Check out the budget recipe tab, where we’ve posted our first recipe. A lot of people are afraid to cook curry, but if you have one basic spice combination that works well, you can use it with pretty much any vegetables or meat. Thus, we offer you an easy recipe for curry which can be changed and adapted depending on what you have in your kitchen.
Keep in mind this isn’t an “authentic” Indian curry, since it uses geen beans and sweet potatoes. First, the ingredients:
Spices
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds (optional)
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds (optional)
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cloves powder (optional — adds a smokey taste)
salt and pepperRice
1 cup white rice
1.75 cups waterOther
A couple cloves garlic, minced or chopped
An inch or so minced fresh ginger (optional)
One hot pepper (optional)
One medium white onion, chopped
2 medium sweet potatoes (about 1.5 lb)
green beens (maybe .75 pounds or so)
one bunch spinach
2-3 cups of stock
1 can light coconut milk (optional)
1 can chick peas
2-3 tbsp butter or ghee (Indian clarified butter)
Yogurt and cilantro (for serving)
Now, here’s how you cook the rice.
First, rinse the rice a couple times — put the rice in a pot, cover it with water, and swish it around a bit with your hand. The water will turn white. Pour out the water, and repeat. Then, put 1 and 3/4 cups water in the rice, and set it aside. If you let it soak for 15 minutes or so, it will cook quickly and easily. When you’re ready to cook it, put it on medium heat. When it starts to boil, turn down the heat a bit and cover it — not completely, leave a little room for the steam to get out. If you’ve soaked it, it should cook in about ten minutes. Without soaking, it’ll take closer to 20, and won’t cook as evenly. Try to resist the urge to stir it while it’s cooking.
Here’s how you make the curry:
Heat the butter or ghee in a large dutch oven. (That’s basically a huge sauce pan. We have an expensive Le Creuset dutch oven, but according to Cook’s Illustrated, Target has a perfectly good one for $40.) Now, add the seeds. All you really need are the cumin seeds, but you can add the mustard and fenugreek if you have them. Let them sizzle in the hot ghee for ten seconds or so before adding the onion, garlic, ginger, hot pepper, and some salt and pepper. Stir for three to five minutes or so, until the onions are soft.
Add the sweet potatoes, chopped into bite size pieces. Mix everything well, before adding the powder spices. Mix well and let it cook for three minutes or so before adding two cups stock. (Later, you can add more stock if you need it.) Cover to let the sweet potatoes cook. Test them after about ten minutes — you want them to be soft enough to spear with a fork, but not totally cooked. You may need to add more broth. It will probably take 12 to 15 minutes.
Now, test the broth. Does it have enough flavor? If not, add some more salt and another teaspoon turmeric. Turmeric is the best (in my opinion) and mildest of the curry spices. You’ll never go wrong by adding more turmeric. If you still want more flavor, you can try adding cumin or coriander in half-teaspoon increments. Or, just add a little pre-mixed curry powder. If there isn’t enough broth, add another cup of chicken stock, a can of coconut milk, OR a can of diced tomatoes.
When the sweet potatoes are almost-but-not-quite cooked, add the chick peas and green beans. It’s okay if the sweet potatoes get overcooked, but you don’t want soggy green beans. So err on the side of waiting before you put the green beans in. Once you have the flavor right, and the sweet potatoes and green beans are done, mix in the spinach until it wilts.
Serve with yogurt, and top with a little cilantro.
Here are some variations:
You can add a can of diced tomatoes instead of coconut milk, for a more Indian style curry, though neither one is necessary. You can also use the same spices to do a potato curry, or one with potatoes and chickpeas.
The price:
I already have the spices, and I keep chickpeas and rice on hand. We also make our own chicken broth, so I usually have some of that around. As a result, all I needed to buy today was spinach ($1.80), sweet potatoes ($2.85), green beans ($2.34) and coconut milk ($1.19). If you need to buy broth and chick peas, that would add another $3 or so. At Whole Foods, rice costs $2.79 for 32 ounces or five cups — so we used about 50 cents of rice. The total: $11.68, for about four servings. The first time you buy the spices, it will cost more, though buying spices in bulk cuts the price dramatically.
If you have any budget recipes, email us at monogamoney(at)gmail.com. Also, let me know if you make this recipe, and tell me what you think!
3 Comments
October 21, 2008 at 11:55 am
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