Something Like Chicken Curry with a Cauliflower Puree

Does adding curry to something make it a curry? I'm really asking. I don't know. Anyway, this is another attempt to pull something creative out of whatever I have in my fridge. I've been craving curry for a while, but I couldn't imagine it could be any good without rice. In desperate times like these, you have to make sacrifices and compromises. I thought I'd try pairing curry with that infamous cauliflower puree that all low-carbers experiment with once in a while because someone told them it was supposed to be like mashed potatoes but really it tastes nothing like mashed potatoes. Lies! It certainly doesn't taste anything like rice, but it did the job- soaked up the sauce, balanced the heat, and was pretty light.

Something Like Chicken Curry

• 3 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
• 1 med red onion, sliced
• 3/4 c fat free sour cream
• 1 1/2 Tbl lime juice
• 3 Tbl green curry paste *You could probably just use whatever curry spice you have lying around. I personally really dig green curry. You can find it in the Asian food aisle just about anywhere
• 4 sprigs mint, chopped fine
• olive oil
• salt/pepper
• a lil fresh parsley for garnish
• a few pinches cumin*
• a pinch cayenne pepper*

First, get the sauce ready. Stir together the sour cream, lime juice, green curry paste, and mint. Set aside for now.

Heat up the biggest flat bottom skillet you've got on med-high heat with about a Tbl of olive oil. When it's hot, add the onions. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, cumin, and cayenne pepper- these amounts are up to you and how much heat you want. Sautee until they're clear. In the mean time, pound down the chicken breasts until they're all one thickness, but don't destroy them. No need to get them super thin. Salt and pepper both sides. Reduce heat to medium. If your skillet is big enough, shove all the onions to one side, add another Tb of olive oil, and lay down the chicken flat. If your skillet isn't big enough, just take out the onions for now. Let the chicken fry for a couple minutes on both sides, so they're starting to brown. Reduce heat to low, but still simmering. Add the sauce and try to mix it in with the juices coming from the chicken a bit. Put the onions back into the pan and cover. Let that cook up for about 10 minutes. Take the lid off and let the sauce thicken a bit. This is really the key to this recipe. You need the sauce to be decently thick and creamy (of course don't overdo it and make your sauce all caky). This may mean taking the chicken out and setting it aside if it finishes cooking before the sauce is thick. It's worth the extra time. Serve on top of the cauliflower puree with plenty of sauce and onions. Top it off with the parsley.

Cauliflower Puree

You can probably get a more reliable recipe for this off any old low carb website, but I'll tell you how I do it, super easy style.

• 1 bag steamable cauliflower
• 1/4 c fat free sour cream
• 1/4 c fat free mayo
• 2 Tbl cooking sherry*
• salt/pepper to taste

Steam the cauliflower then combo everything in a food processor if you've got one, blender if you don't. If you go the blender route, add little bits of cauliflower at a time. It's kind of a pain in the neck getting this nice and smooth- you'll have to stir it a bit. Start on a low setting until everything's broken up, then switch to ultra super power and GO! until it's creamy.

If you want to be fancy you can roast some fresh cauliflower with garlic and olive oil and use that in your puree. I'd probably do that if I was making this as a stand alone side, but since it's just backdrop, I got all lazy.

Exam Week Staples: Mushroom Chicken Soup

It may not look like much, but this soup has gotten me through some long, dark, unbelievably boring days, when my culinary repertoire is limited by time and attention span, with the possible exception of my caffeine source. I find myself making it nearly every exam for several reasons: 1. I can make a huge batch at once, 2. It's reasonably healthy and hearty (when compared to some of my other test week staples, namely coffee and string cheese), and 3. I almost always have the ingredients I need stashed away. Here's what you'll need:

1. a container of mushrooms, sliced
2. 1 medium onion, chopped
3. a few cloves of garlic, chopped*
4. 1 1/2 cups chicken stock - I just reconstitute mine from the bouillion cubes so I don't have to worry about keeping cans of stock... uh... in stock. Yup. Obvious pun resisted! Congratulate me!
5. 1/2 cup cooking sherry
6. a TB or so of olive oil
7. 1 cup chopped up, cooked chicken -either leftovers, or I buy bags of pre-cooked chicken that you can keep in the freezer. They're always really tender.
8. 1 cup broken up cauliflower, steamed - again, frozen is the way to go. Just pop it in the microwave and you don't have to worry about cooking it.
9. a couple shakes of dried basil*
10. 1 bay leaf*
11. 1/4 cup cream*
12. salt and pepper, naturally

*I've always had a habit of skipping ingredients in recipes when I was either too cheap or too lazy to purchase them. Sometimes this works out fine, and sometimes it ruins the whole thing, so from now on, I'll always * ingredients that are not absolutely necessary.

Now that all this is in list format, and I'm not just haphazardly tossing stuff in a pot, this seems like a lot of stuff, but it's all stuff that I always seem to have in my kitchen.

If you're going the bouillion route, go ahead and reconstitute a cube according to the instructions so you'll have it ready. Next, fry up the onions, garlic, and mushrooms in a little olive oil on medium-high heat until everything's tender. Put these cooked veggies into a blender along with the chicken stock (the cubes usually make more liquid than you actually need) and sherry. You may have to do this in batches. Go ahead and play with the amounts of liquid you add, depending on how thick you want your soup to be. Use your nose to guide how much sherry you should add- it's probably a better guide than my crappy estimate. And don't worry about adding too much- you'll have a chance to cook off that alcohol taste a bit later on. Now pulverize this mixture until it's absolutely creamy. This might take a few minutes. Add the cream, basil, and salt and pepper, then pour the mixture into a saucepan along with the bay leaf and set it on medium heat, stirring occasionally. If you're using frozen cauliflower and chicken, go ahead and thaw it in the microwave, then put it in the pot with the rest of the soup. Take your time here to play with the flavors until you've got it how you want it. If you taste too much sherry, just let it cook off. That's the best part about soup- you've got tons of flexibility with the subtle flavors, so you can make it just right. This will make about 4 filling bowls, and it reheats perfectly.