, and it turned out really well. Make enough, and this can be a main course, but it is usually served as an appetizer.

This is a super easy recipe, with a few pre-sliced ingredients, pre-made wonton wrappers, and a tasty sauce that just mixes up a few flavors.

First begin by dicing 1 cup onion

and

1~2Tbsp Ginger, depending on your taste.

Then sautee them together for 2 minutes in a tbsp of Sesame Oil before the onion softens a tad and the ginger starts releasing an aroma

Get ready 2 cups each of sliced cabbage, carrots and mushrooms.




Add these veggies to the pan, along with 2 Tbsp of Shoyu and 2 Tbsp of Mirin

Sautee for 4 or 5 minutes until everything gets nice and soft.

Some recipes added the cabbage later so there was more of a bite in the dumpling, but I like everything soft.

Now using water to wet the edges of Wonton wrappers, place a tbsp of the finished filling inside the wrapper, and fold the edges together.

Pictured are a few ways to do it, round, pleated circular edge, boats, and triangles.

Get a grouping ready and fry them in a tsp or more of oil, but not too much! This is not the main cooking process! Fry them for 2~3 minutes depending on how hot the oil, the bottom should be golden brown.

Add 1/4 cup~1/3 cup water depending on the size of the pan. Turn up heat if it isnt already on medium high, and cover.

Steam dumplings for 3~4 minutes until the water has fully evaporated.

Serve immediately with a prepared sauce of 2 parts Soy Sauce and Mirin, 1 part Sesame Oil, Sriracha to taste.

You know you have cooked them correctly and tightly enough if the wrapper has shriveled on top and the bottoms are golden brown and not burnt.

Vegetarian Cha-Siu Bao

Baozi, the delectible buns of Dim Sum fame, were for a long time my favorite Asian cuisine. When picking out shrimp of the hum bao was too much for me, I just gave up on eating them all together. What a shame. White fluffy dough, wonderful innards, just an amazing thing to put in ones mouth.

In fact, I started this blog with the intention of learning how to create Cha-Siu Bao, and because we still have not toiveled (kashered) any meat pans, I have decided to make a vegetarian version. Cha-Siu bao could best be translated as BBQ Pork Bun, and are a favorite of many Chinese dim sum enthusiasts. Bao as a food is said to have first been made nearly two thousand years ago, with various forms cropping up in the Northern and Southern regions. This particular bao, which means wrapping or bun, that we are making today hails from Southern China, as it has a sweet flavor and is filled with Cha-Siu, which is Cantonese Cuisine. It gets its fluffiness from the two stages of rising, utilizing both baking powder as well as yeast. Watch the video for instructions- its the first flip usage! Enjoy!



Dough
1 3/4 Cups Hot Water
1/4 Cup Sugar
2 Tbsp Yeast
2 Tbsp Shortening
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
6 Cups Flower


Filling
1 Small Onion Chopped
1 Bag Morning Star Strips


(Double from this point on because you are doing this sauce twice)
1 Tbsp Sesame Oil
1 Tbsp Honey
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Rice Wine
1/4 Cup Hoison Sauce
1 Tbsp Brown Sugar
Red Food Dye (optional)


(The second time we need that sauce thicker and different)
1 tbsp Minced Ginger
1 tbsp Flour

Miso Noodle Soup

I am sorry it has been so long, but with the wedding and screwiness with Picasa, this is my first post in a LONG time. This has got to be one of my favorite soups that I have ever made, spicy, full of flavor, and several different tones come through on this one.  Arrange it beautifully and you can make anybody happy.
Hope you enjoy.
A quick note about Miso, along with Udon, which I talked about in an earlier post, the Miso we know today likely originated from a process brought to the Japanese isles by Buddhist monks sometime in the 6th century (wikipedia). Going through several different forms before being ground into a paste to be used as an ingredient on its own, most miso you eat today is mass produced, but still very tasty.



Boil Water
Add Kombu strips according to directions as well as mushrooms
Add Shoyu
Strain out solids before pouring
Add Miso and cook to directions

Boil Noodles of your choice
Strain Noodles and set aside

Sautee Onions and Tofu that has been marinading with Shoyu, Sriracha
Sautee Protien until cooked.

Arrange Noodles on bottom of bowl and veggies along with protien on top of the noodles, adding green onions.
Pour hot broth over noodles and enjoy the hell out of this soup as well

Monosodium Glutamate- the Flavor Enhancing Killer?

Now MSG has gotten a terrible rap. Right up there with Aspartame, Hydrogenated oils, and other unnatural things that kill you. I myself have dabbled in avoidance of this powdery goodness. Speaking with a certain Josh earlier this week, I was telling him that I was thinking of writing a post on how MSG causes all sorts of health problems, very similar to high sodium intake (which as many have recently read leads to the death of nearly 100,000 Americans every year!). But he denied it, saying that some are going to have problems associated with it, while most are not.

Quickly going to Wikipedia when I came home, I seemed to be bested, "[after many studies], toxicologists have concluded that MSG is a harmless ingredient for most people, even in large amounts". Now in no way can Wikipedia be wrong, but upon further examination there is a large group of people spreading an opposing sentiment, which I have concluded as misinformation on a grand scale. http://www.msgtruth.org  is the best and most comprehensive website outlying medical study after medical study showing that free Glutamates cause all sorts of problems from ADHD to Autism. Don't believe everything that is written.

A little more history on and insight into what MSG is can give us a little more insight into why it's not so much of a problem.

MSG was discovered by this man, Kikunae Ikeda, a Japanese physicist in 1903. Using what was the most popular soup flavorer, Kombu (a thick Kelp used in an earlier post), to create Dashi, the Japanese for centuries had been unknowingly creating free Glutamate. While our body was always processing glutamate, it had been a part of a process that was fairly natural and inside of our food, for example Tomatoes and Mushrooms both have high levels of glutamate. What Ikeda did next would revolutionize processed food for the next century and into our current situation. Isolating the element that made Kombu add so much flavor to his soup, Ikeda created MSG. He also created a word for how glutamate was flavoring food, Umami. This flavor did not overwhelm food, but seemed to enhance everything. Umami, generally translated as savory, is another flavor to go with sweet, salty, sour, spicy. His company quickly created a product translated as "essence of flavor," which is still produced and is creating about 1/3 of the worlds MSG, supplying much of Asia. The company quickly found that the flavor could be produced with wheat instead of Kombu, and at a much quicker pace.

MSG would come to America following WWII, along with many other Asian staples. One story goes that American cooks found that rations taken from the Japanese prisoners of war tasted far and away better than the American canned goods, and it was quickly found that this food essence was to blame.  Over the next 60 odd years, MSG has taken hold in American food. Due to a branding problem, MSG has other names, such as Glutamate, Malodextrin, Yeast Extract, Gelatin, and Sodium Caseinate to name a few. Without these products, all of our canned goods, soups, etc. would be bland, lose flavor much quicker, and would have a huge impact on the food industry.

To give the greatest example of why humans love glutamate we can look at breast milk. Glutamate is far and away the most abundant amino acid in the milk, and is ten times higher a content level than cow's milk. Glutamate is one half of the flavor of breast milk, being sweet and savory so kids will eat it!

MSG has its negatives, namely, you want to eat more because it tastes so good! Take a look at the facts, google msg myth, figure out what you want to do, just don't be fooled by MSG free!

Udon Noodle Soup - Umami to the Max!

Udon Noodles are most popularly served with the broth that I am about to show you, and are a staple of Japanese eating. Udon noodles, along with Ramen were supposedly brought from China over to the Japanese islands over a millenia ago. Some say that it is the very noodle that Marco Polo brought back from his travels in the East! Every region of Japan has specific styles of noodles, and in the small city of Takamatsu in Southern Japan, Udon has found it's center. The city boasts over 700 Udon eateries, necessitating Udon Taxi crawls to see the most famous Udon bowls. 


In a later post, I will show you how this style of soup is the precursor to MSG, and truly a magnificent Umami experience. Also a note about Shoyu and Mirin. I will go into more detail again at a later date, but Shoyu is something you should buy for sure yo. It blends and harmonizes flavors, and is made using better products than your average soy sauce. It tastes less salty, and does not overpower soups or rice. Mirin, while being a sweet rice wine, is by no means as sweet as sugar, and helps give Japanese cooking that perfect sweetness. If you cook a lot of fish, it will also help mask the smell. These two ingredients are worth the buy if you hope to do any amount of Japanese cooking. If you choose not to buy mirin, just mix equal parts rice vinegar and sugar, it won't be as tasty I think.







6 cups water
1 1/2 strips Kombu (read directions)
4 oz Udon
4 oz Shitake Mushrooms
2 cups White button cap mushrooms
3 tbsp Shoyu
2 tbsp Mirin
One bunch scallions
4 oz tofu or 1/2 lb meat protien


Boil Water
Add Kombu strips according to directions
Add Shoyu and Mirin
Strain out solids before pouring

Boil Udon
Strain Noodles and set aside

Sautee Shallots and Mushrooms and add Shoyu
Sautee Protien until cooked.

Arrange Noodles on bottom of bowl and veggies along with protien on top of the noodles, adding green onions.
Pour hot broth over noodles and enjoy the hell out of these.

Kosher Red Lentil Soup!

Red Lentil Soup? Really? Did Esau just sell his birthright for a pot of porridge? Have you ever been that hungry?


Well get ready because this soup is that good, maybe not giving up status as a forefather good, but its darn addicting and sure to be a big hit with your family/guests. It's also fairly easy because you do not need to sautee the vegetables before cooking the soup!  It's creamy, a great balance of interesting flavors, and truly is my favorite soup to serve.


Lentils are high in protein, fiber, and are a fairly cheap way for many vegetarian populations to get these nutrients. In fact, lentils are third in protein percentage to only Soybeans and hemp. They are also one of the first domesticated plants in the ME.











5 Cups Water
1 Cup Red Lentil
1 Cups Onions, Chopped
8 Cloves Garlic
2 Cups Potatoes
1 tbsp Oil
1 tbsp Butter
2 tsp Cumin
1/2 tsp Tumeric
1 tsp Cinnamon
2~3 tbsp Lemon Juice


Boil Water
Add Lentils, Onions, Garlic, Potatoes. Leaving cloves whole, chopping onions and potatoes.
Simmer 15-20 minutes, until fork pierces potatoes
During this time Melt Butter in Oil
Release Cumin fragrance by adding it and Tumeric to butter mixture, simmer for two minutes, make sure you don't burn it!
Combine butter amazingness with soup, along with Cinnamon!
Blend in batches, unless you want chunky and then blend half
Squirt 2~3 tbsp of lemon juice into soup
EAT!

Review of two Tasty Bite Kosher Pre-Made Curries

To all those who love quickly prepared dinners, vegetarian kosher meals, then -TastyBite pre-made meals will be great for you.


While not as tasty as a restaurant dish, many nights have been helped out with speeding through meals with a surprisingly authentic ethnic taste. There are several different brands out there, all sporting this cool hechsher, a menorah!


Unfourtanately, these particular dishes left much too be desired. I had never tried either of them, and I wanted to make new things and review new things for this blog.

Massaman!

First, I am going to speak about the Massaman vegetables. Massaman curries are a wonderful thing when they are made right, and Thai restaurants really do it right. Super coconut creamy, super peanuty, with a potato intensive group of veggies and protein, this southern Thai curry has been my number one curry favorite for a long time. Coming from the name Muslim, it is a unique curry on the spectrum, and Tasty Bite truly "al chetted," missed the mark with this one. The flavor was slightly peanut and left much to be desired, the veggies didn't come out so well including soggy peanuts, and the overall experience was not as happy as I would have liked. I give it a 2/7 - 2 Tim Curry Smiles.

Makhani!

And now to move on to the Paneer Makhani.  Makhani is one of my favorite styles of Indian cuisine, meaning with Butter.  The most famous Makhani dish, and the most popular in lunch buffets, is Chicken in Butter sauce, but that doesn't work for my mouth, so we are going to eat with Paneer. Paneer is simple farmer's cheese that we will be making some time in the blog. Its literally just the curds of normal milk boiled off, super simple to make.

Back to the curry, this one actually had some flavor to it, and if it weren't for the paneer which had a terrible texture, I would have really enjoyed this dish.

I give the Paneer Makhani 3/7 - 3 Tim Curry Faces!.

TIM CURRY!!! DR. FRANK 'N FURTER!!!

The one tool you truly need- a Rice Cooker.

Many, many times in my life have I used one of the four rice cookers I have owned. Four rice cookers?!?! That seems overkill, but with the various moves, and the affordability of rice cookers, why not? If you want an easy way to cook rice, and don't mind waiting more than a minute to create an amazing addition to your meal, then a rice cooker is the way to go.

I can honestly say that rice cookers do create perfect rice without the fuss of watching and turning off the stove at the right time. To avoid confusion when purchasing, there are two types of rice cookers with the lovely names of: On-Off Rice Cookers, and Fuzzy Logic Rice Cookers.

On-off rice cookers are by far the simpler of the two, with three "settings." On, Off, and Warm.  You can get them at discount prices for as low as Seven dollars (that was the cheapest one I ever bought), and they range up to $100 for the nicer brands. Be forewarned when you buy these, they aren't of the best quality at the lower prices, you won't be able to make brown rice (which I know many people are starting to eat these days). They are low power, still make amazing white rice, and are a good way to have an all night warm snack, as they can keep the rice in edible condition for many hours. Many also include steamers which make for easy vegetable cooking.

While I have never owned one, I have combed through many reviews of Fuzzy-Logic cookers in order to place one on my wedding registry. It is a quick find of the most popular brand, Zojirushi. These more advanced cousins of the On-Off variety can do many more jobs. They have brown, sticky, sweet, reheat, and quick cook rice settings. They also have porridge (think polenta, rice porridge) and soup settings for the time when you aren't making rice. Some even have char settings, for the classic asian dishes such as Bi Bim Bop (which I will be making sometime soon for this blog), which utilize crispy rice on the bottom as a flavor component.

Although the price is much higher, if you make rice more than several times a week, I think a fuzzy logic rice cooker is the way to go. The major benefits are: you can cook more types of rice, and you can keep that rice warm for up to a day in a half in the fuzzy rice cookers. The problems- they take a lot longer to cook, making cooking times nearly 45 minutes for a simple pot of rice. They have computers in them that are literally creating the perfect hearting conditions for the rice of your choosing (why they take so long).

While I own an on-off rice cooker now, I cannot wait for the day where a fuzzy logic cooker arrives on my doorstep.  In any case, BUY A RICE COOKER! Thank you Kayla for the inspiration!

Simple Bok Choy with Garlic, Lemon, and Terriyaki

Thank you www.eatdrinkbetter.com for this photo of Baby Bok Choy, the vegetable highlighted in the following dish.

Bok Choy has a long history in China, making it to Europe sometime during the 18th century. It's a close relative of cabbage and turnips, and has a similar use in the culinary world. Find a bunch that is pure white, firm, and is absent of spots. The leaves shouldn't be flacid and wilting, rather strong and a darker green.  The best time to find them in your stores or local farmers markets is Fall or Winter, and they will not be available in July or August. Interestingly enough, baby bok choy is just young bok choy, it is ripe for a major portion of its' life. Bigger is not better in this case, I find baby bok choy to be more tender, and easier to deal with.

2 Bunch of Baby Bok choy
1/2 onion
1 clove garlic
1 tsp lemon
1 tsp oil
1 tbsp Terriyaki Sauce
1/4 cup water


Begin by sauteeing onions and Garlic in oil for 2-3 minutes.
Add your liquids and allow to boil
add bok choy (which has been cut down the middle and sliced into smaller pieces)
and mix, allowing bok choy to cook down 4~6 minutes.
Serve immediately

Tikka Masala by Seeds of Change Review. Fish Curry!

Don't know much about Tikka Masala? This is a classic example of how European needs changed Indian cooking. A restaurant in Scotland created a creamier, more tomato heavy version of the classic cooking from their homeland. This is now the most popular curry in the UK, and it's easy to see why.

This is our first review of a pre-produced sauce. It's made by Seeds of Change, is Organic, and has an OU Hechsher. Tikka Masala is tasty with everything; beef, chicken, fish, or tofu.

At first smell upon opening the jar, it was too tomato centric for me, but that would come out in the cooking process. Just to be sure, I combined it with a 1/4 cup of water, terriyaki, and garlic which I used to poach cod.

To make these curries, you complete the cooking process with whatever your protein is. In this case, after seasoning a 1/2 lb filet of cod with salt, I sauteed the fish for 4 minutes on each side with 1/2 an onion before adding 1/4 cup of water and 1 tbsp of terriyaki. I covered and let poach for 4 minutes, at which point I added half the jar of curry, covering the entire fish, and let that simmer for 10 minutes, as per the directions on the jar.

Let me tell you that this was simply delicious! Especially with the tone down on the tomato by adding the water and terriyaki. I cannot wait to try out more of these sauces, which can be found at Whole Foods in Boston, and I am sure many other places.

A shout out to Seeds of Change, who have done their part to preserve nature and fight against large seed monopoly player Monsanto. By preserving heirloom variety seeds, and donating 1% of their profits toward organic farming initiatives, this is truly a great organization to support.

On a scale of 1 to 7, I would say this is 6 and earned the title of curryrific!

Six Adrienne Curry faces- oh my!

Fried Rice!

Fried Rice is one of the cheapest, tastiest, most spectacular meals. Making tons of rice at the beginning of the week, you can have an easy breakfast every morning, a quick midnight snack, or an easy way to incorporate all your leftover veggies.

The Most basic Fried Rice I make uses only four ingredients; carrots, onions, soy sauce, and rice of course. I love to use more elaborate ingredients and include some form of protein.

This recipe includes a vegetable that was on sale this week, Baby bok choy along with mushrooms and carrots.

Fried Rice as a "culinary exploration" has become, like curry, popular all over Asia and the world. New styles are being created everywhere from China and Thailand, to Africa, the UK, and America. Made with various meats, gravys, and things you don't want to know, Curries have made it into the local cart, shop, street, and restaurant culture. Here is the version I like.

2 tbsp Oil, 1 tbsp water
1 bunch Baby Bok Choy
8 oz Mushrooms
1 Carrot
1 medium Onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp each of Soy and Terriyaki sauce and more for your taste
3 cups cooked cold leftover rice
Green Onions for garnish and taste


Heat 2 tbsp Oil
Add Chopped Onion and Sautee 2 minutes, add Minced Garlic and sautee 30 seconds.
Add Carrots, Mushrooms, Bok Choy- Sautee 30 seconds
Add Terriyaki, Soy Sauce, Water - get boiling and cook for 2 minutes
Add Rice, and mix well, heating all the way through, 2 minutes
Make space on side of pan, beat three eggs and scramble.
Integrate.


I can't find any Fried Rice jokes so until next time!

Curry #1 of Many

One of my favorite ways to eat on the cheap, and on the easy is to make a curry. Using simple ingredients, along with some water or broth, you can make any size meal you want, that is filling and incredibly tasty.

My love of curries started in Thai restaurants, whose creamy, peanut buttery, coconut milky goodness was a logical next step after my regular order of Pad Thai needed a break. I have made curries over the last several years for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, adding any number of vegetables and using any number of spices. They are so easy to make kosher because there are no processed goods!

Now many think of Curry as specifically an Indian dish, but Curries are actually European and American in there origin. The term most likely comes from the Tamil Khari , meaning gravy. Most Curry Spice is orange in color because of Tumeric which is popular spice. Curry spice includes most commonly tumeric, cumin, red pepper, fenugreek, and corriander and the name refers to this mixture. Because of its wide spread nature, I figured it would be the perfect way to start off this blog, and a good pulse of what I am going to be cooking on a daily basis in my kitchen. All of my measurements are approximate, for when you start making your own curry, you can add or subtract to your tastes, and you will find whether you like Paprica or Corriander more, or if you like cinnamon added at the end of the process.

Just know, that there are many more curries to follow, along with reviews of curry pastes that can be bought in the store!

3 Cups Potatoes
1 can Garbonzo Beans
1 Onion
1 Clove Garlic
2 cups Yellow Squash
1 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp Curry
Broth, Water
1.5 tbsp flour
1 tbsp Soy Sauce
1 tbsp Oil

Sautee your Onions for two minutes in the oil, add minced garlic and sautee for 30 seconds

Add Potatoes and season with Salt and Pepper

and Cumin, combine. Sautee for 30 seconds until the cumin smells crazy good.

Add Garbonzo Beans and Curry Powder and a few tablespoons of water. Sautee for a few minutes with water boiling.

Add Squash and Soy Sauce, Mix until everything is covered.

Add Water or broth until veggies are covered.

Cover and simmer for 30 minutes until the potatoes are cooked and pierced with a fork easily.

If you want a thicker curry (my fiancee loves it that way)

Add 1/2 cup of the curry broth to a 1.5 tbsp flour. Mix well! Add back to the curry.

I like to add a nut butter to the curry, it really thickens it and gives it a great flavor

Heres to the coming year, tall ships and small ships.

Knock Knock
Who's there ?
Curry !
Curry who ?
Curry me back home will you?