The Best Curry I've Made

I've been sick. I haven't posted in a while. I'm sorry. I've been living mainly on oatmeal and a basic potato-leek soup that I had the foresight to whip up before it got bad. Poor David has been scrounging tacos and nachos and thai food. Yesterday, however, I started feeling better and up to cooking.

I went through a serious curry phase a few months ago. It was delicious and I learned a lot, but there was one thing I could never get exactly right--curried lentils. I tried at least three recipes, before giving up. In every case, something was wrong. Too spicy, too bland, to mushy. I tried Mark Bittman. Eh. I tried Madhur Jaffrey. Eh. So I called it quits, until last week, when, bedridden, I became mildly obsessed with the idea of a red lentil and sweet potato dish. So I made one. It's fantastic, if I do say so myself.

Lentil and Sweet Potato Curry

serves 3-4

1 cup red lentils

1 medium sized sweet potato, peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks

1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon (or more) fresh ginger, finely chopped or grated

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1-2 serrano chiles, seeds removed, finely chopped

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 can light coconut milk

1/2 cup to 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth

2 teaspoons cumin seeds, toasted and ground with mortar and pestle

1 teaspoon coriander seeds, toasted and ground

1 and 1/2 teaspoons turmeric

1 teaspoon salt

cooked rice, plain yogurt, and cilantro, for serving.

1. Boil sweet potato until tender. Drain and set aside.

2. Heat oil in a large, heavy saucepan and cook onion, stirring, until soft and just browned around the edges. Add chile, spices, garlic and ginger, and cook for another minute or so. Add lentils, coconut milk, and 1/2 cup of stock (save the rest to thin the curry at the end, if desired). Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes.

3. When the lentils are tender but not mushy, add the sweet potatoes and more stock if desired. Heat through, stir, and serve with chopped cilantro, yogurt, and rice.

Notes: The whole spices are important here. If you have to use pre-ground spices, use the best and freshest that you can find. Also, the yogurt topping is pretty great; don't leave it out. I use 2% greek style yogurt. Like most curries, this one reheats well.

Winter Vegetables

Winter in Chicago is long. Really long. By the end of January I go crazy for sun, and right about now I'm seriously craving the glorious vegetable bounty of summer in the Midwest. But I'm trying hard to be positive. I recently re-started ordering produce boxes from Fresh Picks. I used to get them regularly in the summer and early fall, but stopped once school started. I figured that I wouldn't have time to use up all the veggie, plus I didn't want what I imagined would be box after box of potatoes.

As it turns out, I'm cooking even more now than I did in the summer. I've also spent the last couple of months learning to love a lot of new vegetables, ones that I hated as a kid. Of particular note are brussels sprouts. I used to gag at the thought of them, but these days, we eat them at least once a week. Like many winter vegetables, they are glorious roasted, and pretty icky cooked almost any other way.

Getting to the (recipe) point. I started getting Fresh Picks deliveries last week. In my box, in addition to some beautiful lacinato kale, arugula, and cauliflower, was this huge bag of assorted root vegetables. As you can see, they are a far cry from the mounds of potatoes I had feared. At first, I wondered what I would do with three pounds of roots, but it has been going great so far. I made a big batch of chicken stock with some of the carrots and parsnips, enjoyed a beautiful celery root salad (more on this later), and, last night, we had this awesome dish. I happily took a large jar for lunch today, and I hate to eat the same thing two meals in a row. You should make it before winter ends.

Roasted Root Vegetable and Wheat Berry Salad (adapted from David Lebovitz)

serves 4

-1 and 1/2 pounds assorted root vegetables (I used purple carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, and turnips)

-1 cup wheat berries (or barley, quinoa, etc.)

-1 small yellow onion, finely chopped

-1 cup walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped

-large handful arugula, washed and roughly chopped

-1/2 cup dried cranberries

-1/4 cup olive oil + more for coating the roots

-squeeze of lemon juice

-1 tablespoon walnut oil (optional)

-salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425

1. Bring about 4 cups of heavily salted water to a boil, and add the wheat berries. Cook until tender, about 40 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, cut all the root vegetables into small, uniformly sized pieces, toss with a little oil and salt. Spread the vegetables out on a baking tray and bake for about 20 minutes, turning halfway through, until they are tender and browned.

2. Drain the cooked root berries, and toss with 1/4 cup olive oil, dried cranberries, onion, arugula, walnuts, and salt. Mix in the root vegetables.

3. Drizzle the walnut oil on top, squeeze a lemon over the whole thing, grind some pepper on, and serve. You may want to add a little more salt at this point, as the wheat berries taste odd if not sufficiently salted. We crumbled some feta on top, but that's completely optional.

Zucchini Fritters and A Dinner Party.

Dinner parties are everywhere. Or, at least, they're all over my news feed. Not a weekend goes by without some vague acquaintance posting an event, a photo album, or a status about the dinner party that they/their girlfriend/their friends hosted. Most of these seem to be potluck style affairs. Dinner parties are great, and they're really doable, especially at a college where many students live in apartments. A "party" may seem like an intimidating place to showcase a dish, especially if you are a new cook, but I would argue that it's just the opposite. College dinner parties are incredibly low-pressure. If you don't love your dish, there will tons of other things for you to fill up on. Chances are, there will be someone who loves what you made. And, most importantly: hungry college kids are not a difficult crowd to please. Host one. Attend one. Bring something simple, or something complicated that you've been wanting to try. Chances are you'll try a new dish or learn a new recipe.

Zucchini Fritters

I made these little sandwiches for a recent, "veggie burger" themed potluck. As it turns out, there were no veggie burgers, but there were falafel, whoopie pies, latkes, and home-made onion rings. Awesome.

Makes 10-12 small patties.

6 small zucchini (I know, they're out of season. In the summer, you will only need 2 or 3 big ones), grated

1 cup crumbled feta

1 onion, grated

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 to 1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1-2 eggs

parsley, mint, or dill (optional)

oil for frying

1. Grate the zucchini and the onion, and squeeze out all the excess moisture. This is difficult, and I never feel like I've squeezed enough. I usually use a terrycloth washcloth or towel lined with paper towels.

2. Mix in the feta, garlic and herbs, and start by adding 1 egg and the smaller amount of breadcrumbs. I have made these three times now, and each time they've required a different combination of breadcrumbs and eggs for the patties to form.

3. Form the patties, adding eggs or breadcrumbs at your discretion. I usually grab a small handfull of the mix, and squeeze it between my hands, forcing out a little additional water, and (hopefully) getting them to solidify.

4. Heat enough oil to generously cover the bottom of a large, heavy, cast iron or nonstick skillet. Fry the patties, a few at a time, until they are dark, golden brown on both sides and warmed through.

I served these particular fritters inside mini pitas from Whole Foods with tzatziki.

Tzatziki, the way I like it.

1 16 ounce container of greek yogurt, whole or 2% milkfat

1 small cucumber

4 cloves of garlic, minced

a handful of mint leaves, chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

Cut open and peel the cucumber, and scrape out the seeds. Mince the remaining parts, and mix with all other ingredients.

Mushroom Stew

I love mushrooms. They are way up there on my list of favorite foods, up there with lobster sandwiches, roasted brussels sprouts, and hanger steak. I love them prepared in all sorts of ways: cooked slowly in butter, stirred in risotto, grilled. This preparation is probably my favorite, since it allows me to make a complete meal of mushrooms. I recently served it, with egg noodles, at a vegetarian dinner party, and it was a hit.

Mushroom Stew (adapted from Smitten Kitchen's Mushroom Bourguignon and my dad's beef stew)

Serves 4 or 5 as a main dish, or 8 as a first course.

2-3 lbs portobello mushrooms (if I have other mushrooms in the fridge, such a shiitake, I throw them in as well), sliced thickish (about 1/2"), stems removed
2-3 large carrots, diced
1 large yellow onion, or a handful of shallots, minced
1 celery rib, diced
3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1-2 cups pearl onions, peeled
1 cup of red wine
2 cups of broth (beef, chicken and vegetable all work)
2 tablespoons sundried tomato paste (or regular tomato paste)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 and 1/2 tablespoons flour
a few sprigs of thyme
salt and pepper

1. Heat a large high sided skillet or a dutch oven over high heat, and add two tablespoons of olive oil. Sear mushrooms on both sides (about a minute or two per side). You don't want them to release any liquid, but to just brown. Remove and set aside.

2. Add the third tablespoon of olive oil to the pot, and cook the onion, celery, carrots, and thyme. Once the onions are translucent, add the garlic and cook for another minute or so.

3. Add the wine to the pot and scrape to deglaze. Bring it to a boil and let it reduce by about half. Then add the broth, bring it to a boil again, and lower the heat. Simmer for 25-30 minutes, adding the pearl onions at the 20 minute mark.

4. Melt the butter and mix in the flour with a fork to form a paste. Mix the paste into the stew, and simmer until it reaches desired thickness (I'm usually satisfied at 8-12 minutes).

Serve over egg noodles or mashed potatoes.

Another Food Blog.

An introduction:

I believe that everyone can cook and eat well. No matter how limited your time and money, if you want to, you can. When I told my parents I wanted to move out of the dorm and into an apartment, one of the first things they asked was "What will you eat?"

This is my response.

I cook dinner for myself and my boyfriend (and sometimes a roommate or two) four to five days a week. I have a typical inexpensive apartment kitchen (with the ubiquitous weak gas stove), and not very much time. This quarter, I am taking the full number of courses, plus auditing a second language, and I have a job (at a cafe) and an internship (at a magazine).

Cooking is a priority for me. If you decide that you want to and like to cook, make it a priority in your life as well. Cooking gives my afternoons and evenings structure, and makes me feel accomplished every day--even if a paper or an exam has gone badly.

This is what I love. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do.

-Helen.