English curry and chips; cabbage and celeriac coleslaw

Hi folks - I was away last week, so we haven't been posting much. Kenneth made a really good Indian flavoured roasted squash on the weekend, but with box day yesterday, and with last week's produce we still had a fridge full of beets, potatoes, red cabbage, sweet potatoes, leeks, carrots, turnip, and apples.

This afternoon, home with a sick one-year-old, I oven-roasted the beets and steamed the turnip. When Ria woke up from her afternoon she ate nearly a quarter of the turnip ... I think she's feeling better! The rest we've frozen for her lunches, along with all the beets (method #23 for using up the box: feed the stuff you don't like to your kids).

Tonight for dinner I tried a British pub-food standby: curry and chips. I cut several potatoes into wedges, tossed them in a bit of olive oil, then baked them for 20 minutes at 450, stirred them and cooked them another 10 minutes. For the curry I fried some diced onion in some olive oil and about 2-3 T of curry powder (our curry powder is stale, so you might not need so much). I chopped up two sweet potatoes and cooked them in the microwave for 2 minutes, then added them to the pan. Half a jar of tomatoes, 1/2 can of light coconut milk; let it simmer a while. Add a green pepper in chunks and half a can of chickpeas (drained). Then add to taste ginger (I used about 1 T), garam masala (1-2 T), 1-2 T sugar, a dash of tabasco sauce if you want some extra kick, cinnamon (1 T) and cardamom powder (1-2 tsp). Cook until thickened and bubbly. Serve over the chips.

I also made a tasty coleslaw (recipe adapted from one on the internet):

1/4 head red cabbage, sliced finely

1-2 celeriac roots, peeled and julienned

2-3 carrots, grated

1/4 c mayonnaise

3 T cider vinegar

2 T grainy dijon mustard

1 tsp cumin

Have a good week!

-Kathy

roast & roast veg

This post will be short because the last two meals were pretty simple - no real recipes. Last night Kenneth combined the ricotta ravioli with kale, garlic and chilis, a bit of olive oil. Simple but good. Tonight I cooked a roast with potatoes, carrots, green pepper, celeriac chunks, onion and garlic. My first beef roast ever, actually, and I think I pulled it off - again, tasty and simple.

I should mention that our garlic comes partly from Taproot and partly from our neighbour, Lenny, who owns the only seed garlic farm in the province, I think. He is a lovely fellow who regularly drives up and presses garlic into our hands saying either "use in good health" or "for your health."

Brussels sprouts, carrots (which I take in lunches) and that durned squash still left in the fridge. Shoot - I was planning on cooking that with the roast. Ah, well, maybe we'll bring squash muffins or something to the Taproot shareholder meeting on Sunday. (I'm now envisioning an entire potluck made up of various squash dishes!)

Our stove, which came with the house when we bought it, has a really odd quirk: occasionally it just stops working for a few hours, then starts working again the next day with no problems. Amazingly enough, this always seems to happen on Friday nights, so we're forced to order in or go out for dinner. So we'll post again on the weekend!

-Kathy