Indian Curry Love Feast

The Boy made some tremendously good shrimp curry Sunday night to be used for our kooky pizza night. Since there was some hesitation about using a rather thin curry sauce as the base of a pizza, we had plenty leftover. So last night, he used that as the jumping off point for a totally spectacular Indian dinner. The curry was served over Texmati brown rice, then paired with Progresso lentil soup with more spices thrown in, and a saag type of dish (spinach, garlic, spices, olive oil, and a hint of cream of mushroom soup-- don't ask). When you look at this picture, doesn't it just look like dinner at a nice Indian restaurant? But it ain't from India House, folks. It's from our house.

Curries are my culinary secret weapon. They are super-easy once you have the spices (which incidentally, can be purchased along with other cool Indiania at the India House grocery store). There appears to be no real need to measure out anything. (But if you have to have recipes, go here. Epicurious also has a fancy version of what he did). I'd say it's fool proof, but then I'll concoct something horrific the next time I make it.

I start by frying the chicken in a large saucepan, then removing it and cooking onions and garlic and ginger paste in the same olive oil. Then you want to add in the classic Indian spices: turmeric, coriander, cumin, and cayenne. You can also add in curry powder itself (which is only a blend). Garam Masala is an Indian spice blend that goes well in pretty much everything. It's great in curries, but I recommend adding it in towards the end. Add liquid in quickly to keep from burning the spices. I usually throw in canned tomatoes, but the Boy did not do that here. Add in chicken (or shrimp) and assorted veggies. Then you let it really start to simmer, adding in a can of coconut milk to get the color and mellow out all the spices. (You can substitute unflavored yogurt, which I like to do to save cals, but be forewarned that it will likely have a yogurt-y aftertaste). Insert Garam Masala here.

For the purposes of full disclosure: the Boy used cream of coconut because we had it, so he only used a little bit, because that stuff is rich. He also added in peanut sauce, again because we had it, which worked in the same way to mellow out the heat and also added a nice nutty flavor. Let this serve as your license to do pretty much whatever you want to it. Cover and let simmer, tasting often, and tweaking as necessary.