Wednesday 26 September 2007

When Nothing Else Will Do

Yesterday I had a fridge full of veggies and a serious craving for a green thai curry. No idea whatsoever where that came from, or why, but given that I am off to London for almost a week this afternoon (meh), and really didn't want to cart said veggies up with me, I saw it as a perfect opportunity to actually cook for once. So I invited 2 good friends over for dinner, whacked some Viognier in the fridge, and thought about how to create a veggie green thai curry that would be good for me, good for CR and good to eat.

Obviously not complicated. I knew I had no intention of using coconut milk; I'd have just fretted about the saturated fat, even in a lite brand, and I don't even really like coconut anyway. But obviously the paste needed to be lightened somewhat... So in the end I "fried" spring onion, sliced red pepper, garlic and mushrooms in water, added this Green Thai curry paste, more water, thickened the mixture with cornflour, and marinated tofu in it for an hour or so (I'd cut the tofu into squares and grilled it beforehand). Then I steamed broccoli, green beans, the kernals from one ear of fresh corn, zucchini and summer squash, stirred all that into the sauce with some more curry paste and water (I probably used about 75g of paste all in), and when it was all heated through I added 150g of fat free Greek Yoghurt. I made a dish of spinach, chard and savoy cabbage, steamed and then stir-fried in 1tsp olive oil with chilli, garlic and spring onion, on the side. Lots of coriander and lime zest for garnish. Chicken and rice for my friends.

Yummy. Craving satisfied, 3 of us well-fed, and still leftovers for my lunch today. Uncrunched in CoM, unfortunately, but it's veggies and protein and nothing else. It could have been nothing less than nutritious, and just so what I wanted. Nothing else would have done. Very strange!

6 comments:

Emi at Project Swatch said...

AWESOME job taking a craving for something that could have been really unhealthy and turning into a nutritious meal!

My mom sometimes makes thai curries and uses half lite coconut milk and half chicken broth (I know you're veggie). I love the flavor of coconut, and I'm not too worried about coconut fat, so I'd probably do something along those lines instead. Still, it sounds like you made something perfect for you.

wish I could eat at your house! I would love and adore everything you cook, well, except that I'm not much one for wine, hopefully you wouldn't hold that against me :)

Mizpah Matus said...

Sounds great!

Greek yogurt seems like a good substitution for coconut milk.

But like Ellie, I'm not afraid of coconuts (except on the footpaths where here in Bali they are actually a safety hazard!).

Don't you just love those strange but healthy cravings?

Hope things are going well for you and married life is great. I've missed reading your posts but I'm doing better now so hopefully be back to blogging more frequently.

:)

Sara said...

Hi Mizzi - I'm glad you're no longer feeling ill. Looking forward to catching up with you in your blog!

Ellie - I do wish sometimes that I wasn't such a one for wine myself! :-)

Arturo said...

Hi Sara
Sounds like a yummy curry, what you created.
Cheers,
Arturo

Robin said...

Sara,

You are so amazing! I could never just improvise a recipe like that. All my food is pretty basic because...well, I guess I'm not much of a chef. Like Ellie, I wish I could eat at your house. I'd even help you out with the cheese and port.
=)

R

Schatze said...

That does sound delicious! :)