Vegetable Curry with Cardamom-Yogurt Sauce

This is a curry I tossed together to go with the Lamb Vindaloo.  It's mostly a pretty basic vegetable curry, but the prominent cardamom flavor and a nice garnish of pistachio nuts (common to some regional Indian cuisines) and raisins give it some character of its own.   It was a pretty nice companion for the lamb dish, and along with some basmati rice and naan, it made for a pretty good meal, but it's also got enough oomph to stand on its own if you'd like a vegetarian main dish. 

It smelled so good one of the cats wanted some.

Well, okay, not really.  The cats didn't seem to care one way or another about anything I made during my most recent Indian feast.  But that picture was too good to not post... and the Vegetable Curry did smell wonderful.

Anyhow, this dish is easy to make, healthy and quite good.  Not a whole lot else to say about this one. 
 
Vegetable Curry with Cardamom-Yogurt Sauce

yield = serves 8

1         tablespoon vegetable oil
2         pounds Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced
           (1-inch pieces)
2         teaspoons garlic
2         teaspoons Madras curry powder
1         teaspoon mustard seed
1         teaspoon cumin seed
1         teaspoon ground coriander
1/2      teaspoon table salt
1/2      teaspoon turmeric powder
1/8      teaspoon cayenne pepper
1         can (15 ounces) garbanzo beans, drained
1 1/2   cups water
1         pound cauliflower florets
1/2      cup yogurt
1         teaspoon cardamom powder
1/2      cup roasted pistachio nuts
1/3      cup golden raisins
1         tablespoon chopped cilantro
           (for garnish, if desired)

Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat.   When the oil is shimmering, add potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, 8 minutes. 

Add garlic, curry powder, mustard seed, cumin seed, coriander, salt, turmeric and cayenne and cook for one minute. 

Stir in garbanzo beans and cook 2 minutes, then stir in the water and add cauliflower florets.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer 30 minutes. 

Stir in yogurt and cook to heat through, then remove from heat.  Stir in cardamom powder, transfer to serving dish and top with pistachios, raisins and cilantro (if desired).  Serve with basmati rice.

Menu Planning

Monday through Wednesday, I spend a fair bit of time (what little I have spare, since we get back so late on Tues and Wed) planning out cooking for Thursday through the next Monday.  I like the result, but it can be a chore.

It's pretty necessary, really.  We do a lot of our shopping in Des Moines, as the local grocery stores in the small town we live in can't be relied on to have much in the way of specialty items, and sometimes are iffy even on some basics.  Plus, we have so little downtime on weeknights, and usually have so many other things that have to be done on weekends, that we want to use our time as efficiently as possible.  Then there's the fact that usually at least one of my menu choices involves something that has to be marinated or otherwise prepared a night in advance.

So, planning is important.  But it can also be tedious.

Here we see a not-atypical scene: I was looking through several cookbooks, old cooking magazines and my newest issue of Cook's Illustrated for some ideas, and had to get up to look elsewhere for another recipe I've been considering.  I came back to find Juno less than pleased with me getting up all the time, not to mention with me messing with books when I could be petting her.  When I sat back down she kept turned away from me - atypical behavior for her, and when I tried to pet her, she jumped off the couch.  Earlier she had shown her displeasure by chewing on the corner of a legal pad while I was writing on it. 

From Monday through today, I've consulted at least nine different cookbooks - some in depth - and probably a half-dozen cooking magazines, plus several of the cooking blogs I follow and the Cook's Illustrated website.   Plus I've checked weather forecasts, which can impact my planning.  It looks to be warm and sunny for the weekend, which means it'll probably be too hot for big pots of soup or chili, but grilling is an option.

This week's menu is finally coming together.  I've tried to base my selections as much as possible around items we already have in stock, to cut down shopping time and cost.  We've been trying to keep a good supply of basic items on stock, and it's paying off now.  I've got red curry paste, fresh basil, pineapple, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, onions, coconut milk, palm sugar, fish sauce, lamb stew meat, tofu and a lot of the other things I'll need.  So far, it looks like we'll need to check out Graziano Bros. market for some excellent, fresh mozzarella and maybe some of their sausage, and pick up a few other things at one of the big supermarkets in Des Moines.  Everything else we can probably pick up here in town.  I have a quick shrimp curry (an original recipe) planned for Thursday, and I'm going to make some pizza dough on Thursday evening, which will make for a quick dinner on Friday.  Tentatively, I'm planning Chinese dishes for Saturday lunch, Indian for Saturday evening, and grilled lamb kabobs for Sunday's dinner.

Another New Arrival

I've written recently about some of the new cookware we've purchased.  As it happens, while we don't have a particularly small kitchen, it is somewhat lacking in terms of both cabinet and counter space.   As a result, we haven't really had any particularly convenient place to put some of our equipment while leaving us adequate space to work and to store non-cookware items. 

To solve this problem, we recently ordered a kitchen shelving unit.  We decided to get one with wheels, so we could move it around as needed to sweep under it or othewise move it as necessary.  The unit arrived yesterday, and even though we were pretty tired from a long day at work, we couldn't wait to get it set up.  Here it is after a bit of assembly, and after we'd moved our microwave to the new shelves (doing so opened up a lot of workspace).

Having done that, it was then time to move some of our equipment to the shelves.  It quickly became apparent that when one has a lot of cookware and small kitchen appliances, it is pretty easy to fill up a set of five shelves.   Aside from the microwave, the new shelves quickly became home to our two slow cookers (large and small), our electric skillet, our double-boiler and stockpots and large skillet and Dutch ovens, the spice grinder, the bread machine, the ice tea maker, the blender, the food processor and some other small appliances.










The picture to the right shows the shelves when they've mostly been filled.   You can also see two of our cats - the orange cat is Nate, the calico is Juno.   They don't seem too impressed - I'm guessing they were confused to find we'd moved their food and water dishes in order to make room for the shelves - but Juli and I are pretty happy with this new purchase.   It definitely makes our kitchen seem more roomy.  This change gives us a lot more room now for food prep, and will have a much easier time getting to the equipment we need without having to dig through over-full cabinets.  I can actually get to things like the pie plates and the pizza stones.  Until now, they were buried behind or under a lot of other things.

Hm, maybe it's time to bake a pie or try out some of the new pizza recipes I've found...