Monday, May 23, 2011

Potato-Spinach Curry

Potato-Spinach Curry, page 232
with brown basmati rice and Masala Baked Tofu, page 146


Tonight's dinner was a lovely affair of saag aloo, masala tofu, and basmati rice, enjoyed outside in the fresh air of the evening.

While I loved the feature AFR recipe, I must say that the most exciting part of making tonight's dinner was digging up my own potatoes from my own garden. They were so beautiful! Look:

Freshly dug and scrubbed potatoes from my backyard garden


And, they were delicious, too!

But anyway, back to the recipe. SweetPea helped me make the potato-spinach curry; she helped chop up those beautiful potatoes, as well as stir and taste along the way. We added more salt because of the low sodium veggie broth that I've been using (more on that below). We also left out the red pepper flakes to make it kid-friendly, and instead had some available on the table to sprinkle on as desired for the adults.

Also, I decided to revisit the Masala Baked Tofu, because I think I've figured out what went wrong last time. Not that it was bad last time. It's just that I've heard so many people rave about it, and yet it didn't get me all excited like it seems to do for others. The missing factor for my first attempt seems to be salt. Yes, salt. So simple, right? I've been using a no-salt-added vegetable broth in an attempt to be more sodium conscious, and I think the masala marinade suffered as a result. So this time, I added a bit more soy sauce, and it made a big difference. I will also confess that I was feeling lazy and used granulated garlic and powdered ginger in the marinade, instead of the fresh versions, and both seemed to work great here. El Hombre confirmed that this attempt was much better than the first, so whether that was due to the extra soy sauce, or the dried spices, or a combination.... who knows?

Again, everyone enjoyed tonight's dinner. Both kids liked the potato-spinach curry, and my Dad went back for second helpings of everything. As El Hombre and I were cleaning up the kitchen, I saw a lime left on the counter and realized I forgot to add the freshly squeezed juice as the final step in the making of the curry. But oh well - it was still delicious! Nothing seemed amiss. Getting the kids to eat their cooked spinach and my Dad to enjoy tofu so much that he goes for another serving... a win!

5 comments:

foodfeud said...

Sounds great. I haven't attempted any of the tofu ideas from the book but I do find that salt makes a big difference in highlighting other flavors. The saag sounds delicious - that's something I've got to make for myself, soon! And what a nice haul of potatoes! Congratulations.

Shannon Drury said...

Mmmmmmm....salt. Yummy, yummy salt. I love it as much as I love saag aloo, so I'm happy to hear this recipe is a good one!

vegan.in.brighton said...

Yum, I really like that curry & it's so awesome that you used potatoes that you'd grown yourself.

Julie Ann said...

I love the salt, too, but I'm trying to be more salt-conscious these days... I've found some recipes do fine with less/no salt, while others seem to really need it...
It was quite exciting to dig up those yummy taters. I've got more out in the garden, too!

Jessica said...

We love this curry recipe and have made it at leave 5-6 times. I forgot the lime the first time too and just leave it out. Fabulous!