Recipes
Cold Ayam Apple Soup
One of the advantages of this soup is the fact that you can make it ahead of time and it’s ready to eat whenever you are. Or wherever you are, seeing as this is a quintessential British picnic dish meant to be served cold. The Indonesian Ayam gives it a gentle curry-like flavor, but without too much heat. As for the apples, I like to use both Granny Smith for their tartness and a second variety that brings more sweetness to the dish, but feel free to use all sweet apples or your favorite varieties. As always, feel free to play around with the ingredients! You can substitute vegetable broth for the chicken, or choose between the cream or the yogurt for the finish. If you use the yogurt, which will add more tang, then go lighter on the lemon juice.
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Curried Roasted Cauliflower
Here at World Spice, we have some "tried and true" cookbooks that we can't do without. When we look for inspiration to jazz up our usual side dishes, The Side Dish Handbook by Tori Ritchie is one we reach for again and again. This wonderful cookbook can be used as a primer for side dishes using grains, vegetables and legumes. It's helpfully organized alphabetically, having a stand-out recipe for each main ingredient, including this tasty recipe for Curried Roasted Cauliflower.You'll also find such delicious dishes as English Pea and Onion Gratin, Creamed Corn with Chipotle and Queso Fresco, Butter-Braised Turnips with Caraway and Braised Moroccan Eggplant, just to name a few. These dishes use global flavors to make "basic" ingredients fresh, new and interesting. After all, the right accompaniments can liven even the most simple roast chicken dinner.From the author: "If you can find an orange cauliflower (check your local farmers’ market), the electric hue is a fun way to amp up the curried color of this dish, although a classic white one is fine. Don’t amp up the amount of curry, however, or that’s all you will taste."The following recipe has been excerpted from The Side Dish Handbook: Featuring 40 recipes and expert tips on your favorite ingredients by Tori Ritchie. It was published by Weldon Owen in 2015.
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Chole
We loved Chetna Makan on "Great British Bake Off" and her first cookbook, The Cardamom Trail was full of many flavorful and stunningly photographed dishes. For Chai, Chaat & Chutney: a street food tour through India, she returned home to India and the street food that she grew up on. The book has four chapters that are organized by cities that make up the four corners of India - Chennai, Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta), Mumbai and Delhi. The fifth chapter? All masala and chutney recipes. Some recipes will look or sound familiar, others will not...but the photos and descriptions of the food will make you want to eat (or drink!) all of them. If you love Indian food or any form of street food, this is the cookbook for you! This recipe is a wonderful example how curries in the North of India use lots of fragrant and aromatic spices to make this mouth-watering vegetarian curry made with chickpeas.From the author: "One of the ultimate curries of the North, this chickpea curry is often paired with Bhatura, a deep-fried flatbread sold piping hot originally on the streets of Delhi but, now, all over the country. This combination should be on everyone’s must-try list when visiting India. You can keep it light by eating this curry with rice or chapatti, if preferred."
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Curried Beef and Tendon with Turnip
We love the use of spice and combining of textures in this curry dish from fascinating Macau cookbook, The Adventures of Fat Rice by Abraham Conlon, Adrienne Lo, and Hugh Amano.From the Author: "In Macau “turnip” usually means daikon, or another large radish, so technically, there’s no turnip in the original version of this dish. At Fat Rice, we mostly follow tradition, but run with the turnip thing and garnish with crunchy raw turnips, radishes, and their greens. Don’t be scared to work with the tendons—they do require long cooking, but add great texture. Try grilling the rubbed beef; it adds a great smoky dimension."
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Vadouvan Vegetable Pie
This savory vegetable pie emerged from our experiments with Vadouvan paste, a wonderfully rich and elegant flavor base. We wanted a warm, comforting meal for the cold weather outside, and this was the prize winning pie. The recipe balances the subtle, hearty flavor of the toasted curry with the earthy goodness of cauliflower and butternut squash. If you don't have Vadouvan paste, then this versatile recipe can easily feature other flavor combinations. Missing one of the vegetables used in this pie? Use whatever you have on hand!
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Vadouvan Paste
Vadouvan Curry is a spice blend with South Indian and French influences, and the name means "sun-dried spices" in French. This fusion blend can be used just like a curry powder, or made into the iconic Vadouvan paste, a rich blend of onion, shallots and aromatics.Making Vadouvan paste takes a little doing, but is worth the effort. Some some specialty shops sell the paste for $100 per pound! A little does go a long way, and the paste is a wonderful short-cut to add fully developed curry flavors into your dish in an instant. The flavor is bold and subtle at the same time, with a meaty base surrounded by an intricate spice melange. Proportions and methods for making Vadouvan paste vary, we tried out several and liked this one best for its simplicity.Try Vadouvan paste in our Vadouvan Vegetable Pie.
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Japanese Chicken Curry
The Flavour Principle: Enticing Your Senses With Food And Drink contains recipes from around the world, focuses on the fundamentals of flavor and suggests pairings to complement the unique tastes of each dish. This Japanese curry recipe which balances sweet and spicy flavors for a wonderful, balanced taste, and has become a staff favorite.From the Author: "You can buy Japanese curry powder but it’s just as easy to make your own with our recipe. Serve the curry with rice or udon noodles and Japanese pickles (recipes follow). The grated apple gives sweetness to the sauce.This curry powder gets its traditional deep yellow colour from the turmeric. It is not a hot curry; it is more textured, with layered flavour."
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Chicken Vindaloo
Many of us grew up having grandmothers who were wonderful cooks, so we were happy to find this cookbook full of grandmotherly love. In Her Kitchen: Stories and Recipes from Grandmas Around the World, is a memorable compendium of portraits featuring grandmothers around the world alongside their signature family recipes. This chicken vindaloo recipe comes to the book, and to us, courtesy of Grace Estibero, 82, who grew up in the South Indian state of Goa. If you love a good spicy dish, this one is absolutely delicious!From the Author: "Typical of Indian cooking, chicken vindaloo is a hot dish, which was originally introduced to Goa by the Portuguese. Often served on special occasions, this dish is traditionally prepared with pork, but I am sure you will be fully satisfied with this chicken version."
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Massaman Curry
There's a world of currries out there, and we are happy to try all of them! We often get requests for a Japanese-style curry, so we got approval to add this wonderful one from Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes. The book features a mouthwatering lineup of dishes, like this recipe for Massaman Curry features Indian Coriander Seed, Turmeric, Star Anise, and Cassia Stick Cinnamon alongside fresh ginger and lemongrass.
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