I started off making vegetable curry. Truthfully, I haven't done any serious personal grocery shopping in weeks, and my protein stash was non-existent. I did have some tofu from a previous recipe I developed. After one smell of the packaging contents, I quickly resorted to Plan B...all vegetables!
I sautéed some carrots in a pan with oil. I got them pretty brown before I added onion, ginger, habanera, and roasted garlic (which I keep on hand). I added a flurry of spices which, of course, is the definition of curry. Cardamom, cinnamon, clove, coriander, turmeric, ground red pepper, and black pepper with salt. I added them to the fairly dry pan. I like to smoke out my spices before adding any liquid. I think it adds another dimension of flavor to any dish. I saw a documentary where women of India toast their spices with or without oil as a standard practice. I've been toasting my spices every since.
Once everything was coated in the spices and fragrant, I added vegetable stock to cover the contents of the pan. Once I got it to a good boil and softened the carrots, I added some cream to the pan. I would typically add coconut milk, but I was completely out of stock. Once I reduced the liquid down to the point where it coated the back of a spoon, I adjusted my seasoning (more salt, more pepper). Whenever, you are relying on reduction to thicken a sauce, it is best to leave some room for salting for the very end. You don't want to add the perfect amount of salt before the liquid has evaporated and end up with a salty product. With that being said, I did add some salt with the spices. I don't know, I do think that adding some salt during the cooking process does yield a very slightly more flavorful product. However, I always under-season before I get to the very end.
Patting myself on the back, I was eating the resulting sauce in the pan like soup, because it was so tasty. So, I said, "Hey, why not make soup?" I grabbed my NutriBullet and bam!...soup! I had to add a little more stock to thin it out, but it turned out great. The thick sauce could have been used to accompany chicken or lamb. I cooked up some rice to bulk up the meal. I did run to the store to get some parsley and make it pretty...just for you.
AEC