Fridge Clean-Out Spectacular!

You know how sometimes you really need to get groceries because you're out of basic stuff, but you feel bad because your fridge is still full of bits and bobs and scraps of past meal ingredients that are slowly getting mushy and weird? You could make a soup. Or, you could make:

some really delicious, better-than-your-original-recipies curry!



I tried to take a picture of what the ingredients for this particular batch looked like before I put them all together. I know it looks intimidating, but really-- the sauce is infinitely variable and the add-ins are completely dependent on your personal taste/fridge offerings. I love the surprising combination of what I might normally think of as sweet spices like ginger and cinnamon and allspice with the very comforting but stodgy tomato, but the coconut milk (creamy but not actually coconutty in flavor) ties everything together into a flavorful, zesty marriage that defies description! I like a good amount of sauce with my curries, though you might not be able to tell from my photo above-- I wound up with a lot of stuff to "rescue" from the fridge this time. In any case, it can be as soupy or as dry as you like.

Ok. So I had a bunch of spinach, baby carrots, baby corn(!), and chick peas I wanted to use up. I admit that I really like chickpeas in this sauce anyway-- they get so soft and rich and nutty-- and that I've made it before minus all the other stuff. Spinach is a really nice compliment though, and I'll probably use it in the future. Here's how it comes together:

Easy Clean-Up Curry

1 medium tomato
1/2 can coconut milk
1 inch (generously) ginger
1/2 medium yellow onion
1 clove garlic
1 1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch cloves
salt/black pepper to taste
1 can chick peas
(whatever else you want to throw in)
butter or olive oil

Heat a couple tablespoons of whatever oil you're using in a fairly large frying pan or other shallow pan with decent sides. Once it's hot, add in your grated ginger and very finely sliced onion. Stir it around for a few minutes until it's looking pretty soft. Add in all your spices and allow to become fragrant. Chop up the tomato fairly roughly (it's going to dissolve into the sauce; you could use canned too) and add it in. Let it all mellow out in the pan for a while until the tomato is very squishy and everything's starting to mingle well. At this point, add anything sturdy that you want in your curry-- your chickpeas, carrot slices, whatever-- and let them get covered in the sauce. After a couple minutes, add in the coconut milk and mix it again. When it's blended go ahead and add your leafy stuff if you're using it.

Allow the whole mixture to simmer until it's at whatever thickness you like, and voila! Easy and delicious curry that's great over rice, scooped up on naan or pita, or mixed into instant ramen on your once school day with microwave access for lunch.