Ught Oh Honey - It's Meatless Night

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My mother-in-law (as I've said 100 times) is a great cook and I'm always trying to copy her recipes, although there are no recipes to copy because she's such a seasoned cook they're all in her head. Saturday night I tried to make her prawn & veggie stir-fry with Madras curry sauce. Unfortunately there were lots of problems... (1) I did not have Madras curry powder so I had to use a basic curry powder (2) the frozen prawns I bought at Whole Foods were terribly fishy and (3) some veggies were overcooked and some were undercooked. My husband was about to call for Thai take-out when I rescued the dinner. I could not stomach the thought of wasting all my time and money on this meal. I took out the prawns and decided we were going to have meatless night. I already had the veggies in curry sauce and basically, in our house, anything with sauce over white rice is a go. I whipped up some of my uncle's asparagus and roasted broccoli with garlic and we had ourselves something Michael Pollan would have been proud of - three servings of veggies and no hunk of meat in sight. It was such a good dinner that my hubby said he'd be happy to eat this meal anytime. Music to my ears after our near disaster.

Here is a really rough recipe for my "Prawn" & Veggie Curry Stir-fry, sans prawns... It wasn't half bad with the curry I used but I just ordered some Madras curry powder for next time. I also changed the recipe from how I did it to adjust for the veggies all having the same doneness so nothing is too soft.


Veggie Curry Stiry-Fry

2 T canola oil
1 yellow onion, cut in half and sliced along the ridges
2 or 3 carrots, cut into matchstick pieces
1 red pepper, cut into matchstick pieces
1/2 bunch asparagus, cut into 2 or 3" pieces
2 T garlic, minced
1/4 cup white wine
1 1/2 cup chicken stock*
2 T Madras curry powder
1 t corn starch
garlic salt
pepper

Mix chicken stock, Madras curry and corn starch together in a glass and set aside. Taste and adjust as you like (more curry to strengthen the flavor or more stock to lessen it).

Heat canola oil (or peanut oil) over medium high heat. Add onions and saute for a few minutes. Add carrots, red pepper and asparagus. Saute for several minutes until veggies are softening. Reduce heat to medium at any point if necessary. Add garlic and saute for a few more minutes, watching garlic so it doesn't burn. Add the white wine and let it reduce by half. Add chicken stock/curry mixture and bring to a quick boil, then reduce to a simmer. Once veggies are cooked to your preferred texture spoon veggies and sauce over white rice.

* You could probably replace the chicken stock and corn starch with coconut milk for a differently flavor. I might try this next time.