Eating with Ellie

A whole new year as begun. 2022. Fingers crossed it is a good year for everyone.

And it is time to start eating healthy again. I have been neglectful since Thanksgiving. Too long to neglect my health. I am going back to KETO which has been my friend off and on for the last year to so. It is easy to stick to and the food is often delicious. Especially since it is all made at home with fresh ingredients and NO sugar. No processed food. No starch, etc.

So, this week I decided to start the year off right with Ellie’s Autumn Vegetable Curry. Delicious!!

• 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 1 1/2-inch length fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 2 tablespoons yellow curry powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, plus more to taste
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 3 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
• 1 cup light coconut milk
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
• 1/2 head cauliflower, broken into 1½-inch-wide florets (about 3 cups)
• 2 cups broccoli florets
• 1 pound medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch rounds
• 2 tomatoes, cored and chopped
• Grated zest of 1 lime
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 15-ounce can no-salt-added chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 5 cups fresh baby spinach leaves
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• 3 cups cooked brown rice, for serving, optional

Directions

Place the onion, garlic, ginger, curry powder, and cayenne pepper in a food processor and
process to combine. Add the oil and process until a smooth puree is formed. Transfer the
curry puree to a large pot and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes.
Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture begins to darken,
about 5 minutes more.

Add the vegetable broth, coconut milk, cinnamon stick and ¼ teaspoon black pepper and
bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the cauliflower, sweet
potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and return to a boil. Reduce
the heat to medium low, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 25
minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick. Stir in the lime zest and juice, chickpeas, and spinach
and cook until the spinach is wilted, about 5 minutes. Season with up to ¾ teaspoon salt.

Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice.

Cook time is about 30 minutes.

You can see that I left out some ingredients. Some of them simply because they aren’t keto friendly. I did leave in the sweet potato but decreased the amount. A little of it was needed for the taste of the stew. I also increased the amount of broth to use it more as a soup rather than a stew. It was just spicy enough to warm you up on a winters day.

The recipe is HERE if you want to see it in the original form and in Ellie’s comfort food fix (page 208).

Check with

Kayte, Peggy, and Gaye or their first Eating with Ellie post for 2022.

If you would like to join in, just leave a link to your post in any of the comment sections of the participants and we will come and see what you made.

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Good Food Good Friends: Winter Squash

My choice this month and I chose Winter Squash. That would include butternut, pumpkin, acorn, delicata, hubbard, and spaghetti squash (to name a few). I love butternut so that is what I worked with.

IF you have read my blog in the past you know I love ethnic cuisine – Indian, Asian, Latin American – and I love to cook it. Using the butternut I made Thai butternut and chicken curry.

My cookbook collection includes everyday asian which is where I found the recipe but it is also available on The Williams Sonoma website. The recipe is here. It calls for pumpkin or butternut.

It was OKAY. I liked it but I didn’t LOVE it. I think the butternut was too sweet for a curry. But that’s just my humble opinion. I don’t think I’ll make it again.

More winter squash recipes from:

Kayte

Ulrike

Peggy

Next veggie: Any fresh produce for November 5th

We’d love to have more members in Good Friends Good Food so if you want to join in just let one of us know.

 

GFGF: Pumpkin

This week the veggie of the day for Good Friends Good Food is PUMPKIN. In my neck of the woods pumpkin means pie, muffins, or other sweet things. But, as usual, I chose a different route for my recipe this week.

Curried Pumpkin Soup.

1 can pumpkin puree

4 cups chicken broth

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

3 Tbl fresh made curry powder ( I used a lot because I love the flavor and fragrance of curry. You may need less…or more)

1/2 cup coconut milk

Mix all ingredients in a medium sauce pan except the coconut milk. Bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

Top with toasted pumpkin seeds and a dollop of coconut cream before serving.

This recipe is super simple, super quick, and super tasty. (Recipe is adapted from Green and Keto.

And did I mention that it is KETO friendly?

More pumpkin recipes from GFGF: They all look delicious so go visit these ladies and try out their recipes.

Kayte

Ulrike

Nancy

Donna

Peggy

Ellen

 

{EwE} Chicken Curry with Green Beans

I don’t think Kayte’s idea was Shakespeare when she chose As You Like It as our theme this week. But it was the first thing I thought of.  If it was, I would have fixed something very British for today’s Eating with Ellie.  But, no!  I went with something I really like – as I like it – CURRY!!

Specifically Ellie’s Chicken Curry with Green Beans.

I only made used two thighs rather than 8 but I made the regular amount of sauce.  I always make extra sauce.  Especially when the sauce is CURRY!!!

Ellie listed boneless, skinless thighs for the meat cooked in an onion, garlic, ginger, coconut sauce with lots of mild curry powder.

This was absolutely delicious AND….AND it is Whole30 compliant.  I could eat this every day.

Win/Win!!

The recipe is on page 187 of Ellie’s You Have it Made. 

Want more? -> As You Like It

 

{EwE} Visit to the Orient

This week we are visiting the Orient.  At least their cuisine.  The Orient includes many different countries with many different cuisines.  We had our choice of The Middle East, India, China,Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam just to name a few.  So our choices were wide open. I went with a Thai dish.

Shrimp with Thai Coconut Curry Sauce

Lots of flavor in this dish. Red/yellow/orange bell peppers,  Onions,  Green Thai Curry paste, coconut milk all coming together for a delicious spicy dish.

I just started cooking with  coconut oil and I love it  It has kind of a nutty fragrance with a clean fresh taste in your dishes.  I may never go back to canola oil again.

Since this is from Ellie’s You Have it Made this is a dish where the sauce can be made ahead of time and either freeze the sauce or chill it for up to two days.  That’s a good thing because I am the only one who will eat it and didn’t want it to go to waste.  I made the whole recipe but only used about a fourth of the sauce for lunch. The rest I will p0rtion out and freeze.  Nice to have a meal almost made in the freezer.

Ellie suggests serving over jasmine rice but since I started Whole 30 I cannot do that.  I just used a little of the sauce with some shrimp. And if you don’t want the rice use a spoon to eat this because you won’t want to waste a drop of the sauce!

What dishes did the other EwE members make -> Travel to the Orient with us.

And if you would like to cook along with us just visit Eating with Ellie and join in the fun.  Themes are on the right. We don’t include the recipes because we want you to enjoy lots of Ellie Krieger by purchasing her cookbooks.

 

{CC#11}Siamese Chicken Curry

The Frog Commissary Cookbook describes this dish as a “quixotic blend of French, Asian, and American cuisines.”  Great description!  Thai Green Curry Powder.  French Béchamel.  American salted peanuts. “…intriguing in it’s mysterious tangle of flavors…” is a good description as well.

As I was making this I was thinking, “Really? A Béchamel to make curry?  This is going to be awful!” So. if I thought it was going to be awful why did I make it?  Because usually when I say something like that I am totally wrong and because I am always open to new idea.

And boy was I wrong!  This was so good!!

Other than having to thin the sauce a little it was absolutely delicious.  The Béchamel made the curry rather luxurious because it was so thick and smooth.

Instead of measuring out the green Thai curry paste (1/2 ounce) I used 2 tsp of it.  It could actually have used a little more.

Definitely a repeat.

This recipe:  The Frog Commissary Cookbook page 129  Also, HERE!  And HERE if you want to print it out.

I’m linking this post with Cookbook Countdown 11 hosted by Kitchen Flavours and Emily’s Cooking (Makan2).

 

{CC#10} Curried Butternut Squash Soup

I have lots of friends who eat soup year round.  For me I don’t make soup until the weather turns cool.  I know that’s silly.  Hot food is hot food.  It’s the idea.  I like the combination of cool weather and soup.  It warms you up.

Today it finally turned cooler in the Deep South.  That means that the high today was only about 75 instead of 85 or 90 which we have had the last 10 days.  UGH!!! I am ready for SUMMER to be OVER!!

I love the flavor and fragrances of curry so this recipe caught me eye.  AND we have some fresh butternut from the garden.  It was kismet!!

Delicious!  It hit the spot on a cool day.  Lots of curry flavor  Very filling.

The dollop of Greek yogurt added a little ‘tang’ to the soup when it was mixed in.  I almost left it out because it usually isn’t my ‘thing’.  So glad I didn’t it.  It was the perfect addition.

Sautee curry powder, onions and garlic in butter.  Throw in some diced butternut and cook until soft.  Add veggie broth.  Puree.  Done!  Easy! Tasty! Warming!

TIP:  You will need to peel the butternut.  That is near-nigh impossible if they are cold.  If I need to peel them I usually nuke them for about 2 minutes.  It makes them so much easier to peel.

The recipe is from The Colorado Farmers’ Market Cookbook (page 77).  I also found it HERE!

I’m linking this post with Cookbook Countdown hosted by Kitchen Flavours and Emily’s Cooking (Makan2).

 

{CC#4} Keller’s lentil and sweet potato soup

Curry, any kind of curry, is comfort food to me.  And even though it is 87 degrees out today {UGH!} this was just too good to pass up.

I did make a couple of changes to the recipe:

• The recipe calls for Spanish Pardina lentils, I only had brown {YUCK!} in the pantry.   I will use yellow next time.
• I used two heaping teaspoons of Curry powder rather than the 1 teaspoon Keller called for.  I LIKE the flavor strong!
• I made mine more of a stew and only used 4 cups chicken stock rather than 8.

You can find the recipe on page 121 of ad hoc at home, but I also found it HERE.

Of course, because I was making this soup/stew I also had to make the curry powder itself.  A foodie friend sent me a jar of curry powder and then sent me the recipe, which I subsequently lost. I never knew where it the recipe came from until…..

…I found it again – in ad hoc. {page 336}  I was so happy. Now I have a jar in the pantry ready to use.  There are 20 different spices in this mix,

• allspice, anise, bay leaf, brown mustard seeds, cardamom, cinnamon stick, cloves, coriander, cumin, fennel seed, fenugreek seed, nutmeg, mace, black peppercorns, ginger, star anise, yellow mustard seeds, turmeric, paprika, flaky sea salt. {The only thing I didn’t have in the pantry was mace but since it is very similar to nutmeg in flavor, only stronger, I subbed in 1/2 nutmeg and 1/2 ground allspice.}

some whole some already ground,  and worth all the trouble to make it.  It is much more fragrant and tastier than what you can buy and the recipe makes about 1 cup of powder.

Okay,that ‘s the last recipe from ad hoc at home.  This has been fun this month cooking with Thomas Keller.  Next month I will be gone mostly so I’ll be back in June with……?

“I’m linking this post with Cookbook Countdown hosted by Kitchen Flavours and Emily’s Cooking (Makan2).

 

{Let’s Lunch} Traveling Food Memories

I am an Air Force Brat! And proud of it! From the time I was 3 ’til I was 18 we never lived in one place longer than 6 – 10 months at a time. We did stay in one house for two years and it felt very odd. Wonderful, but odd!

During all that time we lived most of my childhood somewhere in Germany or England. And during that time we traveled everywhere we could: Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, Scotland. And everywhere we went we tried new foods. Many of them completely new to us. The bread and Sausages of German. Bangers and Mash. Treacle Tart. I even remember trying tongue (once ONLY!!) and my Dad had Steak Tartar. We’ve had eels, seaweed, squid in it’s own juice (BLACK!), lamb, goat. Nothing escaped us! I was just a child for most of it but I do recall numerous delicious, and not so delicious, dishes. It wasn’t until I was grown, married, retired (and learning to actually cook) that I thought back to those days and wanted to replicate some of those meals. Usually Indian. Because I remember visiting Veraswami’s in London several times. I know they have changed since the 1950s but many of their menu items are still the same. Like

ROGAN JOSH

2 1 inch cubes fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
8 cloves garlic, peeled
1 1/2 cups) water
10 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 lb lamb cut into 1 inch cubes
10 cardamom pods
2 bay leaves
6 cloves
10 peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick
2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
4 teaspoons bright red paprika mixed with 1/4-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
6 tablespoons plain yogurt
1/4 teaspoon garam masala
Freshly ground black pepper

Put the ginger, garlic, and 4 tablespoons water into the container of an electric blender. Blend well until you have a smooth paste.
Heat the oil in a wide, heavy pot over medium-high heat. Brown the meat cubes in several batches and set to one side. Put the cardamom pods, bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns, and cinnamon into the same hot oil. Stir once and wait until the cloves swell and the bay leaves begin to take on color This just takes a few
seconds.
Add in the onions then stir and fry for about 5 minutes or until the onions turn a medium-brown color. Add the ginger-garlic paste and stir for 30 seconds. Then add the coriander, cumin, paprika-cayenne mix, and salt. Stir and fry for another 30 seconds. Add the fried meat cubes and juices. Stir for 30 seconds.
Add 1 tablespoon of the yogurt. Stir and fry for about 30 seconds or until the yogurt is well blended. Add the remaining yogurt a tablespoon at a time as before. Stir and fry for 3-4 minutes.
Add 275 ml (1’/4 cups) water if you are cooking lamb and 425 ml (2 cups) water if you are cooking beef. Bring the contents of the pot to a boil, scraping in all browned spices on the sides and bottom of the pot. Cover, turn heat to low and simmer for about an hour for lamb and 2 hours for beef, or until the meat is
tender. (It could be baked, covered, in a preheated 180°C/350°F oven for the
same length of time or until tender.) Every 10 minutes or so, give the meat a good stir. When the meat is tender, take off the lid, turn the heat up to medium, and boil away some of the liquid. You should end up with tender meat in a thick, reddish brown sauce.
Spoon off the fat.
Sprinkle garam masala and black pepper over the meat before you serve and mix them in.

I served this over Basmati rice.

I am sure it isn’t as good as Veraswamy’s but as far as memories go, it brought back quite a few. I had a chance to go back in 2000 but you know what they say about best laid plans. One day. Until then I will dream of the little bowls of delicate licorice tidbits, the fragile crystal glasses (one of which I broke), the colorful regalia worn by the doorman and the wait staff.

I am pretty sure this recipe is from Madjur Jaffrey, but I’m not sure.

Let’s Lunch is a Twitter Based group. Please check out other Let’s Lunchers’ dishes from their travels below. And if you’d like to join Let’s Lunch, go to Twitter and post a message with the hashtag #Letslunch

Betty-Ann‘s Watermelon-Cucumber Cooler Cocktail at Asian in America

Linda‘s Hawaiian Island Panzanella (Bread Salad) with Sea Asparagus at Spicebox Travels

Lisa‘s Moroccan B’Stillas at Monday Morning Cooking Club

Cheryl’s Sardinian Seadas at Cheryl Lu Lien Tan

Annabelle’s Creamy Jalapeno Dip at Glass of Fancy