Monday, August 13, 2012

Green, Local, and Homemade!

I love to cook as much from scratch as possible. But for some reason, when it comes to things like curry paste, I always buy the pre-made stuff. And honestly, when I was flipping through my trusty old copy of Vegan with a Vengeance, and my eyes landed on the scrumptious-looking image of Green Thai Curry, I figured the dish would call for a storebought paste.

But I should have known Isa Chandra Moskowitz wouldn't stand for that. Of course, her Green Thai Curry recipe would call for a homemade paste:


Luckily, nearly all the ingredients were hanging out in my pantry (and pepper garden). The green paste was made with Thai green chilies and jalapenos, both of which are growing in my front yard (it doesn't get more local than that). And it has stuff like cilantro, fresh ginger, lime zest, garlic, etc.

The paste is simmered in coconut milk and lime juice. And as you can see, there's red onions and red bell peppers (also from my garden) and fried tofu. I tossed my tofu triangles in a little cornstarch before frying, even though the recipe didn't call for it. The cornstarch gives the fried tofu that crusty Asian restaurant look.

I think, from now on, I'll be making my curry paste from scratch.

What ingredients do you tend to buy in a store rather than make from scratch?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I buy veganaise and vegan sour cream sometimes other than making it myself. Don't know why it is so easy to make.

Rachel from The Vegan Mishmash said...

Wow! That curry looks awesome. Curry is my favorite food! But whenever I make it, it never comes out as good as the restaurant's version. I'll have to try it again. Maybe it's the store bought curry paste I was using...

xvavaveganx said...

Yum that looks great! I like to try and cook from scratch as much as possible too but I've had a hard time lately because of my schedule.

By the way, I got Eat & Run thanks to your recommendation! I can't wait to read it and try the recipes!

Allysia said...

I've never made my own curry paste before either! I think I've seen recipes that seemed overly complicated so I've just avoided it. But I have that cookbook so it's probably worth a try!

Anonymous said...

oh my gosh that curry sounds outrageous! totally craving that now! :)

sharklegs said...

still haven't tried making home made peanut butter... but next week i WILL make rice milk. been putting it off for too long