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Monday, May 6, 2013

Curry, Carrot Salad & Some Disappointing Naan

Last week was Zack's "birthday week."  You may be unfamiliar with this particular holiday - essentially it is the week surrounding his birthday (a hubby declared holiday) during which he spends a lot of time saying things like "It's my birthday week!  I can eat this meat-stuffed-with-cheese-wrapped-in-carbs-and-deep-fried if I want!" Which is all well and good, but after a week of eating heavy foods, I was looking forward to something a bit lighter.  When Z suggested curry, I was all about it.

We used the recipe from Jamie Oliver's Meals in Minutes.  The summary of this book says that it is about putting "delicious plates of food on the table in no time."  Maybe we're just not as fast as a professional chef, because the minutes ended up exceeding an hour and the kitchen pretty much looked like it had exploded by the time we were done.  That aside, the curry was delicious!

It started neatly enough
Sauteing veggies for the curry
Ingredients for carrot salad
The finished salad
Time to eat!
The curry was delicious - the butternut squash made it slightly sweet and creamy.  Neither of us like cauliflower, but you couldn't really taste it in this dish.  It was a little spicy from the red chile, but not overwhelmingly so.  The carrot salad on the other hand was super spicy!  It had both red chile and freshly grated ginger.  The greek yogurt helped to cut the fire.  We tried INDIANLife naan bread as a side, but it wasn't very good.  

We will definitely make this curry and salad again, but probably on a weekend when we have a little more time to cook and clean up.

Gratuitous close up, just 'cause 




Friday, April 26, 2013

Shrimp and Okra Gumbo

This week I broke out the always reliable Homesick Texan cookbook to try my hand at some gumbo. Growing up my grandparents lived outside of New Orleans so I've often had a touch of Louisiana in my family dinners, but other than previously posted Shrimp Étouffée I haven't really tried much of it on my own. All in all, it was really time consuming but, in my opinion worth it.

Chopped bell pepper and celery. Frozen okra.

Fresh garlic and thyme, with bay leaves.

30ish minutes for the roux, constant stirring.

Veggies cooked in the completed roux.

Everything in the pot to simmer.

For about two hours we grew hungry over the smell coming from the simmering pot before I added the shrimp. In that two hours the okra pretty much dissolved in a way that you would never know that it was there in the first place. I would have rather had some say intact, maybe I need to use fresh next time.

The end result is not the prettiest of our meals, but I thought it was quite delicious. Laura, on the other hand, didn't quite agree since the shrimp texture and cooked down veggies aren't so much her thing. I might have to save this for bachelor weekends (when I would add some andouille).

Tastier than it looks.

Monday, April 22, 2013

We're back! Now with 100% more salad.

Oh my gosh ya'll - we're no longer living in an internet black hole and once again have high speed internet! So after a 2+ year hiatus Moore Food Please is back.  We're easing back into food blogging (as to not sprain anything), so tonight's recipe is a simple one that mostly consists of chopping and mixing. No hardcore cooking required.  


Chickpea Salad with Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette


Chickpea Salad:

15 oz can of chickpeas, rinsed & drained
1 cup corn
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1 organic cucumber, peeled & diced
1 organic green bell pepper, diced
1/2 small red onion, finely diced 

Dressing:

3 T organic lime juice
zest of 2 organic limes
2 T extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp honey
1/8 tsp ground coriander
2 T fresh cilantro
Dressing recipe adapted from:  http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cilantro-Lime-Vinaigrette-103849


Instructions:
Wash and chop your veggies.  Put them in a big mixing bowl, like so.

Gather your dressing ingredients and put them in the blender.  Blend for about a minute or until the cilantro is minced.
Pour the dressing over the salad and mix.
Serve and enjoy!