Thursday, May 5, 2011

nothing in the fridge but zucchinis

My darling Jessica,

As you know, I usually plan my next meal immediately after consuming the previous one.  I feel like we have had discussions about this whilst stuffing our faces.  It is sort of a sad existence, I know, but cooking does require some planning in that you can't really make anything if you have no ingredients!!

I read A LOT of recipes this weekend.  Being on a plane for a ridiculous number of hours requires magazines, cookbooks, cooking blogs while you're waiting in the airport, etc.  Someday I may expand my hobbies, but for now, just feel a little bad for me and then go cook something delicious.

So I did sort of random grocery shopping early last week and had no idea what I had in the fridge, but I was ravenous when I got home.  I put on a pot of brown rice right away because that's always sort of a safe bet.  What doesn't taste good with some rice?

This is what I came up with once I happened upon some tasty little zucchinis I forgot I had picked up last week. I would say this recipe is compiled from 20 gazillion recipes I read over the weekend.  That being said, you can pretty much tweak the measurements to your liking.  I find in a recipe with a bunch of different spices, like this one, precise measuring is not required because it's going to taste good either way!


Curried Zucchini

Ingredients:

About 4 small zucs
1 onion
2-3 cloves garlic
Olive oil
14 oz. can whole tomatoes
Cumin seed
Mustard seed
Turmeric
Cayenne Pepper
Ground coriander
Garam Masala
Cilantro leaves

Swirl around oil in a large saute pan.  Add about 1/2 tsp. each of cumin and mustard seeds.  Cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Toss in thinly sliced onion and garlic (I might add a chopped jalapeño next time) and cook until translucent and very delicious smelling.

Add about 1/4 tsp. of each turmeric and cayenne, about 1/2 tsp. of coriander, and a hefty pinch of salt.  Stir to mix.

Add sliced zucchinis and cook over medium heat for about 5-7 minutes.

Chop the whole tomatoes and add those and whatever fluid/past was in the can.  Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Stir in about 1 tsp. of garam masala and a few pinches of chopped cilantro leaves.  I love cilantro so I put more on top when serving.



I was pretty happy with this bad boy when it was done.  Next time, I might use brown sugar and cinnamon instead of the garam masala.  It was really quick to make and super easy if you have a pantry with some staples in it.  Buying spices at the grocery store is ridiculously expensive.  I realized this when I first started getting in to cooking.  You have to find a place where the sell bulk spices.  Then, you can get a reasonable amount for cheap instead of paying an arm & a leg for a giant container that you will never use.

Seriously though, you can make the zucchini part in about half an hour, including chopping up the veggies.  IF you are interested, I would be more than happy to pick up spices for you at my favorite store  (love Rainbow Grocery!) and can bring them down for you on my next trip.  I feel like it would be a whopping cost of about $2 for enough spices to make this like 20 times.

See you in 2 days!!!

loverachael

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