Blog Archives
Spices 101: What is curry powder? Garam masala? Curry leaf?
Over the past couple of years I’ve really become a hardcore fan of curries. The flavors that come out from combining the amazing blends of spices they employ are out of this world. Best of all, they’re easy. Throw a bunch of shit into a pan and 40 minutes later, there’s a complete meal which smells like upper class India. Unfortunately there’s this odd misconception people seem to have about curry in general. For most of my adult life, my mother has expressed her distaste of Indian food because she “can’t stand all the curry they use in their food!” She’s somewhat come around from that perspective from eating my cooking, but alas there are still a lot of people out there who believe ‘curry’ is some sort of single mystical spice from a far-off land. If you’re not aware, curry seasonings actually encompass a great deal of different spices such as cumin, chili powder, turmeric, etc… But there isn’t actually one single spice called “curry”.
Son of a bitch!
Tea Time: Garlic Green Tea
One handy feature on the behind the scenes aspect of this blog is that we can see what kind of search terms people used to find our blog. Sometimes though, people find our blog through search terms for something that we don’t actually have directly on our site. It always makes me a little sad when this happens, thinking about someone coming here and then leaving disappointed. So whenever possible I want to try and remedy that. One search that’s come up a few times is “garlic green tea” or some variation on that. And while we have our regular garlic tea (and also garlic lemonade) recipe, I want to give the people what they’re looking for! So I came up with a garlic green tea recipe as well.
Cheat Codes: Tips For Reheating Rice
Rice is a big staple in many cultures’ diets. Pretty much everyone outside of Europe has been dumping rice on the sides of their plates since basically forever. And in modern day, everyone eats rice. That’s right, everyone. Even gluten-free people. With good reason too! Rice is a really effective side-dish, is easy to prepare, and unless you’ve got blood-sugar disorders it’s pretty innocuous in your diet. Interesting fact I learned a couple years ago, all you Italians out there, know how your mother/grandmother would whip up a pot of sauce on Sunday, then you’d just use that sauce all week for different dishes? Many Asian families have done the same thing in a similar manner using a pot of rice. Call me a traitor, but I forgo the pot of sauce, and instead use the weekly rice batch for my own meals ranging from burritos to curries. Rice is great and versatile, but actually come to think of it, there’s a lot of people who aren’t really sure how to heat it up correctly.
Quick Recipe: Curry Dipping Sauce
This recipe doesn’t really have much of an elaborate back story or anything. Basically, I made it to go along with the chicken fingers I made for dinner one night. While honey mustard is my go-to, all-time favorite dipping condiment for chicken fingers, I was just in the mood to try something different this time. So I whipped up this recipe off the top of my head. It’s really yummy for chicken fingers, and also French fries. It takes a standard American food and gives it a touch of exotic flair.
Quick Recipe: Chicken Jalfrezi
We’ve talked curries before, here at PCFG. And for good reason too; they’re delicious one-pot dishes that are cheap and easy to make, with very little clean up. This recipe for chicken jalfrezi is a bit similar to chicken tikka masala, however the curry sauce it produces is a lot thicker and chunkier, almost similar to chicken cacciatore. It also packs a little more of a spicy kick to it, unlike chicken tikka, though this can be adjusted to your liking by omitting the chipotle peppers, or adding your own chilli peppers and spices. 
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The Poor Couple's Food Guide 
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