Curry Chicken Pasta Salad

I had this way cool pasta

and needed something to do with it.

I also had some cooked chicken breasts and time.
So scouring the internet I devised
this little concoction:

Most curry dishes have you add chutney or raisins
or some other sweet component,
I didn't have either but I had some apricot preserves.

I also didn't have any curry powder
but was pretty certain Indra had told me years ago
that curry powder was a misnomer,
there is no ONE curry powder.
Every cook has his or her own blend.

To the internet!

And here you have my creation!

The salad is made up of:
slivered almonds
diced celery
peas
pasta
diced chicken.

The dressing is:
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup sour  cream
1/4 cup apricot preserves
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

The curry powder:
1 tablespoon turmeric
3 bay leaves
2 tablespoons coriander
1 tablespoon cumin seed
2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 whole clove.

You toss this all in a dry skillet
over medium heat and
toast them for 5-10 minutes and then grind it all.

The most surprising part isn't that this turned out great.
The most surprising part is that I
didn't have curry powder
yet had that preceding list of spices!

Tomato-Yogurt Chicken Curry

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy Aarti of

Aarti Party?

Well, I do. 

Never mind they canceled her 

Food Network show.

Lucky for me she's still part of the *firm*

so I can find her recipes in the 

Food Network magazine.

That is where this one comes from.

It was pretty and it was good,

but it was only

pretty good.

I won't put it in my rotation

but I also won't give up on Aarti. 

After all, she's where I got my 

Beef Vindaloo recipe.
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1236062992601183973#editor/target=post;postID=929610443067522416
And that was better than
pretty good.

Indian Summer Stew

Butternut Squash, Coconut, and Lentil Stew

The term "summer" is misleading, and I'm not sure I followed 

the reasoning behind it. But, whatever.

This was so good and hearty that we were satisfied with

just it and some naan bread.

Luckily I had seen Aarti make this.

It was so easy and quick but the *scary* part was 

what you do with the mustard seeds. 

You get a couple of tablespoons of oil screaming hot and 

then toss in the mustard seeds.

They pop and jump and sputter and generally go nutz!

Glad to have seen that on TV!

Then after you add red pepper flakes, garlic and salt, 

you dump the whole mess into the stew.

Popping, jumping and sputtering repeat.

And then you swirl some of the stew in the pan the spices have been in

and get a bit more jumping, popping, sputtering.

It's a very active dish. 

But very delicious.

My *tips*, 

you can get brown mustard seeds at The Spice House,

unsweetened coconut is in the healthy eating aisle, 

pigeon peas are not native to suburbia Illinois, 

lentils will suffice.

http://www.thespicehouse.com/

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/indian-summer-stew-butternut-squash-coconut-and-lentil-stew-recipe/index.html

Roasted Lamb Curry

Or as Aarti likes to call it

Night Night Curry.

It had really good flavor but I thought the meat was 

a little dry so I think next time I will try making this in

the Crock Pot.

It was definitely worth a second shot.

Something not worth  a second shot?

Shelling and hulling enough cardamom pods to equal 2 tablespoons 

of these:

Not the "big " black ones in the front. 

Nooo, you need a tablespoonful of those tiny green ones.

So that you can make your own Garam Masala

of which you will use 1/4 teaspoon.

Live and learn.

I'm just here to help.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/night-night-curry-roasted-lamb-curry-with-garam-masala-caraway-and-apricots-recipe/index.html

Beef Vindaloo

They only look like wasted weekends in front of the television.

It's called research.

I knew I liked Aarti from the start.

She was a contestant on 

The Next Food Network Star.

She has a smile and personality that just draws you in.

From what I understand she started out as a blogger, maybe?

Good news, I'm not so big a stalker that I researched her.

But this is not my point.

From the get go her food intrigued me.

I was lucky enough to catch one of her shows this past weekend.

She was making Beef Vindaloo, 

Cucumber Raita and a flat bread thing.

The good thing about watching someone cook as opposed to just reading a recipe is that what looks intimidating on the page is a piece of cake when demonstrated.

Really, "toasting" the spices and then grinding them?

Yeah, no big whup.

I knew saving that old coffee grinder was a good call.

I'll link the recipe here.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/goan-beef-curry-with-vinegar-beef-vindaloo-recipe/index.html

For whatever reason they are not posting her Cucumber Raita independently. It's 

linked with a lamb dish. But it's basically:

2 Cups plain yogurt

2 cups grated English cucumber

1 clove garlic, minced

4 sprigs mint leaves, finely minced

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons golden raisins

Mix that all together and you're good to go.

The raisins are a very fun sweet punch.

She did a great job on keeping the heat down 

so if you like a kick, go ahead and up the cayenne.

I did everything pretty much as written.

 I had to work a couple of hours this afternoon so I threw the completed 

vindaloo in the crock pot for about three hours. 

I think that dried out the beef a tad, so I wouldn't do that again. 

I didn't make the flat bread, it looked just too labor 

intensive for a Monday dinner so I bought a package of 

Naan bread. Pitas would probably work very well too. 

You just tear off a piece of bread and use it to scoop up a bit of meat

and a bit of the raita. Indra told me once that when eating Indian food, 

no two bites should be the same and 

each bite should be a perfect bite. 

Kind of a fun way to eat!