Hello friends,
How is everybody doing? Myself I feel fine, scared, bored and sad depending on what I've read, seen or done. We are trying to stay inside as much as possible. Sometimes going for walks but keeping a big distance between other people we see on the street. Sometimes this is paired with a smile of mutual understanding and others people look at us like we are crazy for taking the virus seriously.
Anyhow, you must be here for the food; a no recipe curry. How does that work on a recipe blog? For some people a no recipe curry is an easy task, give them an idea (hello, make a curry?) and they will go ahead and make just that, a curry with whatever is available. If you know how to do it, go ahead, I trust you. Others might need a little help, don't worry I got you.
For me it is pretty useful to know that most ingredients aren't necessary, it's a little bit more difficult in baking, but in cooking stews, it's really not that big of a deal to leave out, replace or add. This is great because that means you can use something leftover in your fridge, buy things that are on discount or in season.
It's funny because to me, this is pretty much second nature, and I rarely follow a recipe perfectly. Now switching to Job. My boyfriend needs to follow the recipe exactly. He will ask if the carrots need to be diced, stripped, sliced or chunked. For this curry all the veggies can be cut in shapes you enjoy, as long as they are bite sized.
What you will need to make this curry:
1 onion (or celery, spring onion, leek, shallot, onion powder)
1 cm of ginger (or ginger powder, cardamom, kaffir lime leaves, turmeric)
bunch of carrots (or sweet potato, pumpkin, regular potatoes, celeriac, parsnip, any root veg)
3 tbsp red curry paste (green, yellow, purple would all work, curry powder, or if you are really ambitious make your own)
1 tbsp soy sauce (tamari, liquid aminos, salt, or leave it out)
1/2 cup dry red lentils (canned lentils, green lentils, chickpeas, beans (soak overnight if using dry)
3 cups of broth (or use water if you don't have a stock cube, just add extra spices!)
1 bok choy (spinach, kale, any leafy green is fine)
200 ml coconut milk (canned, from a carton (use unsweetened), plant cream, creamed coconut, or make your own from shredded coconut)
juice of 1 lime (lemon juice, splash of food grade vinegar)
Topping ideas:
Rice (literally any other grain is fine too, naan bread, pita bread)
Crispy chickpeas (dry roast chickpeas (from can or boiled) for 5 minutes and add a splash of tamari)
Sesame seeds
Cilantro (fresh or dry)
Other ideas: cherry tomatoes, kimchi/sauerkraut, cashews
Base recipe:
Start out by cutting onion, garlic and oil in a pan for 2 minutes.
Cut and peel carrots and add to the pan. Stir in curry paste, soy sauce, lentils, broth. Bring to boil and let simmer for 20 minutes. Stir a few times to make sure it does not burn.
When using canned lentils/chickpeas, add less broth (about 1 to 1 1/2 cup)
Meanwhile make the toppings and boil the rice according to the package (or 10 minutes of boiling, take it from the heat and leave it covered for 10 minutes).
After 20 minutes, cut the bok choy. Stir in the bok choy, coconut milk and lime juice. Let simmer for another 5 minutes.
Assemble the rice, curry and toppings in a bowl and enjoy.
