Summer Curry

Indian food in undeniably delicious.  My go-to spices are usually curry powder, cumin, coriander, and turmeric.  I don’t know if these are authentically Indian, but they make things taste delightful!  I’ve recently started adding garam masala to the spice mix.

So this week I decided to make a dish with our most abundant vegetable –squash!  I paired it with kale and potatoes, and my favorite spices, for a glorious curry dish.  Like a lot of the food we make around here, we mostly winged it (wung it?) without a recipe.  So feel free to make additions, subtractions, and substitutions at your whim.

Summer Curry

• 1-2 summer squash/zucchini, in bite size pieces
• kale, ripped up with stems removed
• potatoes, quartered
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp turmeric
• 1 tsp coriander
• 2 tsp garam masala
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• extra virgin olive oil (for frying)
• water/veggie broth

1. Fry potatoes in the spices and olive oil for about 5 minutes.  I used a wok; you could also use a pot or a frying pan.

2. Throw in summer squash and fry until potatoes and squash are cooked through.  Add spices for taste if necessary.

3. Add water/veggie broth to distribute spices from the bottom of the pan amongst the entire dish.

4. Add kale at the last minute and stir in.  Wait for the kale to wilt then remove from heat.

5. Enjoy!

Kale Chips– 3 Ways

Around here, we enjoy kale.  A lot.  In particular, kale chips are utterly delicious.  I’ve traditionally made my kale chips pretty plain, with just salt, oil, and kale.  But we decided to mix it up a bit with some new flavors.  So we tried some with garlic powder, a soy sauce mixture on some others, and a control group of just salt.  Try one or all of them, or let us know what you put on kale chips!

Plain Jane Kale Chips

• 4-6 leaves of kale (curly or flat-leafed works), stems removed
• salt
• spray cooking oil

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Liberally spray a cookie sheet with the cooking oil.

3. Spread out kale on the cookie sheet.  (They can be touching or even overlapping a bit because they’ll condense with cooking.)

4. Spray the kale with cooking spray.  Make sure to really coat the leaves–they won’t crisp up unless they are oily.

5. Salt kale, liberally.

6. Pop that kale in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

7. Try not to choke while inhaling your delectable kale chips!

Garlic-y Delight

For a garlic-y twist, add garlic powder when salting your kale chips.

Asian Kale Chips

• 2 tablespoons Soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon Ginger Powder
• Salt (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon brown sugar

Now yes, this may sound like a slightly bizarre topping. But once it passes your lips into the confines of your mouth and continues on its glorious culinary journey across your tastebuds, you will thank me. With this bit, you’ll basically mix all of your ingredients in a bowl until your brown sugar is dissolved. I sometimes cheat and heat mine up for a few seconds in the microwave causing the mixture to dissolve a little more quickly. I don’t know why it does this. Ask your chemistry teacher. Or your mom and dad. Because I am none of the aforementioned.   Toss your kale in this mixture before throwing it onto your cookie sheet or pan. After this step, you will cook your kale chips just like the Plain Jane and Garlic-y Delight. This recipe was inspired by one found on pinterest. I altered it a little and it was a pinterest success. So try it.

There it is! A most delectable alternative to the ho hum potato chip! Or with potato chips. Either way, try these and let us know what you think or what alternatives you tried. Maybe you tried one with curry. Or one with cinnamon. Let us know what you did!

And as always,

Bon Apetite!