Dimanche (That Means Sunday)

Posted on April 1, 2018 by Emily Wasserman

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Welcome to this edition of Dimanche (That Means Sunday), a roundup of things that caught my eye this past week.

I have this thing where I never remember Jewish holidays. The only reason I knew it was Passover this week is because my best friend Rachel came into town to celebrate with her family. Sometimes I think if it weren’t for her, I’d never remember them.

I’m not very religious and so left up to my own devices, I probably wouldn’t celebrate Passover at all. But now that I’m back in town and most of my family is here, I get roped into celebrating. Last night I had a seder, or a Passover service/meal, with my grandparents, my mom, and my sister.

We had some lively debate at the dinner table because my grandma said she didn’t believe the story of Passover and didn’t feel like celebrating, and my mom argued in favor of accepting the story verbatim. There’s never a dull moment at our seders.

Today I’m going to take it easy before I meet Rachel and my boyfriend for dinner. I’m also planning on making a loaf of carrot cake bread because I’ve been craving it lately. I keep seeing pictures of carrot cake everywhere for Easter and it’s making me want to bake something ASAP. I also satisfied my craving Friday at one of my favorite local bakeries (more on that later).

Without further ado, here is Dimanche:

In a semi-shameless plug, I had my first print article published this week and I am pretty excited about it. It’s a Q&A with Lynn and Martin Weber, my friends who own Edelbrand Pure Distilling. If you’re in St. Louis you can pick up a print version of the article at most food-related venues. If you’re not, check out a teaser below.

A story about a French waiter getting fired in Canada for being French got a lot of air time this week. Apparently the waiter was rude to customers, which led to him getting the boot. Then he filed a complaint against the restaurant that fired him and said he was just being French. You can read more about the situation here.

I generally respect The New York Times’ reporting but sometimes, they drop the ball. I thought it was funny earlier this week when the newspaper published a story about French people being the new optimists the same day French civil servants and railway workers went on strike against President Macron’s new reforms. You can read the story (in French) in French Morning.

I really enjoyed this story about a Missouri honey maker in the latest issue of Feast Magazine. Giofre Apiaries, which is located about 20 minutes away from Columbia, Missouri, is fighting the global honeybee crisis by running hives and educating consumers about the issue. They also make delicious honey ice cream and sell it at local shops. I need to pick up a pint soon. You can read more about their work here.

When you’re a food writer and you take an extreme stance against one food, be prepared for backlash. That’s what happened earlier this week to Tim Carman, the food critic for The Washington Post. He wrote an article saying that bacon is over-used, which probably has some truth to it. Unsurprisingly, bacon loyalists were PISSED. Check out the story for Carman’s take on the situation.

Have I mentioned how much I love Jeff Goldblum? Probably. I find him so fascinating as an actor and human being. I think we’re kindred spirits. I spent waaay too much time watching his videos Friday afternoon after I read this story in Indiewire.

Sugaree is one of my favorite bakeries in St. Louis. I hardly ever go though because they’re only open for retail on Friday and Saturday, and I don’t live close to where they’re located. I was in the neighborhood Friday though so I decided to stop by to get some dessert. I bought a container of their carrot cake cupcakes, which came in the cutest egg container. I shared them with my boyfriend but I could have eaten them all myself.

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Last but certainly not least, I enjoyed reading this story about food writers covering chefs who have been accused or convicted of gendered violence. The story initially focuses on Texas food writers who either have or haven’t covered Chef Paul Qui since he was accused of domestic violence against his former girlfriend. Then it makes the very good point that media, including food writers, can’t exist in silos during the #MeToo movement. Yeah, we already knew that to some extent. But it’s always a good reminder that food, politics, and, most importantly, ethics, are intertwined.

Enjoy your week! Here’s a song to get you started. It comes from Kacey Musgraves’ new album (I’m obsessed).

 

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Banana Cinnamon Oatmeal

Posted on March 29, 2018 by Emily Wasserman

Banana Cinnamon Oatmeal
I make a lot of oatmeal for breakfast. It was getting to the point where I thought I was in an oatmeal rut and I would never find a new recipe again.

Then, I invented this oatmeal yesterday. It’s a variation on the oatmeal I usually make. I combined some oats, almond milk, cinnamon, maple syrup, and a pinch of sea salt in a pot, mixed in half a mashed banana, and let the mixture cook until it was thick and creamy. Then I added some banana slices, blueberries, chia seeds, and a sprinkle of cinnamon on top.

The oatmeal was so good that I decided to make it again this morning. I was out of blueberries, though, so it wasn’t quite as good. Still, I know I’ll be coming back to this recipe again and again. It’s easy and quick, AND it makes your kitchen smell heavenly while it cooks. Picture banana bread mixed with maple cinnamon spice cake, and you’ll land somewhere close to this oatmeal.

You could get creative on toppings. I bet walnuts and hemp hearts would also be good on top.

I didn’t really use a recipe to make this but I’ll include one below, just in case you want to try it at home.

In other news, I got my haircut last night and I’m pretty amped about it. I always have aspirations to grow my hair long, and then once it gets past my shoulders, I get sick of it and give up. I got a couple inches off so my hair is lighter and more curly. It will be a good cut to have this summer when it’s sunny and warm…whenever that happens.

Here’s a song to play while you’re making this oatmeal. It’s also good for rainy days when all you want to do is get in bed with a book, a cup of tea, and your laptop so you can watch “West Wing” reruns.

Banana Cinnamon Oatmeal

Ingredients

1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup almond milk
1/4 cup maple syrup, or more if you like your oatmeal super sweet
pinch of flaky sea salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 a banana, mashed
sliced banana, blueberries, chia seeds, ground cinnamon for topping

Directions

Combine the oats, almond milk, maple syrup, sea salt, mashed banana, and ground cinnamon in a saucepan over high heat. Allow the mixture to come to a boil and then reduce the heat and cook on low, stirring occasionally, until the mixture thickens. This will take about 10 minutes.

Top the oats with sliced banana, blueberries, chia seeds, and ground cinnamon. Enjoy!

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Lemon Chicken from Ina Garten

Posted on March 28, 2018 by Emily Wasserman

Lemon Chicken
My mom and my sisters love Ina Garten. They watch her cooking show. My mom owns a bunch of her cookbooks. My youngest sister had an Ina Garten Instagram account for a while, but I think she’s deleted it. They all do excellent imitations of Ina talking to Jeffrey, her lifelong love, husband, and primary taste tester.

ANYWAY. I love Ina as much as the next person but I haven’t really tried her recipes. I think it’s partly because I was being contrarian. My sisters and my mom were fawning over her recipes, so naturally I didn’t want anything to do with them. I have this instinct to resist what is “trendy” or “popular,” even if it defies logic to be this way.

Which brings me to this lemon chicken. I cook a lot at home but I don’t make chicken very often. In fact, I’ve never made baked chicken. My sister just started to cook more and she was raving about Ina’s baked lemon chicken recipe. She and her husband invited me over for dinner last night and I asked her to teach me how to make it. She waited until I got there and then she coached me through the process.

As it turns out, making baked lemon chicken is super easy. All you do is whisk together some oil and spices, pour it into a casserole dish, plop in the chicken breasts, garnish them with more spices, salt, and add some lemon wedges to the sauce. We sprinkled some dried rosemary on top even though the recipe didn’t call for it, because as my sister said, lemon and rosemary go well together.

We set the oven timer for 45 minutes. Time passes more quickly if you’re talking to someone in the kitchen. After 45 minutes, we went to check on the chicken. My sister knew just by looking at them that they needed more time. Then, she suggested cutting them open to check on the insides.

I almost had a panic attack because I was approaching the baking process from a sweets perspective. The thought of making multiple cuts into a loaf of bread or a cake to see what the inside looks like terrifies me.

Encouragingly, cutting into a chicken breast isn’t bad at all. In fact, it’s good. It allows more of the sauce to seep in and get the breasts nice and plump. It doesn’t affect the outside of the chicken, or the skin, which still gets crispy and browned.

I ate half a chicken breast on my own and I could have eaten another half, but I saved room for dessert. I brought some of my go-to chocolate chip cookies and we shared them, and then we tried different flavors of Albanian gummy bears to see which ones were the best.

I had such a good time making this chicken with my sister. She made me a baked chicken believer AND she convinced me to try more of Ina’s recipes in the future. If they’re all this easy and delicious, there’s no reason to resist.

Maybe one day I’ll have my own cooking show and my sister can be a guest star, and Ina can make a featured appearance.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with this song.

 

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My Go-To Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Posted on March 27, 2018 by Emily Wasserman

Chocolate Chip Cookies
This has been my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe since pretty much forever.

It all started seven years ago. I’d just moved back from France and I was missing the pastries there. However, I realized the one advantage America has over French pastries: Chocolate chip cookies. I never found a really good one over there.

I decided to make a batch of the softest, chewiest chocolate chip cookies. I started with a base recipe and I’ve since perfected it. It involves butter, two kinds of sugar, some salt (because most baked goods taste better with salt), and a generous number of semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips.

There are two ways to make these cookies: The impatient way and the patient way. If you’re in a rush, you can mix the dough, scoop it into balls, place it on a cookie sheet, and bake the cookies immediately. HOWEVER, they will not be as rounded and pouffy (is that a word?) as if you take the patient route.

If you have a little extra time, I’d recommend putting the dough in the refrigerator for at least two hours, preferably overnight. This is a trick used to make many chocolate chip cookies. It gives the dough time to firm up and it will create a more molded finished product. There’s nothing worse than runny, goopy cookies, except maybe no cookies at all.

This is a good base recipe. You can get creative with the kind of chips you add. Maybe you’ll even want to add chocolate chunks. But whatever you do, don’t omit the salt. The salt is the ingredient that makes the cookie. It balances the sweetness and enhances the flavor of the chocolate chips.

I whipped up a batch of these last night and it took all my willpower not to eat all the cookie dough. I saved a few for my boyfriend and I’m bringing the rest to my sister’s house for dinner tonight.

Here’s a song to get you started on your chocolate chip cookie-making journey.

My Go-To Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup golden brown sugar, packed
1 tsp fine salt
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (about 12 oz) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions

Whisk the flour and baking soda together in a large bowl. Set aside. In a stand-mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix the butter and two sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce the speed to low and add the salt, vanilla extract, and eggs. Mix for another minute until fully combined.

Add the flour and mix until just combined. Use a spatula to incorporate the chocolate chips.

Place the dough in the refrigerator for a couple hours or overnight. This will help them keep their shape later.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a few cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Place heaping tablespoons of dough on the cookie sheet, spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart (they will spread). Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes, or until they’re golden brown around the edges but still soft in the middle.

Remove the sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the sheet for a couple minutes. Then carefully place them on a baking rack to cool the rest of the way. Store in an airtight container. Enjoy!

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Pistachio Rose Water Semolina Cake from Ottolenghi

Posted on March 26, 2018 by Emily Wasserman

Pistachio Cake
This pistachio rose water semolina cake is one of the best desserts I’ve ever made.

I found the recipe a month or two ago on the New York Times Food page. If you haven’t been there already, you should check it out. It’s a great resource for home cooks and aspiring bakers.

The recipe comes from Yotam Ottolenghi, one of my favorite chefs. You might know him from his cookbooks including Plenty or Jerusalem. He’s Israeli-British and he lives in England, where he has a number of successful restaurants.

I saw Ottolenghi speak in person a few years ago when I was living in D.C. I remember someone in the audience asked him about substituting ingredients in his recipes. He smiled and then said diplomatically, don’t expect it to taste the same.

Those words have stuck with me. I’m a big believer in adapting recipes to what you have available or what’s cheaper at the grocery store. But there are some things in a recipe you can’t change. It’s like trying to build a house with a different floor plan than the one you agreed on. It won’t be the same.

Which brings me to this cake. I did tweak the recipe a little. I left off the candied rose petals and I topped the cake with dried ones instead. I also decided not to make the rose cream to serve it with, because I thought the cake would be sweet enough and delicious enough on its own.

However, I followed the rest of the recipe to the letter. I used fresh lemon juice, rose water, semolina, and almond flour. I didn’t make any substitutions because I trusted Ottolenghi’s recipe and I thought deviating from it would ruin the finished product. When you’re cooking with very particular ingredients like rose water, it pays to use what the recipe calls for.

This cake is moist (even though I hate using that word), sweet, flavorful, and complex. It benefits from the combination of flavors including citrusy lemon, fragrant rose water, and nutty almond and pistachios. It’s the kind of cake you could eat at night for dessert, OR for a snack in the afternoon with tea or coffee. Honestly, you could also eat it for breakfast.

When you get to the part of the recipe when you pour the warm sugar syrup onto the hot cake, don’t despair. It seems like a lot of syrup, which the original recipe notes. But, as the recipe says, the cake can take it. The syrups adds more lemon and rose flavor to the cake and makes a denser crumb.

So yeah. If you’re looking for a bright, beautiful, fragrant cake to make to distract yourself from a never-ending winter, this is the one. The NYT calls it a “labor of love,” which is more or less true. It’s involves a lot of steps but if you have a stand mixer and some extra time, it’s easy enough to make.

Here’s a song that reminds me of this cake. It’s also good for Mondays when you don’t want to get out of bed.

 

 

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Dimanche (That Means Sunday)

Posted on March 25, 2018 by Emily Wasserman

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Welcome to this edition of Dimanche (That Means Sunday), a weekly roundup of things that caught my eye this past week.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: I am SO over this weather. The first day of spring came and went and the weather in St. Louis is still dreary, cold, rainy, and a few other adjectives I won’t mention here. It’s got me feeling really low, especially when I wake up Sunday and realize I can’t go on a hike or spend the entire day outside.

Still, I’m trying to see the bright side of this never-ending winter. If I’m going to be honest with myself, the land needs all this rain. I noticed when I went hiking a few weeks ago that the country was too parched. I’m sure farmers are happy about this weather.

Also, I keep telling myself that the delayed warm weather will make me appreciate it more. Yeah, it would be great to have regular spring weather right now so I can get back to most of the activities I enjoy. But I think there’s a lot of truth to the adage that waiting for something makes it sweeter. I’m sort of visualizing a “Sound of Music”-esque event when spring finally gets here, with me running around Southern Missouri with birds and butterflies circling around me. I’m sure some version of that will happen.

In the meantime, I’ve cooked up some worthy distractions. Without further ado, here is Dimanche:

Air France is known for its creative ad campaigns, and the company’s latest ad falls in line with this trend. The airline just rolled out a new campaign called “Take a Chance or Fly Air France.” The promo video cycles between two women, one of whom did not fly Air France and is now depressed and playing sudoku (?), and another who did fly Air France and is overjoyed with the experience. You can check out the video here.

Somehow, I’m involved in a March Madness bracket pool. I held first place for a while but I’ve since dropped in the rankings to number six. That’s okay, though, because I’m still relishing in my brief moment of glory. Here are the current standings in my pool.

I saw a picture of parsley seed za’atar and rosewater labneh salad on Twitter earlier this week and I almost starting weeping. I had the dish at Kismet when I was in L.A. last fall and it was one of the best things I ever ate. The ingredients were so fresh, they spoke for themselves. This article in Plate features the salad.

You’ve probably heard about the controversy of Netflix’s latest “Chef’s Table: Pastry” series. The show only featured one female chef in its upcoming series (the first pastry version of the documentary), which rightly angered a bunch of people. This story in Food & Wine does a good job of summarizing the issue and gives context about the backlash.

I can’t stay away from Like Home/Comme à la Maison for long. The bakery, which is run by the very talented Clemence Pereur, serves some of the best French pastries and food in St. Louis. When I stopped by for lunch Friday I saw a whole tray of exquisite French bonbons. I got the salt and pepper bonbon and it was honestly one of the best things I’ve eaten this month. If you’re in St. Louis, I would highly recommend stopping by for some chocolate and a cup of tea.

Like Home Chocolate

Sometimes when I’m bored, I’ll scan Twitter and land on a gem. That’s what happened when I found this music review in Daytrotter earlier this week. I don’t even really like the band or the music, but the first paragraph moved me. I think it encapsulates the feeling of being in your twenties and thirties well.

Last but certainly not least, it was National Puppy Day earlier this week. I did not celebrate the holiday because unfortunately, I do not have a puppy (I need to change that soon), but I had a good time looking at this article from The Atlantic. It’s arguably their best content this year.

Enjoy your week! Here’s a song to get you started.

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Brown Butter Cocoa Oats from NYT Food

Posted on March 23, 2018 by Emily Wasserman

Brown Butter Cocoa Oats
I wanted to try this recipe for brown butter cocoa oats all week but I couldn’t motivate myself to get out of bed and make it. When it’s cold, rainy, and cloudy, all I want to do is press snooze three times on my alarm and hide under the covers.

Today the sun was shining, though, so I figured it was the perfect occasion to force myself to get out of bed. I went downstairs and made this oatmeal before I went to work.

I realized while I was making these oats that recipes don’t always come with explanations. I guess that’s the whole point of a recipe, but still, sometimes I think people follow them blindly and don’t understand why they’re doing a certain step. For example, this recipe from The New York Times food section tells you to brown butter and then mix the oats in, but it doesn’t tell you why you need to stir the oats in after you brown the butter.

You might be tempted to skip this step, but don’t. The reason you mix in the oats is you’re giving them flavor from the browned butter. They’ll become nutty and fragrant. That flavor will shine through in the finished product.

I topped my oats with banana, shredded coconut, cacao nibs, almond milk, and a pinch of flaky sea salt. The sea salt is key because it balances the sweetness AND it brings out the chocolate flavor in the oats.

I’m going to revisit this recipe soon and maybe add cinnamon or coffee. I could see a mocha flavored version of this recipe being delicious.

Here’s a song to take you into the weekend. It’s a new song by one of my favorite musicians, Josh Rouse. I went to see him live by myself when I lived in Chicago a few years ago. I kept thinking we were making eye contact but we probably weren’t. Still, it’s thrilling that I was that close to the stage.

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Date Tahini Banana Smoothie Bowl with Cacao Nib Hearts

Posted on March 22, 2018 by Emily Wasserman

Date Tahini Banana Smoothie Bowl
I wanted to get back on my smoothie bowl game so I made this date, tahini, banana smoothie last week.

Sometimes the inspiration for a smoothie bowl comes to me the night before, but other times, it comes to me as I’m making it. I’ll start with an idea (for example, these cacao nib hearts) and then I’ll get the inspiration for the rest of the bowl later.

I decided to fill in the hearts with coconut because coconut pairs well with dates, tahini, and cacao nibs. I used some leftover homemade granola to form a ring around the outside of the bowl and I garnished one side with blueberries. I like the way the finished product looks. The cacao nib hearts kind of remind me of a needlepoint design.

I was having a conversation the other day about smoothie bowls and someone commented that it must take a long time. Yeah, it does take a while, especially if you have a complicated design. But to me it’s worth it. I used to make one every morning, which seems crazy in retrospect.

Now I save them for mornings where I have a little more time to spare. It’s relaxing. I’d compare it to knitting or another craft, because once you start you get completely in the zone and forget about everything else.

In other news, it’s almost the weekend and I’m pretty excited about it. I don’t have any real plans beyond eating some delicious food and making a cake (I haven’t decided between the chocolate or the pistachio cardamom version, yet). If it’s nice on Sunday I might go for a hike…here’s to hoping. The weather here has been unpredictable lately.

Here’s a song to play while you’re making this smoothie bowl. It’s also good for times when you’re stuck in rush-hour traffic and you need a distraction.

Date Tahini Banana Smoothie Bowl with Cacao Nib Hearts

Ingredients

1 cup pitted dates
1 banana
2 Tbsp good-quality tahini
1 cup regular almond milk
1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
cacao nibs, shredded coconut, granola, and blueberries for topping

Directions

Blend the dates, banana, tahini, almond milk, yogurt, and cinnamon together in a blender on high until smooth. Pour into a bowl and top with cacao nibs, shredded coconut, granola, and blueberries. Enjoy!

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Cardamom Rose Chia Pudding

Posted on March 21, 2018 by Emily Wasserman

Cardamom Rose Chia Pudding
I’m a big fan of breakfasts that come together the night before. For this cardamom rose chia pudding, you blend together the ingredients at night before you go to bed, pour them into a glass or jar, seal the top, and then you have breakfast in the morning.

The part of this pudding that did not come together quickly was the topping, i.e., the dried rose petals. I’ve been looking for dried, edible rose petals for forever but I haven’t had any luck finding them. I thought about ordering them on Amazon but that seemed ill-advised. Plus, the prices they were quoting were ridiculous.

Saturday I decided to go to Maplewood, a cute little town in St. Louis, to find the rose petals. There are a few spice and specialty grocery stores there and I thought that one would carry them.

As it turns out, none of them did. One of the shop owners told me to go to Cheryl’s Herbs, which is down the street from Maplewood’s commercial strip. I stopped by as a last resort and I was rewarded with a bag of edible, dried rose petals.

The shop owner didn’t seem to think that I’d want to pay $5 for an ounce of dried rose petals. She couldn’t have been more wrong. By the end of this experience I would have been willing to pay $10. Five dollars seemed like a bargain.

ANYWAY. You don’t *need* the dried rose petals for this cardamom rose chia pudding, but they’re a nice touch. They look pretty on top of the pudding, they add even more rose flavor, they’re fragrant, and they pair well with the chopped pistachios. Plus, you only need a few so you can save the rest of the dried petals for other desserts. I’m thinking about making a chocolate cake or a pistachio rosewater cake this week, both of which have dried rose petals on top as a garnish.

When you’re looking for the petals, make sure you find ones that are edible. That might seem intuitive but a lot of places will sell dried petals that are only suitable for potpourri or decoration.

Here’s a song to get you started on your cardamom rose chia pudding journey. It’s featured in one of my favorite French movies, “Jean de Florette.”

Cardamom Rose Chia Pudding (makes one serving)

Ingredients

1 cup light coconut milk
1/4 cup chia seeds
2 Tbsp pure maple syrup (or to taste)
1/4 tsp rosewater
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
edible rose petals and chopped pistachios for serving

Directions

Blend the coconut milk, chia seeds, maple syrup, rosewater, cardamom, and vanilla extract in a blender on high until combined, about 30 seconds. Pour into a Mason jar or a tall glass and seal or cover tightly with tinfoil or plastic wrap. Allow the mixture to sit in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, remove the pudding from the refrigerator and top with edible rose petals and chopped pistachios. Enjoy!

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Sweet Potato, Cashew, Kale Korma

Posted on March 20, 2018 by Emily Wasserman

Sweet Potato Korma Tiffin
I missed cooking Indian food so Sunday night, I decided to try a new recipe.

I often make dal, or lentil stews, at home, but I’ve never made korma. I’m not sure why. It’s very easy except for the chopping part. It requires A LOT of chopping.

Still, once you put in the prep work everything comes together quickly. For those of you who are unfamiliar with korma, it’s essentially a slow-cooked stew. I haven’t seen it at many Indian restaurants in town or when I travel in the U.S., which makes me like it even more. As far as I can see, it hasn’t been adapted for the masses.

This korma is perfect for the end of winter/beginning of spring. It’s spicy, warming, and fragrant, it includes some bright greens, AND it has cashews, one of my favorite nuts. Yeah, cashews aren’t as good for you as, say, almonds or walnuts, but they’re packed full of flavor and they’re filling. They’re buttery and rich, which makes them the perfect addition to a soup or stew.

I served this korma with jasmine rice and naan but you could also serve it with basmati rice. You could even eat the korma on its own but you’ll probably find that you want a starch or carb. I liked using the naan to scoop up the stew and wipe the bowl clean.

This korma is sweet and I’m not sure why. I didn’t add any sugar to it. I guess a little of it comes from the sweet potatoes and the rest comes from the garam masala. I’d recommend adding a couple generous pinches of salt to the dish to season it at the end. You can add the salt throughout the cooking process but I think waiting until the end is the best bet. It allows the other spices to marinate and it gives you a better idea of how much salt you need.

Here’s a song to get you started on your korma-making journey. I heard it a long time ago and then yesterday it popped up on my Spotify Discover Weekly. I think it’s in “Lady Bird.”

Sweet Potato, Cashew, Kale Korma

Ingredients

1 Tbsp coconut oil
1 medium sized yellow onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp grated ginger
200 ml canned diced tomatoes (or fresh if you’d like)
2 Tbsp curry powder
1 tsp Garam masala powder
1 can (14 oz) full fat coconut milk
1 medium sized sweet potato, diced
80 g raw cashew nuts
80 g kale, roughly chopped
salt, to taste
jasmine rice and naan for serving

Directions

Heat the coconut oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pan over medium high heat. Add the onion, garlic, and ginger and cook for about five minutes. Add the tomatoes, curry powder, garam masala powder, coconut milk, and sweet potato. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.

Cook until the sweet potato is slightly soft, about 20 minutes. Add the kale and cashew nuts and cook for 15 more minutes. Taste the korma and season with salt to taste. Serve with jasmine rice and naan. Enjoy!

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