such a tasty hiatus

okay. i know i have had QUITE the hiatus. someone at work mentioned to one of the new hires (my awesome buddy who also likes to cook!) that i have a cooking blog and i was like "well, technically i havent updated it in months! months!" it is depressing. i even stopped taking pictures of things that i cooked. well that, and i stopped cooking quite so much because i was insanely busy at work. but still! i made the duck again in december when my aunt and uncle visited, along with a bunch of delicious sides, and no pictures! and the plum cake post that is going to go up shortly after this (but might get backdated) -- i wrote that entry ages ago, when i actually made the cake, but i delayed posting because i needed to upload the photos, and it has taken MONTHS to bother to do that.



but tonight...tonight i decided that i needed to post about my most delicious dinner. because tonight, i made shrimp curry. this recipe came from emily, who makes it with bryan fairly often i guess, and made it once when i came over for dinner. and i was like "omg omg this is delicious" and i was craving it the other week, and emily was kind enough to send me the recipe so that i could make it myself! to much success. it really just is happily delicious. possibly one of the reasons for this is that there are 5 tbsp of butter in it. you can see from the picture below that there is a LOT of butter in there with the onions. and it is DELICIOUS. when em did it, she had cashews and avocado and something else as toppings. but when i went to whole foods, there were no ripe avocados! they were all a few days off! so, i did cashews and green olives which actually worked out really well.



the side to go with is carrots and parsnips. sauteed a bit then through some chicken stock in, then when they were all warm and crispy and falling apart, i threw some butter in. it looks terrible, because the veggies are falling apart, but it was DELICIOUS!!! DELICIOUS!!!!!

and the recipe for the shrimp curry, since it is not found online:

3 pounds lg. shrimp (frozen shelled, deveined lg shrimp, thawed and drained) (I only used 1 pound, because i was making just for me -- i have about 4 servings and lots of delicious sauce)
5 tbsp. butter
1 sm onion minced
2 1/2 tsp. curry powder (i threw a little extra in)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger (em uses fresh ginger, and you can throw a little extra in)
2 cups milk
1 cup chicken broth
1 tsp. lemon juice (i omitted this! because i didnt have any!)
6 cups hot cooked rice (i used white sushi rice! and it was delicious. and i didnt make enough because i only cooked 1 cup!)

1. If using fresh shrimp, shell and devein them; rinse with running cold water.

2. In 4 qt saucepan over high heat, heat 3 in. water to boiling. Add shrimp; heat to boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low; cook 1 minute or until shrimp turn pink and are tender. Drain.

3. In 3 qt saucepan over medium heat, stir in hot butter, cook onion till tender. Stir in curry powder; cook one minute. Stir in flour, sugar, salt, and ginger until blended. Gradually stir in milk and chicken broth, and cook, stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Add shrimp and lemon juice; heat through. Serve shrimp with rice and accompaniments.

Accompaniments: In separate small bowls, place two or more of these accompaniments to be sprinkled over servings: chutney, golden raisins, salted almonds or peanuts, pineapple chunks, crisp bacon, flaked coconut, sliced avocado, green olives.

a weird combination

oh man, looking at this picture i am wishing i had more spinach so that i can make this again. there was this lovely recipe i found on food52 for a "yoghurt and spinach dip" that sounded absolutely delicious. and luckily enough, i happened to have some spinach on hand from my CSA! so, i blanched it (well, i sort of blanched it. in the sense that i kept it in the boiling water for only 30 seconds or so, but then i forgot the crucial blanching step of the ice water shock, and so the spinach was completely wilted. which is fine really because you just saute it after you chop it up anyway. and i threw in a bunch of greek yogurt, and some glorious extra virgin olive oil i recently bought. pretty simple, pretty delicious - just needs a bit of salt for the finishing touch.


i cooked some chicken quick, and put it on top of the spinach dip. can we say delicious again? probably. also bought some crusty bread that was quite tasty. all in all, a good dinner choice. and lunch the next day. and leftover dip as another lunch another day. perhaps the next party i have, i'll make some? or maybe just the next time i have spinach. or the next time i go to the grocery store. :)


and then tagging along with this entry is some delicious parsnip risotto that i made last week! its official: i love parsnips. they are pretty much the most awesome vegetable. along with celeriac. and kale. okay so i have a lot of favorite vegetables, shush. but anyway, parsnip has a nice, sweet but satisfying flavor, that makes it so good in creamy dishes, like soup or risotto. I think the only thing that would have made this better is if i had put rosemary in it. i thought i had some dried, but apparently did not, and didnt pick any up at whole foods when i was there (because i thought i had some dried) and so i decided to just make it sans adequate spices. still fairly good, but i think that it was lacking a bit without the spices. which i should really be cooking with more often. i think my new motto for the spring is going to be: embrace spices!!