A day in India

My wife Chris makes a great curry dish.  It's a creamed curry chicken with broccoli served over rice.  It has just enough curry to be flavorful.  I can't say that for Indian food.
India is a strange country.  They worship cows, so they don't eat beef.  The country is predominately Muslim, so pork is out.  Vegetable dishes are the order of the day.  And they use quite a few spices besides curry in their vegetable dishes.  I made Aloo Gobi today.  It's a potato and cauliflower dish that is slow cooked on the stove.  I cut the potatoes about a 1 1/2" dice.  About the same size of florets for the cauliflower.  Then the spices are added.  First you saute grated ginger and turmeric powder in some oil to make a paste.  Turmeric is more for the color than any flavor it may impart.  Add the potatoes and cauliflower.  Then you add black pepper, cayenne pepper and garam masala.  Garam masala is sort of a mixture of spices that is as individual to Indians as a finger print is to humans.  It is the predominate oder of India.  Added at the end are peas, more minced ginger and its garnished with cilantro.  It's unbelievably spicy.  I would cut down the cayenne to an 1/8 tsp instead of the 1 tsp in the recipe.

We also made a vegetable curry with taro. That's right, the root used for making Poi. It has coconut milk, carrots, eggplant and fried tofu.  It also has cayenne, and yellow curry paste. Man was that spicy.  I made the mistake of tasting it and it was fire hot, it burned my tongue, which made me gasp which made me inhale the sauce, which made me cry and sneeze at the same time.    Have your heard the expression, Sh*t or go blind?  I did both!

I'm sticking to that flavorful curry dish Chris makes.