Chickpea and Spinach Curry

I found this super easy recipe in Real Simple magazine -- and have made it a couple times since. It's fast and simple to make, with many of the needed ingredients typically available in your kitchen (chickpeas, onion, frozen spinach, etc). I really appreciate go-to meals that you can make fresh, but that don't need a ton of work or prep ahead of time during the week.

Cooking the onion, garlic and ginger before adding the curry powder.

This is easily ready in 30 minutes, if the spinach is thawed. To defrost it quickly, I usually pop it in the microwave, and nuke it for 1 minute to 30 second increments to get it to soften without cooking it completely.

Mixing in the chickpeas, spinach and water before simmering.

Yogurt, cilantro and cucumber mixture.

They had me at "Greek yogurt." This topping mixture came out similar to tzatziki or raita.

Tossed a little warm pita in there, and we're good to go!

I agree with the commentator on the recipe -- it wasn't particularly spicy, so you can add more curry powder or top with Sriracha sauce (which is what we usually do when it comes to adding spice at the end). You can do this to taste at the very end, especially if you have people with different tolerance for spice levels.

June 9: Grilled Shrimp with Kale Leaves with Quinoa and Feta

Note: We added shrimp to the week's menu after realizing we had some picked up some from the grocery store the weekend before.

The shrimp we made here was based on the shrimp tikkas recipe we had learned at Naveen's cuisine.  We had about 1/2 pound of shrimp, so we cut down the spice amounts. We made a marinade of 1/2 tablespoon minced garlic, 1/2 tablespoon minced ginger, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper and 1/4 teaspoon garam masala. We didn't have garlic paste or ginger paste, so used minced versions -- and then put in less cayenne pepper than the recipe had originally suggested (1/2 teaspoon for 1 pound of shrimp) as well.

We used some fresh shrimp we had gotten at the meat/seafood counter. Naveen had suggested using uncooked shrimp, but felt that fresh or frozen would work. He had also recommended butterflying the shrimp before marinating it, which essentially consists of running your knife down the back of the shrimp, as you can see from the photo below.

Mad skillz.

The shrimp went into the marinade for about 30 minutes (they can sit up to 2 hours). 

Raw shrimp. Not so pretty here.

In the meantime, I washed and cut the stems from the kale leaves. I prefer just to eat the leaves -- the stems can be kind of tough for me. Kale is like spinach in the sense that it reduces down big time once you cook it. I know this looks like a ton of kale, but it really shrinks down.

The kale was cooked on the stove with a little olive oil. You'll see in the last picture how much it reduces down. 

Paul, the grill master, cooked the shrimp on the grill for about 5 - 7 minutes -- until they are no longer opaque. Here they are when first tossed on the grill...
 

Thank you, grill light! You are you handy when we make dinner at 9 p.m.

...and about 5 minutes later. The butterflying makes them curl up like that and look pretty. 
 

Um, there a few less shrimp in this photo. I think someone had a snack before dinner.

Alongside the kale and shrimp, I cooked up a quick cup of quinoa. We added some feta cheese crumbles to the kale, and topped the shrimp with some cilantro.

It turned out pretty good! I was impressed, even with messing with the spice ratios. I like keeping frozen shrimp in our freezer for a quick meal, and this would make great use of them as well (see below). Paul suggested that next time, we plate the kale on top of the quinoa. I ended up mixing everything together as I ate anyways. 


Update: We made the shrimp recipe again recently for a larger group, and this time used the recipe amounts (1 pound of frozen uncooked shrimp) and the correct ingredient ratios: 1 tablespoon minced garlic, 1 tablespoon minced ginger, 1/2 teaspoon garam masala, 3 tablespoons vegetable oil and 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (I still kept this a little lower than suggested because I didn't want people to think it was too spicy). We marinated them for about 2 hours and then cooked them up on the grill for about 7 minutes. They went FAST. Our guests really enjoyed them. I love having a quick backup recipe like this that I can make with the ingredients I have in the house or that I am comfortable bringing with us to another party.

June 7: Recipes from Naveen's Cuisine

Inspired by our Indian cooking class at Naveen's Cuisine, we decided to try to make two of the dishes we learned that evening -- kachumbar (vegetable salad) and murgh curry (curry chicken).

(Since Naveen doesn't list these recipes on his website, I'll describe what we're including and how much of each ingredient. We also doubled the salad recipe because we had 2 cucumbers from the produce box that week.)

First, we started to make the kachumbar. To make the salad, you chop up a ton of vegetables, and marinate them in lime and spices. No oil needed. Our first step was to peel and chop two cucumbers. 

Then dice up a cup of red radishes. 

Dice two cups of tomatoes.

Cutting those tiny V-shapes is my go-to method for "coring" (if that's even the right word) tomatoes.

We combined all of this into one bowl.

We minced 1/2 cup of red onion and chopped 4 tablespoons of fresh cilantro. All of that also went into the bowl.

Then we mixed the "dressing" -- 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of garam masala (we did not have chat masala, which is what the recipe calls for), and the juice of two limes.  This is covered in saran wrap and goes into the fridge for 15 to 30 minutes to marinate.

According to what I found online, chat masala and garam masala are not interchangeable. Oops.

On to the curry!

This is my job...Paul gets a little emotional over onions. They're just onions, Paul!

The coloring is a little hard to see here, but this is a TON of chopped ginger. Ton being the exact measurement we used.

We heated 4 tablespoons of oil in the pan, then added the ginger, onion and garlic and cook (with the lid on) until golden brown. Next, we added the chicken, and cooked it for 7 minutes or until the meat starts to turn brown.

The recipe called for ground coriander. We had "full-sized" coriander, so we used our coffee bean grinder to make it into ground coriander. The coffee tasted -- interesting the next morning. 

"Full-sized" coriander? Now I'm just making stuff up.

We added in 3/4 teaspoon turmeric, 3/4 teaspoon garam masala, 2 teaspoons of ground coriander, and 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper. We cooked this mixture with the chicken for about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Then, we added 1 cup of chopped tomatoes, and mixed everything in well. Then we added 2 - 3 cups of water, so the chicken became completely submerged. Everything is brought to to a boil and cooked on medium heat until tender.

We served the curry chicken on a bed on white rice, topped with some chopped fresh cilantro. 

 

The curry came out nice and spicy -- especially the sauce. The curry came out less thick than we remembered, so maybe we cooked it down more during the class. 


So as I mentioned earlier, we had used garam masala instead of chaat masala for the vegetable salad. It tasted good, but I remember absolutely loving this salad-- so the next time I make it -- I would definitely use the again with the chaat masala instead.

April 14: Chicken Curry with Rice

In preparation for our Indian cooking lesson on Sunday, I thought I'd try to make a chicken curry myself. I've made similar things in the past, but this was my first "go" at doing it without a recipe. 

Ingredients: chicken, frozen peas, fresh ginger, water chestnuts, coconut milk, mild curry paste and carrots.

First, some reinforcements. I am not a good cook while hungry.

Okay, back at it. Decided to add some cubed potatoes and some minced garlic (not pictured).

I got the ginger all ready to go.

I'll get the lighting right eventually.

Cubed chicken in the pan with some olive oil, minced garlic and the aforementioned ginger.

I mixed in four tablespoons of the curry paste. Last time I made a curry, i thought it was a little weak, so I thought by adding the paste directly to the chicken, it would keep it spicy.

This is also the point when I realized that Paul had a curry at dinner the night before. Oops.

I added in the cubed potatoes and poured in about half the can of coconut milk. I used a whole can before, which I also think contributed to the mildness.

Lastly, added carrots, water chestnuts, and half a bag of frozen peas. I did some quick minute rice in the microwave, while this simmered on the stove. I originally had the heat up high to cook the cubed potatoes, but Paul reminded me that high heat would cook off the sauce.

This is usually the point in a recipe where Paul gets home from work and tells me what I did wrong. You know, when it's almost done.

Final product! Chicken curry on some white rice. 

The spiciness was right on for me. Paul ended up adding some Sriracha to kick it up even more, but he is a crazy person. The larger cubed potatoes were a little crunchy (which frankly, I didn't hate), but if I was going to include them again - I'd probably do a quick boil for them in water so they are a little softer before adding them to the mix.

Sunday Night: Indian Food Cooking Lesson

So Paul and I are taking an Indian food cooking class on Sunday night with some of his coworkers. I was just told that the tentative menu includes:

• shrimp tikkas (grilled shrimp marinated with spices)
• chicken curry
• began ka bharta (boiled eggplant with tomatoes and ginger)
• chili paneer (bell peppers and Indian cottage cheese with ginger)
• rice 
• mixed vegetable salad

I am SUPER excited. I'm going to try making my own version of a chicken curry tonight for dinner, so we'll see how the two compare. Photos and updates posted later!