Father's Day Dinner

I had a request for a blog about the dinner I made for Father's Day.  So, first off, I would like to say that I honor and respect all those wonderful men who are good fathers.  In particular, of course I honor my own wonderful Dad, my Husband, and my Husband's Dad.  Y'all are awesome!

So, for dinner I made Hubby's second favorite meal.  (In the way of unashamed bragging, I would like to mention that his current first and second favorite meals have trumped his all-time favorite meal, even from restaurants, from before we were married.  Boo-yah!)  (I would also like to point out that I made this particular meal at his request.  Granted, I did not have the ingredients for his first favorite meal, but I can't always be perfect little wifey.  What can I say... I try.)

What was I talking about?

Oh, yes.  Second favorite meal.  Interestingly, it's a curry concoction.  Also interestingly, I'd never made curry anything before we got married.  I'm still experimenting.  I am getting better, though, so if you'd like to read on, I'll give you the breakdown.

First, start the rice.  I don't know about you, but I have always had a hard time making rice.  I finally decided to add three parts water to one part rice, and voila! I've had perfect rice almost every time.  In this case, the instructions did me no good whatsoever.  They try to pretend that two parts water to one part rice is sufficient.  Trust me; it isn't.

Second, start the curry concoction.  This time around, I sauteed an onion, several cloves of garlic, and a bell pepper in some olive oil.  Start the onions and garlic first so they have time to get nice and soft.  Then, add a ton of seasonings.  I used curry, a little bit of spicy curry, chili powder, turmeric, ginger, coriander, salt, and even a little basil and oregano.  I don't know how much those last two added to the concoction, but by that point I was spice happy.  Be generous with the spices, because that's one of the defining features of curry.  Plus, it smells amazing.  Stir that all up, then add a couple cans of stewed tomatoes.  Or tomato sauce.  Or tomato paste.  I wouldn't use raw tomatoes, but that's personal taste.  Let it all just cook down together for awhile until it gets a little thicker than you eventually want it.  I like it relatively thick.  Then, stick it all in the blender.  That's right, the blender.  You want that stuff about the consistency of soup.  Thick soup.  Ish. 

I'm great at giving instructions.  :)

Then, choose your meat.  Or beans, if that's what makes you happy.  Or chopped vegetables.  Basically, the curry concoction above is the sauce that covers and surrounds the meat of the meal.  If it's meat, chop it up into slightly-bigger-than-bite-size chunks and brown it in what is leftover from the curry concoction.  If it's vegetables, do the same.  If it's beans... well, just pour them in the pan and call it good.  When that part is browned, or warmed up, or sauteed, or whatever you plan to do with it, add the curry concotion back into the pan.

Yes, this really is how I cook.  A little of this, a little of that, not a lot of technique, but a lot of fun.

Make sure the stuff all cooks together well, then serve it.  I like to put the rice and curry in two separate bowls, then on my plate layer the curry on top of the rice.  Hubby starts with the same basic platform, but then mixes it all together on his plate.  Weirdo.  For leftovers, I put the curry in with the rice, because day-old microwaved rice is gross, but somehow the curry surrounding it makes it palatable.  Go figure.  It makes no sense to me, but I swear it works.

I also made naan, but I'm not telling you how to make that, mostly because I'm still figuring that out myself.  For this meal, I took a vegan recipe and modified to our non-vegan sensibilities.  I had my reasons.  Don't judge me.  If you want to make naan, there are several recipes online.  Some of them are fantastic.  The one I chose, not so much.  Apparently, some are tragic.  I haven't tried those.  I will say, though, that if you want to make naan, start several hours early, if not the night before.  It really depends on the recipe.  All I'm sayin' is, do your research.  And it's worth it.

It was a very good meal, if I do say so myself.

Happy Father's Day... only a couple days late.