Curry Craziness!!

I have been a cooking machine!! The past couple weeks have been hectic as my schedules have not fully balanced out yet, but luckily I've had time to get some cooking in, as I am trying my best to eat healthier and relieve myself of my dependency on quick, frozen foods. I have broken out of my comfort zone and tried several new recipes, and as this is my blog and I can do what I wish, I'm going to talk about them here.

Japanese Curry
The first dish I experimented with was Japanese Curry. I had bought a box of S&B Golden Curry (Medium-Hot) several months back, but I was too nervous to make it, as I didn't know how it would turn out. Luckily, an excess of mushrooms in my refrigerator encouraged me to give this a try, and I'm glad I did. Going off of the veggies available in my fridge, I used a pack (8 oz) of mushrooms, one medium-large onion, a good amount of shredded carrots, and a bell pepper. What I found interesting is after cooking the onion and adding the other veggies you add water and boil them instead of cooking them in a pan like a stir fry, and while I was a little worried as to how that'd turn out I must say it was really good. After you boil them you add pieces of the boxed curry mix, which turns the whole concoction brown and thickens the liquid. I ended up using the whole box, but I probably wouldn't need to next time, as I think I added too much water. The dish was very flavorful, and my roommate and I got several meals out of the experience.

Biryani Masala Rice
The night after I made Japanese curry Alay came over and took over my kitchen, making Miriam and me some Biryani Rice. I had already purchased the spice mix earlier, and he decided that it was acceptable enough to use, though he added additional spices as well. We chopped half an onion and some green chiles, and cooked them with the cumin seeds and other spices until the onion was softened. Then we added half a can of diced tomatoes, then 2 cups of cooked rice, adding spices and such til we felt it was good to eat. I think if I was to make this dish again I would add some carrots and potatoes, and maybe garnish with cashews.

Daal
As I am not a fan of letting half cut vegetables sit in the fridge, the next morning I decided to make some daal. I rinsed a cup of Masoor Dal (an orangey-red lentil), then boiled it in 2 cups of water so it'd get soft. I chopped the rest of my onion and cooked it with some garlic, then added the rest of the canned diced tomatoes and some spices. After the daal finished cooking I mixed them in with the rest of the ingredients, adding spices until I got something half way decent. In retrospect, I should have also added the leftover chiles, but it was fine as is.

Panang Curry

Finally, the other day I decided to try my hand at one of my favorite Thai dishes - Panang curry. In my usual style, I made WAY too much, and will be having leftovers for several days. I chopped 1 large onion, 2 potatoes, 1 green bell pepper, and added a lot of peas and shredded carrots. For the sauce I used 1 can of coconut milk, 1 can of coconut cream, 3 tbsp soy sauce, 4 tbsp peanut butter, garlic, ginger, a LOT of red Thai chili paste, and some lemon juice to cut some of the base heat. I also added in about 1/2 - 1 cup of cashews to help in adding some of the peanuty taste panang curry is known for, which also added the bit of salt that would have otherwise been added. If I was to make this again, I think I would buy some lemongrass and maybe add more peanut butter, but all in all it's rather yummy.