Potato, Tomato, Avocado Curry over Rice

To prove that I don't bake sweets all the time and nothing else, I've decided to share this lovely Potato, Tomato, Avocado curry recipe. Admittedly, the spice measurements are estimates and one could just as easily buy pre-made curry and throw that in instead. If you do happen to cop out and buy pre-made curry spice, you're doing yourself a grave disservice. Honestly I generally just throw these things together. Sometimes I scream "BAM!" when no one is around and pretend to be Emeril (You know that crazy guy on the cooking channel? Oh come on... I haven't owned a television in 8+ years and even I know who he is....You won't tell anyone, will you?)

This particular dish is being made mainly because I had some potatoes that need to be cooked and some avocados that werne't going to last much longer. The tomatoes add a nice color contrast and a cool taste to contrast the spice of the curry.

Makes 6-8 Servings.

Ingredients:

6 Potatoes sliced thinly

1-2 Avocados

2 Roma Tomatoes

1 can of Coconut Milk
1 Teaspoon of corn starch

1 Teaspoon of Turmeric
1 Teaspoon of Chili Powder
1 Teaspoon of Coriander
1 Teaspoon of Cumin

1 1/2 cups of rice

3 cups of water

a slice of lemon

The Skinny:

• Start a pan/pot of water and boil the sliced potatoes. When they're almost soft (10-15 minutes), drain the water completely and add a can of coconut milk to the potatoes. Mix in and return to low heat. Add in spices (Chili Powder, Coriander, Cumin, and Turmeric) and stir in well. Cover and let cook for a few minutes longer.
• To thicken the curry sauce up a bit, I like to take a teaspoon of corn starch and mix it in a small cup with a bit of warm water and then add it to the potatoes. Only 3 to 4 teaspoons of water is needed. This helps give a better consistency to the mixture.
• Let the spices cook in under cover of a lid until potatoes are done to your preferred consistency.
• While the potatoes finish, add a cup and a half or rice into another pan with 3 cups of water and cook over high heat until it boils. Once the bubbly starts bubbling, lower the heat and cover until the water cooks away and poof(!) your rice will be done (keep an eye on it).
• While that's all going you have a few minutes to dice your tomatoes and avocados. So do that!
  
• Transfer the finished rice to another bowl and zest it with a bit of lemon
  
• Once everything is done, take a few spoon fulls of rice to a plate, spoon some curried potatoes on top and garnish the top with the diced tomato and avocados!
• Nom!

If you'd like, throw in some Nutritional Yeast to taste to give it a bit of a cheesiness that's to NOM for.

Flour Tortillas & hummus-carrot-almond spread

See that? That's me attempting to look bad-ass with a freshly made tortilla. I know, it's not working.

It's a beautiful 79 degree day outside. Perfect for bike riding and a picnic. So I pulled my schwinn (Don't get too excited, I bought it used and it's technically a girls bike. Easier on and off I say!) out of the living room closet for the first time this season and found that my tires needed pumping. So I ran to the store, bought a new bike pump (as mine has some how found its way into the lost world of lost things) and pumped up the tires only to discover that there was rip in the valve of the tube. I'd like to say I was all pumped up for the day, but today that pun falls short on multiple levels.
Luckily, I also picked up a few odds and ends at the grocery while I was out so instead of going out I'm staying in with the windows open and cooking up some homemade flour tortillas. I have yet to decide what to put in them but I'm sure the inspiration will come eventually.

Here's the recipe I'm playing around with:

Flour Tortillas

Makes about 10-12 flour tortillas.

Ingredients

• 3 cups of unbleached flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 teaspoons of salt
• 4-6 Tablespoons of vegetable shortening or vegetable oil
• 1 1/4 cups of warm water

• Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.
• Mix vegetable shortening or oil with a cup and a quarter of warm water in a separate bowl. Make sure everything is mixed well.
• Add the wet to the dry a little a time until the dough is soft and not sticky.
• Knead the dough with your hands for a few minutes.
• Now you will pull off pieces of dough to form about 12 small dough balls. Let them
• rest for at least 10 minutes, longer if you like.
• Heat up a non-stick frying pan on medium heat. You don't want the pan to be too hot or the tortillas will cook too quickly.
• Now you can roll out the dough with your tortilla rolling pin. As I've never owned a rolling pin I use a heavy duty drinking glass. It works well! It helps to dust each ball with a little flour before rolling them out. Also putting a little flour on the rolling pin helps too. Roll out the dough on one side, flip it over and roll again. The goal is to get a nice circular and thin end product.
  
• Gently pull the freshly pressed tortilla up from your working surface and lay into the dry frying pan. It's only going to take 30 seconds or less to cook. Heat it for 30 seconds on one side and flip the whole thing over and let cook for another 20 seconds before pulling off.
  
• A good tortilla will be slightly brown with speckles.
• That's it! You're ready for some "om nomming!" (If you're new to my blog that means they're ready to eat!)
  

So I have a stack of flour tortillas, waiting to be consumed by my famished self, but I have yet to make anything to go in the tortillas. Yes, I'm doing this backwards.

The last potluck I went to my friend Liz brought a delicious hummus dip. I decided I'd attempt to duplicate it and use it inside my tortillas. This wasn't your usual boring hummus either, it was full of shredded carrots, almonds, and other surprises!

So I pulled out my food processor and went to work.

Hummus-Carrot-Almond Spread

Ingredients

• 1 cup of garbanzo beans
• 2 carrots
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tomato
• Salt to taste
• Lemon Juice to taste
• Olive Oil to taste
• Franks Hot Sauce to taste

Throw it all into the food processor, lock it up and turn it on.
You may want to add a bit more of the 'to taste' items afterward until everything is to the liking of your taste buds. What could be simpler?



Okay - now I'm off to eat.

Cheers.

** EDIT ** The next morning:

That's a homemade tortilla spread with the hummus concoction and some freshly fried up homemade black bean burger mess!