The Never-ending Curry

Sounds like something miraculous, no?

The reality is somewhat more mundane: I really like Thai curry, so when I saw some paste in the grocery store, I decided to give it a try. It didn’t sound too difficult: cook paste with coconut milk, then add whatever you want (vegetables, meat, etc.) and eat over noodles or rice. For the first round, I decided to use beef, onions, carrot, potatoes, and eggplant. Because I don’t go for super-spicy, I decided to add extra coconut milk to dilute the curry a bit more…

Eggplant chunks cooking nicely

Hence, the problem was not that the curry was bad (although the beef was awfully tough), but that there was too much of it! It took me 3 meals to finish the first round of meat/veggies, with enough sauce leftover for another round (I just kept it simple with carrots and cauliflower) that took me another two meals to finish. Despite the unappetizing color, it was quite tasty over udon noodles or with a piece of bread to wipe up the last of the sauce in the bowl.

Round 2: curry cauliflower and carrots

By the end of the sauce, I had been eating curry at either lunch or dinner for about a week heh. In general, my main problem cooking this year isn’t flavoring (although I could use a more varied spice rack), but correctly determining portion size =P This is also apparent from the corn soup experiment (3 bowls’ worth that took me 2 meals to finish) and the homemade chicken soup that also lasted about a week (with 2 rounds of vegetables)

Round 2 of chicken soup – the first had radish chunks instead of watercress

This week, I experimented with a vegetarian stir-fry (bamboo shoots, celery, mushrooms, and aged tofu) that stretched to 2.5 meals, eaten over egg noodles. (Another cooking note: if using canned bamboo shoots, maybe soak them in water for a day to dilute the pungent smell/taste.) Then again, it’s not really worth the effort of cooking just one portion at a time (except for easy things like pasta) so cooking double-batches makes my life easier…as long as I don’t run out of room in the fridge!

Aforementioned veggie/tofu stir fry