Saturday was my boyfriend DJ's birthday and the one thing he asked was for me to make him curry. So Sunday I spent the day making him a birthday dinner. My easy chicken madras (a medium heat red curry) and chocolate meringues for dessert!
I fell in love with curry in a back alley in the bad part of Paris, think Moulin Rouge gone Bollywood. Oddly enough it was my French teacher who showed me this sinfully delicious dish. Since moving back to the MS Coast I have only occasionally been able to indulge in my favorite meal: once in a random awful place in Mobile, a few times in a restaurant that has come and gone (leaving a hole in my heart), and twice at a yummy find in a town 5 hours away!
In a fit of frustration and at a loss for what to cook for dinner on a fateful night I found a little curry spice in my sisters spice cabinet. I'm not sure what the resulting meal was called and it definitely wouldn't have won any awards but it was the closest concoction I could come up with to curry with the ingredients available to me. Canned veggies, spaghetti noodles, and ground turkey came out as a curried spaghetti hodgepodge that didn't taste bad at all.
Since that weird dish I have made many attempts to perfect a quick and easy curry, and I finally have settled on a recipe DJ says makes him love me even more. I'm not sure I'd call this any kind of traditional but the result is Curry Heaven!
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| http://247curry.com/Curry_Powder.htm |
From Curry with Love
Ingredients:
1 whole onion
2-3 cloves of garlic chopped
2 tbs butter
1/2 bell pepper
1 1/2 lbs (I usually use 1 rotisserie chicken or 1 package chicken breasts depending on time, but lamb or any meat will do) Make sure you cube or shred the meat.
1/2 tsp ground Cumin
2 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Curry Powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp Gram Masala
1/2 tsp Crushed red pepper
2 cans of Campbells tomato soup condensed
1/3 cup cream or half and half (optional I usually leave it out)
Melt the butter in a sauce pan on medium heat. Once melted add onions, garlic, meat (unless already cooked*), and bell pepper. Let this saute for about 10 minutes or until meat is no longer pink on the outside. Once the outside of the meat is browned add the spices and stir. Next add the tomato soup and reduce heat to low. Slowly stir in cream. Let simmer for about 30 minutes. Serve over Basmanti rice with a side of Naan bread!
You can also adapt this by adding veggies with the meat! I like cauliflower or chic peas in mine.
*If you use a rotisserie chicken it cuts the time down and you can add the chicken in with the tomato soup.
I also wanted to make him a little something sweet. I had never made meringues before and love a little challenge. These turned out wonderfully!
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| Free formed with a spoon and still adorable! |
Pretty Little Meringue Kisses
Total Time: 4 hr 0 min
Yield: approximately 50 meringues
Ingredients
• 3 egg whites, at room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa, sifted
Directions
Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat the egg whites until fluffy. Add the cream of tartar and sugar 1 tablespoon at a time. Beat until the egg whites are stiff and shiny and the sugar is dissolved. Beat in the vanilla, reduce speed to low and add cocoa until combined. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Pipe or spoon meringue mixture onto baking sheets at least 2 inches apart. (I like to free form mine with a teaspoon letting them make little peaks but many people prefer to pipe them onto the sheet for a more uniform look) Bake in the middle of oven for 2 hours. Turn off oven and leave the meringues in it for at least 2 more hours or until meringues are completely dry. Store meringues in a tupperware container with parchment paper in between the layers to prevent these delicate treats from crumbling.
These make great gifts in a clear gift bag tied with a pretty ribbon! I would make these for bridal or baby shower favors!
