WIAW 62 – Birthday Edition!
Not my birthday – Rich’s…
As you can see from the pictures, it is finally May in New York. Oh, wait – it isn’t May, yet… but… we haven’t exactly had April… All month, I’ve alternated between my winter parka and either a light cardigan or no jacket at all… I own a Spring jacket, but I haven’t been wearing it. All very confusing…
Still no fresh vegetables, though. I took these pictures walking to Greenmarket – which still had only carrots, potatoes and apples. Surely the spinach will come in soon…
Monday was Rich’s birthday, so I wanted something a little special. I do hope to put together some gathering with friends, but schedules – both ours and theirs – have been a bit nuts this week, so nothing happened. We may end up with just some finger food at gaming… but something!
In the meantime – my breakfast was the last of the egg muffins. I remembered to get the coffee into the picture – I did not remember to get the corn muffins (which were baking when I took this) into another picture… but you’ve seen my corn muffins before now. I do like all my bean and tortilla meals – but sometimes I want something I can eat more quickly, that just feels lighter…
Lunch was… (looking at the picture – what was that, again?) Oh, right, odds and ends of leftovers. A little cooked chicken, the last of a package of frozen spinach, cooked rice, some cheese… Some chicken broth stirred in to moisten it to heat. Quite good, actually.
And this is a not very good picture of what was indeed a very good dinner… We enjoy Indian food, and where we live we can not only easily go to good Indian restaurants, but can also get ingredients. I had some lamb… Now, I didn’t want to get complicated, so I didn’t do all the raita and dal pickle and chutney that a proper meal should have – just one meat curry, one vegetable, and one bread, with plain rice. (I realize, though, that one advantage to this cuisine is that almost everything except the bread can be made ahead… When I do have more time and flexibility, I’ll try setting up a variety of side dishes.)
I poked around online and in my books, and found some simple (in one case, possibly simplified) recipes. I checked my pantry – I had both the common spices like coriander, and the more esoteric, like hing (asfoetida.) Oddly, not turmeric… Then a package arrived from his brother! Birthday present! A collection of spices… Oh, look – turmeric! I didn’t have to make a run down to Curry Row on 6th St. after all.
Anyhow – this was a ginger lamb curry, and a pumpkin curry, and Besan ki Roti – a traditional bread made from besan or gram flour. AKA chickpea flour… I’ve been fascinated to find how many Indian breads there are that are naturally gluten free, made with gram or rice flour – and I will definitely be exploring them! Unfortunately everything ended up much the same color… I really needed some green on that plate. It all tasted good, though – and he liked it, which was the most important part!
I can at least add some color to the post… Happy Spring!
And I join Jenn for her What I Ate Wednesday roundup! (I’m glad she’s feeling up to dealing with it, again… and doesn’t her soup look good?)