Vegan Korma w/ a little Quorn

So, I am totally craving Indian food again, and when I was in Chicago last weekend, my girls and I went to this place that served various curries with your choice of basmati, brown rice, or quinoa. The food was so good for that tiny lil' place. Since I'm back on the treadmill again, I need to eat full-fueled meals (630am 5K runs aren't my favourite things to do) so I decided to make a vegan version of the dish that will fill me up, but not weigh me down. I chose to use Quorn chik'n tenders as my protein source. I served it over a mix of quinoa and basmati and a side salad.

Vegan Korma 
Ingredients
3/4 bag of Quorn Chik'n Tenders
3 large carrots sliced
1 bag of cut broccoli and cauliflower
1/4 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp tumeric
1 tbsp fenugreek seeds
1 tbsp butter substitute
1 tbsp EVOO
1/2 cup cashews
2 tbsp unsweetened coconut
1 jar of vegan Korma sauce
1 cup light coconut milk
1 cup water

In a large pan, over medium-high heat, warm the butter substitute and EVOO. Once heated, add the dry spices and combine well. Next step is to add all the vegetables and the Quorn. Cook well for approximately 5 minutes. Turn heat to medium-low. In a blender add the rest of the ingredients, BUT only 1.2 a cup of water and blend into a thick sauce. Pour the sauce over the ingredients in the pot and then add the remaining water. Stir well and let cook for about an hour. Once the sauce has thickened and the vegetables and protein are cooked thoroughly, turn off the heat. Pour curry over your rice, and then sprinkle some chopped cashews and golden raisins.

Spicy Paneer and Spinach

So my Dakota girls N and A (well, only A is a true North Dakota girl) came for dinner last Saturday. Instead of going out to eat, which we have been doing a lot, I decided to cook for my belles. So I pulled out my package Rasoi Magic Paneer Butter Masala mix, but made a couple of changes.

Take the Paneer mix and mix with a cup of milk. In a hot pan, heat the 2tbsp oil on medium head and instead of tomato paste, I used 1/2bag of fresh spinach and cooked it down. I then followed the remaining directions according the package which were to add the spice mixture to the pan, add the paneer, and 1 cup water and allow to simmer. OMG, it tasted so good. There wasn't a drop left. We poured the curry over brown basmati rice and as a side, homemade hummous with crackers. YUMMY!

India in Milwaukee

So last month CP and her man JP came over for dinner for CP's birthday and we decided we celebrate with a home-cooked Indian dinner. So we raided the grocery stores and got all the ingredients to make vindaloo, naan, mango lassis, cilantro chutney, cucumber salad with yoghurt dressing, and basmati rice. OMFG, the dinner was beyond awesome! all the food tasted fantastic, which it should have after the way we slaved over the stove... well not really slaved. We actually totally enjoyed the evening making dinner and drinking Malibu with mango lemonade on the rocks (which, my friends, is a truly delicious drink and makes cooking even more enjoyable). So we couldn't get our hands on any lamb or goat that day for the vindaloo so we used beef instead. Totally perfect substitution. And instead of grounding all our spices manually, we just bought the pre-grounded spice mix.  Umm yes, just because we used pre-ground spices the meal is still considered homemade, And why not? We cut all the veggies, the meat, cooked the sauce, cooked the dish.

We even made our own naan bread. That's right, we baked bread! It really wasn't that we baked it, because actually we grilled it on the grill pan. Basically it was water, yeast, white flour, sugar, salt. Following the standard rules of making bread, we let the dough rise and then divided it into small balls, flattened them out with our hands, brushed oil over them, and then threw them on the grill. 

So what do you serve with Indian food? Umm no, its not ketchup. Eww! So we made some cilantro chutney. Basically all we did was dump a lot of cilantro, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, garlic, and a little bit of cumin, tumeric, and chili into a blender and let it whirl and whirl and whirl until you've got a sauce :o) Ahh, isn't Indian food just so easy? So yeah, that was CP's birthday dinner. After that we made a stop @ Kafevino for some red wine... some yummy Australian red wine. I think it was a 10 point birthday dinner. Sorry I don't have the recipes typed up step by step, but honestly, there are so many variations to these recipes I suggest just google a basic recipe and just putting your own twist to them. If you don't like spicy then don't use green chili. If you prefer chicken instead of beef, or lamb instead of goat, or maybe fish or tofu, go for it. Just be creative and bon appetit. 

Goat Vindaloo

So last week I flew home to Canada (Ottawa to be exact) to take care of some business and spend some family time with the cousin and her family. Well, my cousin, being as cute as  she is, insisted on cooking everyday in attempts to make me eat (let first say, I DO eat. I eat a lot, just not large amounts in one sitting). Anyway, so we had all this goat in the fridge (how much does it suck here that I've to drive two hours away to get fresh goat and they can go like 10 minutes?!) So yes, we had all this goat so we decided to make some vindaloo. How accurate our dish was to what you find in the restaurant, well that'll be for you to decide, but this is what we came up with.


Goat Vindaloo

• Make a paste in a food processor of a small/med onion, garlic, and ginger
• Make a powder w/ cumin seeds, black pepper, salt, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, two dried chilies, tumeric, coriander, and paprika (I used about 1 tsp of each)- stir in about 2 tbsp of rice wine vinegar (if you want, use distilled) and make a paste
• 2 lbs goat chopped in pieces
• 1 can of tomato paste
• 1.25 cups of water

Brown the goat in olive oil in batches and drain on a paper towel
Cook the onion paste to get the rawness out and then add the spice paste and mix well. 
Add the goat, tomato paste and water and stir well
Bring to a boil then lower to a simmer, cover, and cook ~ 45 minutes