tamarind carrot coconut curry

another curry, but with noodles this time!

Ok. So I didn't give you a recipe last week. I promise I won't let it happen again ;) I did figure out how to link Spotify, so there’s that! Currently obsessed ^

Spent the morning reading and blowdrying the back pages of this book, which got wet in the backseat of my car because I accidentally left the back window down and it's been raining and raining here on Oahu.

I’ve been thinking about how when we were kids, our parents’ friends would have dinner parties after returning home from traveling to show everyone photos and tell stories about their trip. I kind of hope that with everything happening, people start to abandon social media and go back to this. I want to relish the art of storytelling. I want to imagine the scene as I sit and listen. I want to stretch and re-lengthen my attention span.

My dominant dosha is vata, which (among other things) means part of my nature is that I find it very difficult to sit and be still. I will easily spend days running long miles, snacking instead of eating real meals, and flitting from one activity to the next. Sustained days of this tend to leave me anxious and ungrounded. This is why I practice yoga. This is why I need to be reminded to sit down and actually have a warm meal. Opposition brings balance.

More curry.

I made this the other day and was v happy with it. You can make your own curry paste and freeze it in small jars to have on-hand, or you can use this one which is good, actually.

I wanted to try making a base that wasn’t purely coconut based, and though this does have coconut in it, it also gets its thickness from carrots and butternut squash scraps. when squaring up your butternut for the curry, save the scrappy pieces! You can freeze them for a soup later, or give them to your neighbors chickens, or use them for the base of this curry.

As always, the recipe is a bit loose. You guys… I’d be lying to you if I told you I really measured any of this. Feel it with your heart, as you listen to some good music and dance while you make it. -Z

First - if you want to make your own yellow curry paste:

2 lg knucks fresh ginger, peeled (yes, I said ‘knucks.’ What I mean is two gnarled knuckle sized pieces. you really can’t overdo it)

4 pieces lemongrass, outer layer peeled off, rough chopped

1 lg knuck fresh galangal (easy to get here in Hawaii, but if you can’t source it where you are, no sweat!)

2 pinky finger sized pieces fresh turmeric

5 cloves garlic

2 ea shallot

3 T toasted coriander

6 ea fresno chilis, seeded

2 ea Thai chilis, whole

1 T toasted fennel

1/2 t ground clove

2 t toasted cumin

2 T salt

~1/2 C lime juice

~1/2 C coconut oil (I like using coconut oil in curry paste bases rather than olive oil for flavor cohesion. vibes are important!)

— if you can find fresh lime leaf or curry leaf (LA, I miss you!) toast a few of these and throw them in too —

rip all of this in a vitamix. You want to have enough lime and coconut oil to ‘make it go’ but obv you want it to be a thick paste still.

Divide into small ball jars and freeze the extras. You’ll prolly want 3/4 cup for this recipe.

Tamarind Carrot Coconut Curry

I made this with chicken thighs and tofu for one of our vegan guests. For each, as long as you marinate a couple hours you should be gucci. The tofu was a little more of an involved process (frying, marinating, baking) which may necessitate its own post. Stay tuned…

For the marinade, combine:

1/4 cup curry paste

1/2 C high heat oil (such as this one)

1/4 C lime juice

2 T brown sugar

1 T salt

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Curry base

first — peel and large-dice a medium sized butternut squash. Save the scraps that result from squaring off your nice large squash cubes. set cubes aside.

1 onion, lg dice

2 jalapeno, small dice

1/2 C curry paste

1/3 C tamarind paste

1 C butternut squash scraps

1/2 C diced carrots (I cannot stress enough how much better farmers mkt carrots are than grocery store carrots. If you can, go get these from your nearest farmers market. Please. For the love of god.)

1 can coconut milk

4 cups water

1 head broccoli, trimmed

Sauté onion, jalapeno, tamarind, carrots and squash with the curry paste and a couple additonal T of coconut oil. Once onions are sweated down a bit, add your liquids and cook until carrots are soft (squash will cook faster, so you’re looking at the carrots for the marker).

blitz in vitamix until smooth.

return to pot. you may need to add a lill more water

add butternut squash cubes and continue to cook on low until squash is tendr but not mushy.

throw in the broccoli florets just before serving so they stay a nice bright green color.

serve with ramen or soba noodles

garnish game:

I garnished with a lil bok choy, flash sautéed with a splash of rice vin, raw fennel tossed in lime, evoo and a pinch of dried turmeric, cilantro, popped mustard seeds (toast in a dry pan with a lid until fragrant. they literally do pop and change color. the lid is necessary), and fried udon noodles.

to fry the noods — first, cook a handful of noodles in amply salted water. drain and rinse. then, fry in a small pot of grapeseed oil at 325. make sure you don’t fill the pot more than half-way with oil as it will turn into a party once you add your noodles. remove once the noods are GBD (thats Golden Brown Delicious for all you non-industry kids out there,) salt immediately after frying.

I sliced the grilled chicken thighs and plated it on top of the curry. The only thing I feel the need to add here is this — please get a little char on that grilled chicken. Thighs are much more forgiving than breasts and they’ll stay juicy I promise. Color is flavor, and the crispy bits are always the best.

Last but not least, a little sliced scallion goes a long way. Slice it thin and hold it in a little ICE COLD water until ready to serve. The ice cold water makes the scallion curly which is cute — and we like it cute! I also chopped up some dried gooseberries and threw them on there for a little sweet/savory hit. Goji berries would be fun too. Do your thing!