Curry on over here

I tend to make one meal, usually on Sunday or Monday, and eat it for a week. Typically, this is some kind of soup or stew due to the ease of reheating and the the fact that they last for about a week. I just got through with a chili run and now I'm thinking Curry is going to be where it's at this week. My good friend Rebecca shared her recipe with me and it's pretty amazing.

Basically, it's a little bit of oil followed by a boatload of veggies and spices. Really, it's a pretty healthy meal when it comes down to it. You can totally have it with rice or couscous, but I like my curry plain. Keep the total quantity of vegetables the same and substitute however you like. Same with the spices, I tend to like things hot and the longer the curry lasts, the hotter it gets. It's pretty much amazing. Without further ado, here's Rebecca B's Curry used without permission (my apologies for the coarse language)

Rebecca B's Curry

Ingredients:

1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion (finely chopped/diced)
a sh**load of minced garlic (to taste)
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes (with juice)
1 cup water
any flavor bouillon to taste (chicken is my favorite)

The following ingredients don't have to be in this amount. Put what you want to put in...but this is what I use, so whatever:

2-3 carrots, sliced into rounds
1-2 yams, diced
3-4 small potatoes, diced
1 cup (or half small bag) frozen or fresh cauliflower

Spices:
1/2 tsp. turmeric powder (I don't use this, but you might, so there)
1 very liberal tsp of cumin (1/2 tsp if you want less of a cumin flavor)
1 tbsp red curry powder (at least)
1/8-1/4 tsp of garam marsala (start small and taste after each addition...this is one spice that can f*** up the whole thing if you put in too much at once)
cayenne pepper (to taste)
red pepper flakes (to taste)
anything else hot that you want to throw in (chicken wing sauce, hot sauce, whatever...if you use hot sauce, just add about 1/4 cup of brown sugar to the pot to cut down on the bottled vinegary taste...you know what I mean if you eat a lot of hot sauce).

Okay, it sounds complicated, but the ingredients list is the hardest part about making curry. Seriously: check out how f***ing simple this is:

1. Melt the butter in the olive oil over medium heat.
2. Add onion and garlic and cook until lightly brown.
3. Add tomatoes, water, bouillon, and spices. Let it simmer for 5 minutes and then taste it to make sure your spices are good/adjusted. Tweak whatever you need to at this stage (for me this means: add more heat).
4. Add everything else. The liquid should barely cover the vegetables. This is fine b/c you'll cook it with the lid on and more moisture will be released from the veggies. It might look soupy, but cooking it 30 minutes at the end with the lid off will thicken it...but I'm getting ahead of myself.
5. Bring this sh** to a boil, and then simmer it for at least 30 minutes to an hour (stirring every 10-15 minutes or so, depending on the pot you use and whether or not you have a history of burning sh** to the bottom of your pans). I cook it for about an hour with the lid on and 30 minutes with the lid off to thicken it and to make my apartment smell insane.

BAM!

That's it.
Not too difficult, but damn delicious.
Just keep tasting it to make sure it's hot enough.

Before the cooking...



...and after...



*For this Curry, I actually used only about 2 sweet potatoes (to cut down on the carbs), mushrooms, chick peas, and cauliflower. Spice-wise I used the amounts here plus 1 tsp of salt. Also, I'm not a fan of bouillon so I use 1 cup low salt chicken broth, although any broth will do. Heck, water would work just fine.