_{Don’t dream it, be it.
– Tim Curry}

I made a lovely curry the other night and posted crowed about it on the Book of Faces. A good friend asked for the recipe. No problem, I thought. I’ll whip that together in a few minutes. It wasn’t that difficult of a dish.

*SIGH*

I must learn some brevity when writing. Or, at least, when writing recipes. I can’t seem to get the hang of just setting down ingredients and instructions.

But, here’s the thing. I often don’t measure when I am cooking. I’ll add spices until it smells right (or if we are mid-cedar season, tastes right). Basically what I am saying is that unless it is obvious what the amount is (e.g., a can of something or 2 pounds of meat), I am totes guessing. As for simply writing instructions…well, where’s the fun in that?

My advice is to use the below as a starting point and taste as you go. You’ll know what is right for your tribe.

Oh, yeah. RE: the beef/turkey. That is just what I had on hand. You can go all turkey or all beef or even lamb, although I imagine you’d have to adjust the seasonings for that last one. I am not a lamb fan (unless they’re hopping about being adorbs) so I have no idea how to cook one.  In this instance, “Son? You’re on your own.”

Curried Beef and Pomegranate

2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 half a giant sweet onion, slivered into strips
About half of a large orange sweet bell pepper, also julienned
2 tablespoons of diced garlic (for once I kept the garlic light-ish; I didn’t want to overwhelm the pom arils with garlic flavorin’)

1 pound each, ground turkey (85/15) and ground beef (80/20)
1/2 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt, ground
1 teaspoon ground pepper (I used a tri-color mix)

1 large pomegranate, de-podded
1 bag frozen yellow and green zucchini squash
Honey  (in a squeeze-y bottle)
Lime juice  (also from a squeeze-y bottle)
Broth

Curry Paste

Allspice
Yellow curry powder
Cayenne pepper
Ginger
Cumin
Paprika
Olive oil

This is how we do it.

I used my big cast iron skillet. I’d recommend you use YOUR biggest pan as this recipe makes a small ton.

Heat the oil on medium low heat. Swirl it around so it coats the bottom and up the sides a bit. Put your onions and peppers in there and stir so that they are nice and coated.  Cook covered, stirring occasionally, until they’re softened. This took about 10 minutes (give or take, I admit to not actually watching the clock). Turn up the heat to medium and cook for an additional 5 minutes or so. The point here is to make sure their flavor is super sweet, hence the longer cooking time.

Now, add the garlic and let that cook for about 5 minutes.

Add your protein. As previously stated, you can use almost anything here – even TVP “meat crumbles”, I imagine. Smoosh it all so that the onions, peppers, and garlic are all of a piece with the meat. Sprinkle the salt and pepper over this mixture and smoosh it around some more.  Cook the whole thing until browned thoroughly. While it is cooking, you can make your curry paste.

In a coffee mug put all the dry spices for a curry paste.  I chose savory-sweet-complex with a hint of heat. You can go for whatever floats your particular boat. Spices in the mug?  Good. Smell it. MMMMMM, CURRY.  If I had to guess, I’d say that I used 2 whopping tablespoons of yellow curry powder, 1 tablespoon each of allspice, cayenne, cumin, and ginger, and a ½ tablespoon of sweet smoked paprika. The reality is I dumped these into a cup and sniffed it until it smelled like I wanted. *shrug*  Alton Brown, I am not.

Now add enough oil that when you stir it, it turns into the consistency of grainy Elmer’s glue (i.e., viscous but still movable). Lovely.

Using a rubber spatula¹, spoon your curry paste into your meat mixture.

Stir it into your meat so that it is evenly distributed throughout. Eeeeeeeverybody gets some curry rubbed on them.²

Add the arils and stir them into the mixture.

Add the honey (two good, strong-squeezing circles over the meat mixture).

Add the lime (one good medium-squeezing circles over the meat mixture).

Aaaaaaaaaaand, stir.

Add the squash and stir it so that the little frozen slices break apart and get some of the sauce slathered over them.

If your mixture is looking a little dry, add some broth. I had some veggie broth on hand, so that is what I wound up using. Don’t use a lot. Just enough to keep the curry-slurry moving.
Cover your pan and set your primary³ kitchen timer for about 8 minutes. This gives the zukes enough time to cook and take on flavor, but not enough that they become slimy. No one likes a slimy zuke.

Once the timer goes off, you are essentially done. Serve hot over coconut milk rice.

What? You want THAT recipe too?  Sheesh, people.
*wink*

Coconut milk rice

2+ cups water
1 cup jasmine rice
1 good tablespoon of coconut oil
Dash salt
2/3 cup of EITHER heavy whipping cream OR coconut milk

*NOTE* Start this dish at about the  same time you start your curry.

In a medium pot, boil water (use a smidge more water than the package calls for), salt, & oil over high heat.

Once it starts boiling, add the rice.
Cover. Set secondary timer to 18 minutes.

Once the timer goes off, turn the heat off. Pour your milk/cream over the rice. Let sit covered until you finish up with the curry.

Fluff with a fork.

NOM.

———–

¹ – So that you get every last yummy drop of it, of course.
²—That sounded far naughtier than I had intended. 

³—I have three.  Sometimes when I am cooking, I am timing more than one thing at once. I figure I can’t be the only one that this happens to.