Search And Destroy: Curry

I was thinking back to when I first started making curries a few years back, and was meticulously separating the coriander leaves from the stalks with some scissors, one by one. Maunika Gowardhan, would would have said: wtf are you actually doing? and then chopped up the job-lot up in 30 seconds with a knife!

i hate when recipes say "leaves only" - who really cares if there are a few stalks in there?

Fresh herbs keep really well in a ziploc bag ime

good tip, i'll give that a go.

put a paper towel in the bag with them

full knowledge bomb on this mother today! thnx.

#lifehacks

Coriander grows very slowly, smells like a stink bug, and you can only use a young plant's leaves. Hence, I buy sprigs. Most curry recipes call for huge quantities of cilantro anyway, so you don't have to keep it in the fridge for too long.

the leaves are slightly different?

I know I know but I just can't tell the difference!

Fold herbs into a slightly damp kitchen towel and keep in fridge

Maunika's recipes are brilliant

yeah, Maunika's recipes and videos are so ace. I did her Chicken Biryani recipe this week. I didn't have any mint but it still turned out very nice. I like how she encourages much garlic, none of this 1 or 2 cloves nonsense. And she got me putting saffron into warm milk, which is a new approach for me.

word to the wise: asafoetida

Meera Sodha’s Christmas recipe for vegan achari brussels sprout curry | The new vegan https://t.co/79N6NxtaaD via @guardianfood

— Guardian Feast (@GuardianFeast) December 21, 2019

I love the simplicity of this one, going to do it later because I'm flat out fucked with a cold and need an easy day.

This looks good. You could probably double the ginger and garlic to get extra cold help. I feel like the masala I made last week I used about 7 cloves of garlic and 2 inches of ginger.

I never use less than one bulb or half a big bulb of garlic in curries no matter what the recipe says. Had to cancel this for a boring sausage/butterbean casserole because they needed using today. Will bear that advice in mind tomorrow tho.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EMZx6YLXYAEAwKD?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

this worked out well despite lacking nigella seeds. i couldn't resist adding hot chilli powder and garam masala cos it needed a bit more heat imo.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/jan/25/meera-sodha-masala-baked-beans-on-toast-recipe-vegan?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

another Meera Sodha recipe that looks awesome. Might induce a stroke in some ILXers by including a tin of baked beans!

her books are so great

i had to reconsider the difference bw u.s. and british baked beans but that looks inspired. calzino, what was that brussels dish in your previous post?

xpost

I really love the coriander/peanut chutney from that recipe, but my favorite Meera Sodha recipe so far is this one

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/oct/21/chilli-tofu-recipe-vegan-meera-sodha

off topic as far as curry goes:

I want to explore a vegan diet, but it seems very daunting. I’m liking Meera Sodha’s articles

for the tofu chili recipe I used serrano chilis in place of jwala finger chilis, since I can't find jwalas where I live and serranos are similar on the Scoville heat scale.

I now know that rapeseed oil is canola oil.

a question: what is corn flour? where I live there is no such thing as corn flour, it’s either corn meal, which is very coarse, or corn starch, which is very fine. I used corn starch for coating the tofu in this recipe

Re: that Sodha recipe, can I assume a brown onion (in the UK) is a yellow onion (in the US)?

I've never heard of a brown onion in four decades...

I think she has to be referring to yellow onions

i think she means cornstarch for the tofu? Getting corn flour for that seems unnecessary. Google says it's basically the same thing. But if you really wanted it they sell Bob's Red Mill stuff all over the world (don't recall where you are) and they do corn flour.

Making crispy tofu is one of my least favorite activities. I've tried some of the hacks people post online but right now I am enjoying being able to buy aburage (twice deep dried tofu) in packages nearby.

yep uk cornflour = us cornstarch