Two curries - getting the most out of my weeknight cooking

Prep
One of the weeknights this week, i returned from work craving something steaming hot and flavorful. Coconut milk based curries have become a recent favorite for me because it can be prepared rather quickly with produce and ingredients usually available in the house. Richness and creaminess provided by the coconut milk makes the coconut milk vegetable curry extremely satisfying. This makes it almost perfect weeknight food on a cold night except my son is not so fond of anything coconut. It was only fair I made something he likes as much and most logical answer was to make Mapo Tofu. Mapo tofu did not need any extra effort than what I was already going to put in for my veg curry and this way I was going end up with two dishes for the effort of one and enough leftovers for next day's lunch.

 Leftovers being putaway.



Coconut curry simmering on the stove.












Recipes

There are more elaborate recipes for Mapo Tofu and Thai coconut curry in my repertoire but these were made much simply. Made a paste by grinding onions, garlic, ginger, lemon grass and hot green pepper. For mapo tofu, added store bought mapo tofu paste, tofu and simmered the curry with some cornstarch mixture. For coconut curry, added curry leaves while frying onion-garlic paste, added chopped vegetables and cooked for few minutes in little water and then added coconut milk and simmered for few more minutes.

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