Last night I made shrimp curry, from a recipe from Ruth Rechl's Comfort Me With Apples. It's a
dish she made often while living in a commune in Berkeley, and thus it is called Channing Way Shrimp Curry.
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1/2 stick butter
4 tablespoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cardomom
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon red chile powder
1 Tablespoon flour
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup well-stirred canned coconut milk
2 cups chicken broth
2 teaspoons freshly grated lime zest
1-2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 Tablespoons fresh lime juice
salt and pepper
Cook the onion and garlic in the butter in a heavy pan over moderate heat, until the onion is softened, about 4 minutes. Add the spices and flour and cook, stirring constatntly, for one minute. Whisk in the cream, coconut milk, broth, and lime zest and bring just to a boil. Simmer the mixture, stirring constantly, until it begins to thicken, about 2 minutes. Add the shrimp and simmer, stirring, until the shrimp turns pink and is cooked through, about 4 minutes. Stir in the lime juice, and add salt and pepper to taste.
Ladle the curried shrimp over rice and top with garnishes (raisins, peanuts, chopped candied ginger) with mango chutney on the side. It is good, to, to have some Ali Akbar Khan ragas on hand to play in the background while you eat.
***
We also had a simple spinach salad--spinach, mushrooms, red peppers. I had so much curry sauce leftover, and salad, that for lunch today I will cook up the salad ingredients and pour the curry sauce over them. Yum.
Curry always reminds me of college, when my then-boyfriend Jonah and I made huge, delicious pans of it, often. I was ambitious then and my idea of a good time was to make a five course Indian meal, chutney to lassi, as it were, including samosas and paratha. In fact, this was our Thanksgiving dinner for several of the 5 years we were together. These days I often substitute flour tortillas for roti, and they are fine. But the scent of turmeric on my fingers takes me back....
