Dinner Lately…

I was inspired to make this dish while thumbing through February’s issue of Yoga Journal that my dear friend SS had subscribed for me as my birthday present. The original recipe is called Butternut Squash and Green Beans in Coconut Milk Curry, and was also adapted from 5 Spices, 50 Dishes: Simple Indian Recipes Using Five Common Spices by Ruta Kahate (Chronicle Books, 2007). I had decided to finally use my acorn squash that had been sitting on my kitchen window will for about 2 months instead, and made the curry using the method that I am more familiar with. I think this dish would be much better with butternut squash,  sweet potatoes or yam. The recipe also called for using chopped cashews, which I did not have. What does a domestic goddess do? She modifies again and uses pinenuts.Pinenuts tastes much creamier than most nuts I know, with the exception of macadamia …. mmmm yummmm….

The important part of making any curries would be the tadka. The magazine gave a bried introduction of making tadka to those who are new to making Indian food. My tadka for this dish consists of mustard seeds, ginger and curry powder.

Ingredients

• 1 acorn squash, peeled and cubed into 1″ pieces
• 2 cups of green beans, cut into approx 2″ lengths
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 t mustard seed
• 1 thumb-size ginger, skin removed and cut to matchstick pieces
• 2 T vegetable oil
• 1 cup water
• 2 T curry powder
• Salt & sugar to taste
• 2 T pinenuts or chopped cashews

Method

1. Cook the squash in boiling water for 5 minutes or until tender. Drain and set aside.
2. Dry roast the nuts and set aside.
3. Heat the oil in a wok or any cooking vessel. Add ginger and fry until fragrant. Add mustard seed and cover. After the seeds stop sputtering, add the curry powder and  and mix thoroughly with the mustard seed.
4. Add green beans and cook until tender.
5. Pour coconut milk and add the squash back into the wok.Bring the coconut to a boil, then immeditealy reduce to low heat.
6. Season with salt and sugar to taste. Sugar may be ommitted if using sweet potatoes or yam.
7. Garnish with roasted nuts.
8. Serve with steaming hot rice.

(a.k.a. Keling Mee)

This is one of my fondest memories of my mom’s cooking. My mom doesn’t cook often when I was growing up, dad’s usually the one who’s in charge of the kitchen

This is probably my best fried noodle dish thus far, we’ll see

Ingredients
Curry paste (cili boh paste will work as well)
Yellow noodles (yau meen / oily noodles)
Red curry powder paste (add a few tbsp of water to the curry powder, set aside)
Tomatoes, quartered
Choy sam or any green leafy vegetables, cut to 2.5″ lengths
Tau foo pok, sliced (you can use any firm tofu as substitute)
Eggs, beaten
Ketchup
Salt
Soy sauce
Sugar
Lemon / Lime juice
Cilantro, chopped to garnish

Method

1. Rinse the yellow noodles and tau foo pok in hot water. If you are using firm tofu, you can skip the rinsing part. Drain the noodles and tau foo pok.
2. Slice the tau foo pok or tofu.
3. In a hot wok, heat up the curry paste in a few tablespoons of hot oil.
4. When the curry is fragrant, add in the sliced tofu or tau foo pok. You may need to add a bit more oil to coat the wok since the tofu may absorb some of the oil.
5. Once the tofu is seared / browned, add the quartered tomatoes.
6. Cook the tomatoes until they start to soften. Then add the green leafy vegetables into the wok.
7. The vegetables will start to wilt. Add the loosened noodles into the wok and mix in with the rest of the ingredients. Allow the noodles to cook for a few minutes.
8. Make a circle in the middle of the wok and pour in the beaten eggs. Let the eggs semi- solidify before stirring in the rest of the ingredients.
9. Stir in the red curry powder paste as needed. Add in a few teaspoons of ketchup also. You may want to only use ketchup if you choose to tone down the spiciness.
10. Stir the content of the wok evenly.
11. Season with salt, sugar, and soy sauce. Let the contents cook until the moisture has been absorbed.
12. Serve with a wedge of lemon / lime and chopped cilantro.
13. Squeeze the lemon /lime onto the noodles prior to digging in.

Notes
You can pan sear some shrimps on the side if you choose to make a non-vegetarian version. Tofu can be substituted with sliced / shredded chicken breast. Nonetheless, I’m an advocate for vegetarianism.