Curry Rice

Friday night we decided to cook a nice dinner for Joe (who was leaving for a month of training with the army in the woods...somewhere...in America).  In Clearly Delicious style, we sent him off with a delicious assortment of Indian cuisine--Butter Chicken, Edamame, Na'an, and of course, Curry Rice.

This Curry Rice is loaded with healthy veggies, natural remedy ingredients such as honey and olive oil, and makes for one heck of a fulfilling Indian rice dish.  Make as a side dish, or as an entree (hot or cold) and you will have treat equally Indian and clearly delicious.

Curry Rice
This recipe comes from Elise's blog, Simply Recipes, and can be found here.  Elise suggests in the original to serve the rice dish cold, but I find the combination of warm rice, honey, and freshly cooked vegetables to demand being served hot.  Regardless, serve hot or cold for a curry rice dish that is healthy, flavorful, and extremely clearly delicious.

Ingredients:
* 4-5 cups cooked brown, or white rice
* 1 onion, chopped
* Curry paste, or powder, to taste (Elise suggests yellow, or red, but not green, and NOT Thai)
* Olive oil, to taste
* Cumin, to taste
* Chili powder, to taste
* Sesame oil, to taste (optional if unavailable)
* 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
* 1 cup raisins
* 1 apple, cored and chopped
* Honey, to taste
* Salt, to taste
* 2 celery stocks, washed and chopped
* 1 cup edamame, cooked
* 1/4 bell pepper (red), chopped
* 1/4 bell pepper (green), chopped

1.) Prepare rice and set aside.

2.) Prep your ingredients: chop the bell pepper, onion, celery, and apple.  Set aside.

3.) Begin by sautéing onions in olive oil.  Sprinkle with curry powder/paste to preference and cook until translucent.

4.) Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the edamame separately while onions are browning.  (For more information on how to cook edamame, see the "Edamame with Thyme" post).

5.) Add remaining chopped vegetables--peppers, celery.  Cook for several minutes until all vegetables are soft, but still retain a certain amount of crunch (the al dente of the veggie community if you will).

6.) Add cooked edamame, mix to combine, and remove from heat.

7.) Now prepare the rice dish.  Place rice in an oversized mixing bowl (trust me, you'll need it!), and add the cooked vegetables.

8.) Add 1 cup raisins and drizzle with honey to taste.

9.) Add chopped apple and mix to combine.  Season to taste preferences with additional curry, salt and pepper, cumin, olive and sesame oil, cilantro, and chili powder.  There are few measurements on this recipe as everyone's taste palette is especially different when combining the salt and pepper with the sweet of apples, raisins, and honey.

10.) Serve either hot or cold.  Makes 8-10.  Enjoy!

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Edamame with Thyme

Preparing an appetizer doesn't need to be a huge process.  Chances are good that you've spent plenty of time either grocery shopping, prepping the food, cooking it, and even thinking about a big meal.  Further, although fancy appetizers and tappas are great, why prepare an appetizer that overshadows your main course? Worse, why prepare an appetizer that's so heavy (either calorically, or in composition) that you find your main course seemingly unimportant?


The solution? Edamame.  Edamame is a baby soy bean found more and more commonly on menus and restaurants these days.  Asian restaurants famously serve them in their pods as a light appetizer before eating sushi, but many times, you can find them sans pods in the freezer section of Whole Foods, or other grocery produce sections.


Prepare this dish as a light appetizer to any number of Asian or Indian cuisine meals.  Lightly toss with salt, pepper, and fresh thyme, and you'll have an appetizer that is both healthy and clearly delicious!


Edamame with Thyme
This recipe comes from nowhere in particular, but the result of cooking tons of edamame for the Curry Rice Recipe (available here).  The great thing about this dish is that you can adjust the seasonings to whatever you have available (i.e., rosemary instead of thyme, or mint instead of thyme).  Adjust seasonings to your personal preference.


Ingredients:
* 1 cup cooked edamame
* sprigs of fresh thyme, to taste
* salt and pepper, to taste


1.) Bring a small pot of water to a boil; add 1 cup edamame.


2.) Boil at medium-high heat for 5-8 minutes, or until edamame is fully cooked (soft, but still retaining a bit of crunch).


3.) Pour out edamame and water into a large strainer.   Allow to cool for a few minutes.

4.) Transfer to bowl and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and fresh thyme.  Toss to combine and serve.

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