good ol' curry

i love curry, pretty much any curry. with all due respect to will rogers, i've never met a curry that i didn't like. although, i have met curry that was much too spicy for me. for cooking at home i have two go-to curry standbys. the first is bulk yellow curry powder from winco, the second is kikoman red curry in a bottle. yesterday i made a vegetarian curry by melting butter in a large pan with my curry powder, paprika, cardamom, coriander, and red chili flakes, then adding onions, bell peppers, and diced turnips. once everything had fried together for a while and the turnips were just getting soft i poured in a can of coconut milk and a can of garbanzo beans, then seeded and sliced a cucumber and put that in too. i count it as a success, and oddly enough thing three really liked it. pretty brave for a kid who can't even walk yet. the red curry is a basic idea that i got from a tv show, i may have mentioned it already, but the key with the kikoman is that you can stretch it by adding a can of coconut milk, a big scoop of peanut butter and some extra tamari. i usually get three pots out of one bottle that way. last time i did shrimp and bell peppers in the crock pot with the other stuff, then put rice noodles in at the end to soak up some of the spare juice, and it worked really well. the noodles make a nice break from rice too. as if you could need a break from rice. somewhere along the line curry got a bad rap. i've heard countless times "i don't really like curry, it all tastes the same, it's all so mushy, it's bland" blah blah blah. nothing could be further from the truth! it's versatile, easy, fast, and fresh! and really good for you, do some research on the many health benefits of turmeric and chili flakes, not to mention all the other wonderful spices in there. the added bonus of trying it at home is that you can tweek it to suit you. don't like turnip? use potato. like more heat? throw in some jalapenos. before you know it you'll be a curry master, in your own home.