Food & Excercise

[annuin]

Yesterday I made Chicken Korma for dinner, from the Quick and Easy Indian Cooking cookbook I have by Madhur Jaffrey.

YUM!

It actually tasted like something that I might have picked up from an Indian take-out joint or something. I left out the cayenne pepper, as daskreestof was joining us for dinner and I know he's not that fond of really spicy food (and a little cayenne pepper goes a long way). So I was extremely impressed with that recipe. It'd be interesting to see if I can substitute the 3 lbs (!) of chicken in that recipe with vegetables like potatoes, peas, carrots and cauliflower or something and give Vegetable Korma a whirl sometime. I'd still not be able to feed that to any vegans seeing as there's 3 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream in it (what's a vegan alternative for that anyway?). There's still plenty of that left for dinner tomorrow or the day after or something, yummy yummy yummy!

I have to say, I love the smell of fresh ginger... I like the way ground and minced ginger smell, and various ginger bearing products, but fresh ginger is something else, with a delicious citrusy tang to it. The Korma recipe called for a paste made from fresh ginger, fresh garlic and some water... it smelled incredible. I love it when stuff smells really good... sometimes I'm disappointed with food that smells incredible when I cook it, and doesn't actually taste as good as, or like, it smells.

Tomorrow I'll be making up a batch of fruit salad. I've got a fresh pineapple ripening on the counter, damn that thing smells good too. <3 pineapple.

So this week saw Kyokushin classes #5 and #6, and Bikram #4. I'm feeling less and less like a goober at the dojo, which is good, and yoga this week was a lot more pleasant than the insanely hot class from last week, and I'm not feeling as totally knackered afterwards as I did the previous 3 weeks. Here's hoping we actually manage to get a weekend class (or two?) in this week.

Comments

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on all fronts :D

Alternatives to cream will depend on what you want them to do:
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=vegancooking&keyword=substitutes+-+dairy+-+whipped+cream&filter=all
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=vegancooking&keyword=substitutes+-+dairy+-+cream&filter=all

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

You're supposed to stir in the 3 tablespoons and then cook it on high heat for another 7-8 minutes, or until it thickens up. So I guess it's to make it taste a bit creamier, and to add some thickness.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

In that case, you could either use some silken tofu or any of the cream-like substitutes listed above. You know what? I shall just ask in vegancooking!

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks :)

That way I might have a good reason to try out a vegetable version (or can give you the recipe to try a vegetable version for yourself). It'd be cool to try and make an Indian dinner sometime.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

The Great And Powerful Kittee (http://pakupaku.info/) of vegancooking, whose website is a veritable treasure trove of brilliant vegan recipes says that she always uses full-fat soymilk or coconut milk.

Just thinking about it, here's the thread (http://www.livejournal.com/community/vegancooking/398171.html?view=2435931#t2435931), so you can check in and see what people say over the next couple of days.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Isn't coconut milk very thin and watery though?

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

Not if it's full-fat and shaken up. Check it out - get yourself a can, shake it, and pour out - it's thick, and as it warms up the seperate layers blend and thicken.