identity crisis

I am not into hoighty toighty ingredients. I am not into tofu. I have tried to be into it, but have not jumped aboard yet. I am not into fake meat (tastes like dog food). And I am not into gourmet.

I am into using the same ingredients/veggies (and the like)that I grew up with and then maybe adding the rice pasta to the mix in place of egg-infested pasta.
And I did discover veganaise because of my love of dairy in guacomole way back in February.

I am not rich. I am not gonna buy ingredients which I don't think I will use again. I am into adding ingredients to my palate, but that takes time and sharing spices with your roommates.

For example, I never used to use coconut milk. Now, it's becoming a staple in my kitchen.

I did not know what to make for dinner tonight, or for a special work event tomorrow.

So I took inventory of my food (not counting spices):
Fresh basil, frozen cilantro, 3/4 vidalia onion, 1 green pepper, two vine tomatoes, blueberries, soy yogurt, garlic, artichoke pasta, rice, lentils, rice noodles, black beans, chick peas, coconut milk, three avocados, veggie broth, lemon juice, veganaise

Then I googled a recipe with an idea in mind. Keywords: coconut, rice, chickpeas, vegan.

This was one of the first items to pop up in my search.

Looks yummy, right? But I don't cook Indian food enough to have all these ingreds. I am Italian, and as un-authentic as it may be sometimes I have to incorporate ingreds of two cultures when I cook. Of course, many cultures share ingredients, so this is not tooo weird.

The Rice
Easiest part. I have absolutely everything I need for this. I am AWFUL at cooking rice, and it seems so easy, right? But every time I attempt it always come out wrong. This time was the BEST so far. Though it was slightly overcooked, it was infused with coconut milk GOODNESS. It reminded me of coconut sticky rice, but not sticky. So sweet and savory.

Curried Paste and Chick peas

I looked at the recipe for curried paste. I looked at the chick peas. I thought it was useless expanse of time for me to do them seperately, so I did them together.

First I mixed unmeasured quantities of these into a bowl:
a scoop of salsa (yes, the mexican kind)
two chopped tomatoes, mashed
soy sauce
red curry powder
cayenne pepper
crushed red pepper
black madra pepper
lemon juice
ginger (also wanted to use coriander but there was none)
dried cilantro
agave sweetener (yes, i did use a little bit)

Then, I chopped up onions and green peppers very finely (as much as my laziness would allow) and threw them into a frying pan with canola oil and a few drops of rice vinegar. I added the chickpeas. Added the mixture (especially all the juice from it, and left some of the tomatoes in the bowl for guacamole). Crushed three cloves of garlic and tossed in some basil and cilantro. Finally added some veggie broth. I let this cook for awhile, trying to figure out what I could add to to it, which would thicken it like a paste...

paste...tomato paste!

The trusty Italian in me always has tomato paste even when I don't account it in my inventory. I added a whole 4 oz. can. It made it have a confusing taste...like it was having identity issues. Part Indian, part Italian...what to do?!

Add more red curry and ginger!!!!!



What came out as product was certainly not an authentic Indian dish, but I used ingredients straight from my kitchen without having to go to the Indian section of Wegman's!

On to making the guacamole!