My first yellow curry noodles recipe

It is not a secret that I usually create my meals based on foods I taste and like in restaurants. As someone who dealt for a long time with various eating disorders, I avoided for a long time to touch many foods therefore, creating my own recipes was impossible at the beginning as I did not know how to match the tastes. Those times are hopefully long gone, but there are still a lot of combinations I am unfamiliar with and at a certain point it is normal, especially when it comes to foods I haven't grow up with.

A couple of days ago, exhausted after too many baby tantrums and home chores, I decided to eat out, at a new Vegetarian street food Vietnamese restaurant around the corner. I ordered a yellow curry with veggies and was delighted and a couple of days after, I tried to recreate my own recipe (I added okra and eliminated the tofu).

Here is my (relatively) limited success:

Ingredients
1 pack Mie Asli Indonesian noodles - they are spices with turmeric, quick to cook and suitable for any kind of noodle dishes
400 ml. coconut milk
1 medium onion sliced
100 gr. okra cut in rondels
150 gr. sweet corn halved
one medium sized yellow pepper cut into small pieces
two tablespoon corn oil
1/2 teaspoon of rasped ginger
3 tablespoon yellow curry pasta

Directions

In a pan, add the curry pasta and the oil and mix well at 250C, until it gets a sauce consistency. If necessary, add some water and mix well for around 5 minutes.

Separately, boil water and add the Mie noodles. After 5 minutes, pour the water out, mix the noodles and eventually add some cold water.

In a pan, at 250 add the coconut milk and mix until it boils, for around 3 minutes. Add the onion, okra, pepper, the yellow corn and mix until is boiling - an average of around 10 minutes. Continue with the yellow curry sauce and the noodles. Mix well for another 3 minutes.

Serve it hot.

My only problem was the choice of the yellow curry pasta which was not the best quality, therefore the taste was not a bit different of what I had at the restaurant but also a little - but only a little bit - rancid.

As a first time experience it was great to test my cooking abilities and probably I need to do more documentation the next time when I am trying, especially when it comes to the choice of the curry.

Preparation time

15 minutes

Cooking time

20 minutes

Serves 4

Bon Appétit!

Having upma for breakfast

After patra, I continued my Indian food experience with what seems to be a favorite Bengali breakfast dish: upma. As in the previous case, I completely trusted the recommendation of my friend, plus the attactive picture on the box. This Southern Indian breakfast dish is 100% vegetarian, and contains gluten and mustard. It was provided as a bag with all the ingredients: semolina, lime juice powder, green chilli, ginger powder, among others. I personally added 100 gr. green peas and 2 tablespoon flowerseed oil. 

The preparation process is very simple: pour the ready made content into 600 ml. warm water, add the peas, and keep mixing well at 250C for the next 5-7 minutes, or until a compact puree is formed. 

I love the consistency, but once I've tasted, I also fell in love with the spicey taste. At first, it has a very neutral semolina taste but soon it becoming more and more spicier, as the ingredients need a contact with the palate to further develop. For more fresh, green taste, adding a couple of leaves of coriander could be a good move. 

If you have the semolina, you can prepare it by yourself. It serves 4 and the preparation time is less than 30 minutes.

What surprised me was how such a consistent meal can be served at breakfast, but actually, it is a very good idea when you need a lot of energy for the rest of the day. We, the Europeans, we are used to have our bread and cereals, but it seems that in Souther India, a simple bowl of upma can be more than enough. 

My Indian food tour will continue in the next days, now that Pesach and all its high restrictions is over.

Keep in touch with more foodie news!

Eating flowers

As I kid, I was hard to be stopped eating the delicious rose petals from the garden. This was the breakfast, early in the early sunny mornings, to be continued with the delicious 5 o'clok rose jelly, when it was the gossip time for the ladies. I was not rebuked for my vegetarian compulsions, but was not appreciated either. For a long time, I took it as a manifestation of my eccentricity side.

However, when less than one month ago I discovered a lovely package of pansies on sale in a big shop in London, I was challenged to find out what it is new in terms of edible flowers. 

Historically speaking, the custom of eating flowers is older than I: in the Middle Ages, India, China but also in the Victorian British Empire. There are several flowers used regularly as part of salads, cocktails and cakes, and the latest trends towards more healthy vegetarian food may encourage flower-based recipes further. 

It is very important that the flowers are carefully washed before use. Any flower not sprayed is saved from the culinary point of view. Allergic people must be more careful than the rest of the world, but in general, eating flowers does not present high health risks. There are warning regarding apple blossoms, for instance, that in big quantities can have a high concentration of cyanide precursors. Many flowers who aren't fresh may have a bitter taste and you better avoid it. An important recommendation for someone at the beginning of the flower-based diet is to do not use the flowers growing by the roadside. Not the entire flowers are edible so, please, don't try to eat the bucket!

What to put in your salad

The most frequent meeting with flowers are in teas. Jasmin and dandelion are the most frequent examples. My dear roses, are not only part of delicious jams, but also included in salads and this is not only for the special design that the colour may give. 

Lavender is even used as part of oils and also for jellies, but I also heard about...lavender foccacia. Its pleasant citrus taste may add a special taste to your glass of champagne. Some also recommend them for ice creams or chocolate cakes. 

The chrysanthemus, for instance, are appreciated in the Japanese cuisine for various stir-fries, and in general as part of salads. The gladiolus taste like lettuce, and the pansies will always give to the soup a pleasant flavour, besides the colour. My favourite flowers, the lilly can be also eaten, but it is not clear for me if the special perfumes, one of the reason we love flowers, besides colour, is maintained during the cooking process or gives a special taste to the food after all. Violets are recommended as garnishing for various desserts, including chocolate or strawberry salads. I've also saw some recipes where they appear as ingredients for spinach salads. 

I was not surprised by the edible side of most of the flowers I've read about, I did not expect to see the carnations on the list. Probably because for me they look very 'artificial' and thus, not natural enough for being part of a meal. However, those who did not have such second thoughts before me say that they taste spicy and bitter and even close to saffron. 

Bon Appetit!