As the recipe states first, then my details later (oooh I have details!)
1 1/4 cup basmati rice
1 medium red onion (1/2 chopped; 1/2 thinly sliced)
1 2-inch piece ginger, peeled and chopped
1 plum tomato, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp ground coriander
kosher salt
2 Tbsp veggie oil
1 pound mixed mushrooms, sliced
8 oz baby spinach (about 8 cups)
1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup light coconut milk
1. Cook rice. Combine onion, ginger, tomato, cumin, coriander, and 1/4 cup water in blender and puree until smooth.
2. Heat 1 Tbsp veggie oil in wide saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion until golden. Add mushrooms and cook stirring occasionally about 3 more minutes. Transfer to a plate
3. Heat remaining oil in same pan. Add tomato mixture and cook, stirring, until very thick (6 minutes). Return mushroom mix to pan. Add 1 1/2 cups water, bring to simmer and cook until mushrooms are soft (about 4 minutes). Stir in spinach and chickpeas and cook 2 more minutes. Stir in coconut milk. Serve with rice.
Oooh there are soooo many problems with this recipe! I always have good intentions to follow the recipe but sometimes early on I realize this is never going to work! Part of that, yes, may be rooted in my refusal to go shopping after deciding what to make. I tend to do with what I have, therefore the first 5 ingredients were replaced! In fact I don't even know what coriander even is! Not to be deterred, I carry on.
My recipe would say:
Get your rice cooking. I used a rice cooker with brown rice made with half chicken broth and half water. It's rice: make it how you want.
While rice is cooking cut an onion (I only had white so that's what I used and noone complained - oh wait that's because I'm the only one who ate it! :). Brown onion in olive oil. Dice up a nice tomato, or an unnice one, that you got from your little tomato garden or stolen from your neighbors little tomato garden. Hold off on those mushrooms, I don't care if you mix them or not. Brown the onion. Move on.
We're at the add tomato mix and cook until it gets really thick...ummmm, what exactly is in that ingredient list that will make a mix thick??? How exactly? No matter, we'll deal with that later. At the point I add various spices most of which I have no idea how they will flavor my dish =) Alittle ground ginger, a bit of chili powder, and some garlic basil herb mix my father supplied. Please note that this is not thickening. Shocker. Carry on. Add your sliced mushrooms. Simmer a minute or two. Add spinach and chick peas. Did you know that rinsing your canned veggies is a good way to make them lower in sodium - don't pay the extra cash for low sodium canned veggies - just rinse them. See I save you money too! Man, I'm cool! =)
Did I fail to mention that you'll want a very large pan - such as a stir fry pan? Huh, well it looks like you'll have extra dishes to do today. Transfer, I'll wait. Recipe says add 1 1/2 cup water. Say what? This is going to be so runny. So not cool. Fine, I'll compromise and add 3/4 cup chicken broth. If you have a lid, slap it on and simmer. If not, grab a pan - perhaps the one that you initially used - it's dirty anyhow - and use it as a cover.
After about 4 minutes the spinach is cooked down and oh look it's a soup. Didn't see that coming. Now, I have no idea what Korma is - perhaps it's soup over rice. I don't particularly want soup over rice so we are fixing this now! I add a nice dose of flour and cornstarch...make it a gravy baby. Nice! Add salmon after giving a huge hunk to the cat. Viola! Now you may serve over rice.
Tasty and the cat is happy. Let's face it the house is happy when the cat is happy! =)
