food

Recipe: Eight Cup Curry

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So before I go into detail about this recipe, let me give it to you first.  Essentially I repurposed a recipe to make a general curry, it needs work, but it’s a start.

So here you go:

Ingredients:

  • 1 large tomato, diced (about a cup)
  • 1 Tablespoon crushed garlic (about 3 cloves)
  • 2 Tbsp curry powder (S&B Curry)
  • 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1/8 tsp ground red pepper
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 Tbsp lime juice
  • 4 cups assorted diced non-starchy vegetables
  • 4 cups assorted frozen or cooked legumes
  • Around 1/2 cup of water
  • Cilantro if needed.

Instructions:

  1. Place tomato and garlic in pot, with just enough water to cover the bottom.  On high heat stir and mash until it forms a paste, adding water if needed.  The goal is to keep just enough water to make it into a paste but not dry-fry it.  This takes around 5 minutes.
  2. Add any vegetables or frozen vegetables that need cooking to soften like carrots or peppers or cauliflower (some frozen vegetables are cooked then frozen so pay attention).  Add a bit more water, enough to have the bottom of the pot covered.  Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered, stirring every few minutes until they start to soften.
  3. Add legumes and any vegetables that don’t need to be cooked, just defrosted, mix thoroughly.
  4. Add spices and stir thoroughly.
  5. Cook until heated through.
  6. Serve alone or with a grain, with cilantro if desired.

So this is a repurposed version of a green pea and yam curry I had that was very simple but tasty, so I wondered if it could be remade to a general curry.  If I could get a general curry recipe that’d let me use most anything I had, it’d be very useful and tweakable.  It also would create a general recipe that would let me, or anyone else, use whatever was lying around, or use a few frozen vegetables grabbed at a store.

The name comes from the fact it’s designed to use eight cups of food – half legumes, half other vegetables.  The original recipe worked that way too.

How did it come out?  Decent.  It was a bit too hot (an issue with the original recipe) and sour, but still quite good – one of those things that I can critique while still noting it’s good.  At the core of it is a solid curry powder and simple ingredients, which works.  I was put in mind of a kind of curry at a good buffet – you might not be thrilled if it came as a prepared meal, but it’d be acceptable in that situation.

I think I can make it work with a few changes – something sweet (an apple or raisins in the sauce), perhaps a bit less lime juice, maybe cut the red pepper.

One thing that stood out in this meal is what the mix did – I had four different vegetables (carrot, red pepper, cauliflower, green beans) and two legumes (green peas and black eye peas), plus I served it on barley (my preferred grain).  Every bite was a mix of flavors, each chew revealed more – all wrapped in strong sauce.  Once I get this right, this is going to be a great meal.

Also note it’s rather balanced.  Combine this with a grain and fruit for desert and you’ve got just about every kind of vegan nutrition there is.  Or eat two servings for a full meal.

Not a vegan or vegetarian?  I think substituting 1-2 cups of meat for an equivalent amount of vegetables may work.  Not sure beef would work on this – chicken or turkey is probably best.

I’m going to keep working on this one.  Done right I get something that’s fast, shareable, and good – and because it’s based on proportions I can scale it up easily (even if that’d technically be sixteen cup curry or twenty-four cup curry).  A great way to make a lot of meals at once or a lazy way to stock the freezer for a lot of food fast.

 

Respectfully,

– Steven Savage
http://www.musehack.com/
http://www.informotron.com/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

Geeking Out To A Better Diet

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food spices peppers

Don’t worry, this isn’t going to turn into some preachy tract on healthy eating or how I “found” the latest diet fad. I’m pretty tired of food-as-religion-of-the-day myself. No, this is basically how my geek inclinations helped me get healthier, mostly via eating better – in a way I enjoyed.

I’ve thought about writing on this subject for MuseHack on and off but let’s face it, the site is “Applied Geek” and applying geekery to health fits that vein. Besides, whenever we hear the latest news about how awful people’s diets/habits/exercise/etc. it’s constantly bad – so maybe we should do something.

Do it our way.

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Why I Eat (Mostly) Vegetarian

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As most people know I’m a “mostly vegetarian” – I have meat or eggs once or twice a week, for some reason usually in the form of pepperoni or sausage because pizza.  Also because I do like to “keep in touch” with meat on a culinary level, if that makes any sense, though that’s usually when I do some insanely unhealthy thing like trying to make pepperoni pizza dip.

Most of my diet is vegetarian with carefully-chosen milk products (low-fat yogurt).  It’s pretty much been the reason for over 2/3 of my weight loss from when I was 30 lbs over weight (and yes, due to my weird build it was hard to tell until the doctor pointed it out – both sides of my family can wear extra pounds well).  It’s also frankly left me feeling better.

(The rest was calorie control, careful eating, and walking more)

But there’s a lot of reasons I eat vegetarian.

Actually I wanted to discuss them.  I also wanted to discuss them as a “person” because it seems many people have this image of the vegetarian scold.  In my experience that’s an almost entirely-false image, but the idea is still there of some vegetarian being all self-righteous, snippy, and dull.  I think we project those days mom wanted us to eat our broccoli (pro tip for kids – point out to mom there’s many great ways to prepare it!).

So here’s the reasons in no particular order.

It’s Inevitable: Not your most noble point, but the thing is the food industry as we know it has a lot of unsustainable practices, issues with antibiotics, inefficiencies, and so forth.  Which is a shame, because there’s also some amazing technology out there that people forget about that let us do incredible things to raise food.  But in the end meat is pretty inefficient and is associated with some unhealthy practices, so I see it getting pricier and more troublesome, and going mostly vegetarian was getting a jump on an inevitability.

The Environment: Part of “the inevitable” is that a lot of our food practices are really bad for the environment and thus us.  I feel a lot better participating in that less – and I think as noted we’ll have less choice.

It Can Be Healthier – In A Lazy Way:  From everything I can find out you can eat meat and animal products in moderation and be healthy – it just takes a little planning and awareness.  On the other hand I found by going vegetarian made it just plain easier to cut out unhealthy food and opportunities because they’re less likely to be there – so I filled my plate with vegetarian stuff I liked.  Note however that preparing food yourself and being aware of nutritional value is a big part of this.

It’s Healthier – Processing: Also to be honest a lot of the meat industry makes me unsettled.  Between questionable practices, breeding, hormones, and of course misuse of antibiotics, I’m really not trusting a lot of meat right now that isn’t extremely treated and prepared.  Sure I have to be careful with milk and eggs but really, I get concerned.

Expanded Cooking Repertoire: There’s a lot of vegetarian cooking in the world and it’s delicious – but when you’re “meat-centric” you can miss it.  I think a focus on meat in our diets limits our culinary options.  Since I started cooking vegetarian I’ve discovered a much wider range of tastes and interests – some of that due to new experiences, some of that due to nutritional balancing.

The Examination: Going vegetarian made me ask why some things taste good – like a burger, or a steak, and so on.  Switching made me think and learn about what we like and how it tastes.  Another case where going flexitarian or temporarily vegetarian may be educational to people.

It Can Be Cheaper: I found that I save money if I use little to no meat and limited animal products.  It’s actually a bit less than I expected – also I think the gain occurs the more people you cook for.  As I expect costs of meat to go up, I expect the cheapness to be a factor in the future.

It Has Ethical Benefits: I don’t consider eating meat a bad thing; in fact, I don’t want people to give it up completely just due to culinary history and so forth.  But I’m really finding the way we raise meat is disturbing in what it does to animals, the environment, and ourselves.  The inefficiency of the meat industry as it is is something I don’t want to support.  So this feels more ethically appropriate.

It’s a Shock To The System: A switch to vegetarianism or mostly vegetarianism/flexitarianism really makes you think.  Like any dietary shift it can be educational, but as it has other benefits, I’ve found it very enjoyable to shake myself up – and I’m working to do it still with new ingredients or influences.

Ready For a Crisis: I figure if there’s ever a disaster (I do live in an Earthquake zone) it’s easier to know how to rely on vegetables than meat – and hey, there’s canned stuff.  Also if there’s ever a local disaster and I try to help out, I got the cooking skills to lend a hand feeding people.

Ready To Help: Any crises aside, the fact I can cook effective healthy food means it’s great for potlucks, charity events, and so on.

Peace Of Mind: I find that eating vegetarian or mostly so clears up so many issues it gives me more peace of mind.

High Fiber: Look, let’s get down to it.  Eating more vegetables means regularity and better health.  If you’re not thinking about such things, well, juuust wait until you’re older. Just wait.

So those are my reasons.  I hope they give you an idea of why I do what I do and give you some things to think about!

– Steven Savage