52 Churches

Traditionally, yellow curry has boiled chicken, onions, and chestnuts in it. Not much else. But since I’m not eating meat these days, I usually ask for tofu to swap out for the chicken. But I got to thinking that yellow curry could probably take a lot of different things in it without dramatically altering the taste.

I am pretty happy with this recipe for the sauce, and then I set about adding in my own “chunks.” In this case, I used tofu, red peppers, tomatoes and rinsed black beans in addition to the onions and chestnuts.

Over a decade ago, a friend of mine had her parents hand carry this rice cooker to me from Hong Kong. I’ve seldom had as useful an appliance (and I’m someone who loves my stand mixer, often uses my blender, and recently bought a food processor).

I think of them each time I use it, and it still delights me, and makes excellent rice.

It is possible that I got a little carried away with the grilling.
It’s possible that I grilled too many veggie burgers.

That I grilled too much corn.
(What?! I can almost hear Michael. You can’t have too much corn!)

It’s possible I grilled too many Caesar salads and red pepper halves.

It’s even possible I grilled too much pineapple that had been shaken with cilantro and sweet chili sauce. (Okay, maybe not too much pineapple).

But we did have a long stretch where it seemed the only thing we ate was veggie burgers and grilled things . . .

It’s easy enough to get carried away with buying vegetables in the store that look like they’d be great on the grill . . . but what do you do with them once you’ve pulled them off the grill? Veggie Salad!
Chop the grilled vegetables into smaller bits and put them on a bed of lettuce. (For that matter–grill the lettuce, if you have romaine).

As close as we are to California, we get a nice mix of produce from there before our season heats up here. The salad greens have lost most of their radicchio, which is sure sign that winter is almost over.

This is a side salad with spinach, avocado, Parmesan, and fig vinegar. I suspect this was a lunch for me, as no one else in this house like avocado (troglodytes!). Well, more avocado for me.

Michael has never really liked lentils. He’s worked really hard to come to terms with them, and he found this recipe for red lentil dhal, which I made that same day:

Red Lentil Dhal
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Rinse a cup of red lentils.

Finely chop an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic. Optionally, add a couple of chopped green chillies.

Saute onion and garlic in oil (not olive oil, it will taste wrong in this recipe) or clarified butter. After a minute or two, add a teaspoon of turmeric powder, a half teaspoon of cumin powder and a quarter of powdered coriander seed.

When the onion is transparent, add the lentils and 600ml of water or stock, and salt. It’s ready when you have tasty yellow mush. Stir every now and then, it may stick.

I’ve added red peppers to mine, though the blonds inform me that I ought to have added them last minute, instead of cooking them into lovely, soft peppers. They thought the addition ought to be a counter point of crunch in a sea of soft, spicy lentils.

While we were in Maryland, packing up the dome, the ‘rents took us to dinner at one of their local restaurants, Bud’s at Silver Run. It’s a very meat-centric menu, but Sallygra had called to ask if they’d come up with something for a couple of vegetarians (that wasn’t pasta), and they said they would.

The highlight of the meal was the Grilled Caesar Salad, which I decided would be pretty easy to duplicate at home. It is.

Slice a head of Romaine down the middle, lengthwise, leaving the stem attached (it’s easier at this point). Drizzle, brush, or spray the leaves with olive oil. (I was happiest with the batch I sprayed–but I’m a pretty low-oil person to begin with). Set on a hot grill, cut side down for about 2 minutes. Flip for about two more, and remove from the grill.

Slice off the stems and serve, cut side up with Caesar dressing and Parmesan cheese.
Or, slice it up and serve it as a tossed salad with other grilled veggies.

Another Orangette recipe, one we often eat for breakfast. I’ve stopped serving it on top of the toast, as I don’t really like mushy bread, and I tend to go heavy on the kale, light on the bread and eggs, to keep the gains (er, losses) I’ve made on Fuhrman.

As it turns out, in much the same way that I don’t like mushy bread, Michael doesn’t like the yolk of an over-easy egg. Alas, his lost. But I make him a scrambled on for on top.

The whole-wheat in the cornbread was a little heavy, but the sweetness of the particular recipe I made was a nice counter note to the prosciutto and dandelion greens.

I’ll probably forget again by the time I see another bunch of dandelion greens calling out to me, but each time I make something with them, the blonds say, “If we ever eat dandelion greens again, it’ll be too soon.”