Chicken Curry Pita

I rarely cook chicken. I think it’s kinda icky to prepare and I’m really bad about washing my hands. No, not in that way. You don’t have to worry about the food that I’m cooking for you. I don’t lick my fingers THAT much and I always wash my hands before stepping into the kitchen to cook. Super convincing I know, but what I mean is I don’t like that I need to wash my hands so often when I’m cooking meat.  If I want to turn on the sink to wash my hands after cutting chicken I need to contort my body into some funky yoga pose.  All that work to flip a faucet with my elbow. Tisk tisk. How do I avoid this problem?  I stay pretty much vegetarian in the home.

But as I am posting this recipe, I obviously cook chicken every once and a while. When I do, I’m always rewarded with protein filled goodness. Anyways, cooking meat is a pretty challenging for me and I always need a challenge in the kitchen. I can’t always be cooking cupcakes and casseroles.

I’m really not doing a good job at telling you that you should cook this recipe right away. The dish reminded of me of swimming rama, but without peanut butter. Even though it’s dairy free, the sauce has a very creamy taste and texture and gave me a much needed creamy fix. The best part is that the meal comes together quite quickly. As the chicken is chopped into small pieces, it doesn’t take long to cook.

However, I found that if you stop cooking as soon as the chicken is done, your sauce will be a little thin. If you like it like this, I would recommend serving it with some rice and treating as a curry dish. Keep in mind that I’m difficult and wanted to eat my chicken in a pita dangit!  This meant that I needed to both reduce the sauce (read: cook longer) and add a cornstarch slurry. Even though the recipe didn’t originally didn’t call for a sauce thickener, I found it to be too thin “on its own.”

Did I forget to mention, I am officially 100% cow’s milk free but I CAN eat gluten (praise the kitchen overlords!).  I had a very bad reaction when I tried reintegrating dairy but no such problems eating goat cheese.  This is a prognosis I can live with, I mean, goat cheese/milk/butter is classier anyways.  Keep your eyes peeled for some goats milk ice cream and cookies!

Red Lentil Spinach Curry

Ladies, gentlemen and casual readers of my blog, I have officially made my first legitimate meal in my new kitchen!  What better meal to make than one that's smells linger for hours afterward - curry!  Rachel, my new roommate, came home about 3 hours after I had made the curry (and cleaned up) and proclaimed that the entire condo smelled wonderfully!  Win!

I originally had intended to make this after yoga on Wednesday, but it turns out that I was in too zen of a place and lacking tomato paste.  After a quick trip to Trader Joe's (the one that I can see from my patio) on the way back from running errands, I picked up some tomato paste, some Belgian raspberry beer, a hunk of fresh ginger and a double pack of tofu.  I had originally intended to make the shopping trip much more substantial, but my shopping list had other plans.  It laid itself to rest at the bottom of a Target shopping cart... I think.

Either way, this recipe is amazing.  I don't have too much experience cooking with lentils; out of all the varieties red lentils are the easiest to cook with.  Primarily they just don't take as long to cook, hence hurry curry.  Another bonus is that you probably have most of these ingredients somewhere buried in your cupboards.  However, if your curry powder was discovered in the back of your pantry... you might want to consider replacing it; curry powders go stale pretty fast.


Lentil Spinach Hurry Curry
Adapted from Kitchen Demure

• 1 cup red lentils
• 2 ¼ cups water
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 2 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp ginger, grated
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tsp of Garam Masala
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• A couple of handfuls of chopped spinach
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a small to medium pan add the oil and the onions. Turn the heat to med/high and saute, stirring constantly until they soften a little.
2. Add the garlic and the ginger and continue to stir. When the mixture is lightly golden, add the curry powder and stir for another 20 seconds or until you can smell the spices.
3. Add the lentils and water and bring to a simmer. Let the lentils cook for 15-20 min.
4. Add the tomato paste and stir to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the spinach leaves and serve.

Curried Chickpeas, Onions, and Kale in a Tomato Sauce

This recipe should be called "I bought a whole bunch of kale for a recipe and then forgot the recipe I needed it for, and now I need to use it asap."  But I have been making variations of this recipe for the past two years, and because I have yet to meticulously measure everything, it is different everytime.  Even in this attempt to write it down, every ingredient is an estimate.  While I do recommend using all the spices I listed, the amounts of certain spices are flexible (especially the spicy masala curry powder, and to a certain extent the mustard seed).

This is a quick meal to put together - I cut the kale and onions this morning before I went to class so that in my short break between classes and work I was able to make a warm, absolutely delicious, and satisfying meal.  It has a taste that is reminiscent of Indian food, but the tomato paste makes it a little more savory.  But you still get a nice delightful tingle of curry & sriracha sauce in the back of your throat… Mmm.  And the best part of this recipe?  It's low ingredient (and possibly pantry) friendly!  Maybe next time I make this I'll add some green onions...

And to John (the Kale-less wonder), try this to ease yourself into Kale.  Or have Sam make it for you.

Ingredients:

• a dash or two of Olive Oil
• 1 onion, diced
• half of a bunch of kale, chopped
• 1-15oz can of organic chickpeas, drained
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 2-4 TBSP (approx) Hot Masala Curry Powder
• ½ tsp yellow mustard seed
• a dash of cinnamon
• a dash (½ tsp?) coriander
• 2 gloves of garlic, crushed
• kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 or 2 TBSP Sriracha sauce

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large skillet and cook onions with the mustard seed for a minute or so.  Then add about 1 TBSP of curry power, cinnamon, and coriander to the onions and continue cooking until translucent.  Add in chopped kale and cook down (it will shrink dramatically in size, this is good).  Sprinkle a few pinches of kosher salt and grind the black pepper over the kale - mix in.
2. Stir in chickpeas and crushed, cook for about 2 to 3 minutes.  Reduced the burner to medium heat and stir in tomato paste with the rest of the curry powder.  Stirring this in will take some effort, but just work to make sure "break up" the tomato paste and incorporate the vegetables/chickpeas into it.  Once all incorporated, drizzle Sriracha sauce and stir to incorporate.  
3. Serve hot, but it also works wonderfully heated up the next day (trust me, I know, I'm not so good at "cooking for one").  I usually cook rice to serve this over, but I ran out of time.  While rice compliments this very well, it is also delightful on its on.