Curry Stew

Warning: Somewhat incomplete list

They say if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Well, I can't stand much heat and today it is 32 degrees out, more with that great Canadian weather invention humidex, but I still managed to make a pretty tasty stew. I even measured everything almost precisely for once.

This is a more Caribbean or West Indian inspired curry rather than of continental India tradition. In fact, with the addition of a can of chickpeas, I imagine this stew could make a nice home folded up in a roti sachet.

Start by making a roux. Melt the butter with olive oil in the bottom of a soup pot. Add the flour and stir together until smooth and bubbling away. Add potatoes, water, chicken bouillon concentrate to turn it into stock and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling again, add a head of cauliflower that has been broken down into florets. The onion, hot peppers, curry powder and bay leaves might as well go in at this point too.

This will boil until the potatoes are tender, about 20-30min. At the 15min mark, add 7 cloves of roughly chopped up garlic. The later you add the garlic and the finer you chop it up means stronger garlic flavour, generally speaking. Add corn here too. It should be noted that the corn needs to be removed from the cob. I use a big knife to do this, scraping with the back of it to remove every last flavourful bit from it after the kernels have been severed. Once the potatoes are tender, remove from heat and let sit for half an hour to let the flavours marry.

Yummy, very yellow, curry stew

Upon tasting, I realized that it was missing something. I added a few sprigs worth of thyme leaves and a squirt of lemon juice. I think this could have been thicker, so next time I'd use 8 Tbsp of fat and flour each. Wonderful! Now this is a dish worth eating. Ladypants even went back for seconds. She doesn't eat anything that isn't fully excellent. If something I make isn't up to her standards on first tasting, I must suffer through it alone, or let it go mouldy in the fridge (undesirable). Not this time, it's received the official Ladypants seal of approval.