— Moosejones

I know…another curry recipe so quickly, trust me it’s just a coincidence ha ha, promise I’ll lay off the curry for a little while.  I made this 2 nights ago – here is the result!

There is no doubt about it…butternut squash SUCKS to cut up.  I’m always tempted to buy the pre-cut stuff that I see in the produce section but it’s always way more expensive and maybe it just wouldn’t be as satisfying as chopping it myself…ugh.  Squash was on sale this week at a certain not to be named yellow grocery store – yay, so this winter favourite of ours got added to the menu this week.  Biscuit recipe, care of Troy’s mom, my future mother-in-law, will be added at a later date – delicious.  Joey, my soon-to-be-father-in-law brought us back saffron from Tel Aviv (along with gorgeous pottery that now lives in our “adult dishes cabinet – the buffet”) last month and seeing as I don’t have an official recipe to use it in yet I thought I would garnish this dish with it, the colour scheme just kinda worked. Enjoy this creamy soup – if you don’t have a immersion hand mixer (my Christmas gift from the Moose) then gradually doing parts in the blender works just fine – just make sure it’s a glass mixer cause I’d be afraid the plastic would melt.  Happy soup making!!!  Oh and the leftovers freeze wonderfully…

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped (about 2 cups)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 (2 1/2-pound) butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth (I used chicken for this batch)
• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more, to taste
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 4 teaspoons plain low-fat yogurt, for garnish (sour cream and / or saffron if you have it!)

Directions

Despite the fact that it’s Thursday and not Wednesday on tonight’s menu is Lime & mixed bean fajitas!  Little bit of spice, sweet and sour this recipe is super quick and easy – seriously 20 minutes max.

I found this recipe in the free Sobey’s magazine that you get at the check-out – if you’ve never grabbed one you’re missing out!  Also take advantage of the LCBO publication – they pair their recipes with wine selections (amazing!) and you can search their website database by ingredient, meal type & season – neato.

Oh and it’s cheap to make – really what more could you want.

Vegetarian’s rejoice!  You’ll see my share of meat recipes on here over time but this one is veggie friendly and I nice break from being a carnivore.

During my second year living in Winnipeg, Manitoba while working on my degree, I lived with my friend Eriks – who also turned out to be from Toronto (coincidence!).  Eriks first made this dish for me during one of many extremely cold winter days…I think his family made it often as he knew the recipe by heart.  Aside from how it started this recipe quickly became one of my favourites not only because it’s relatively simple, and unspecific, but because it’s ridiculously delicious and it warms you up right from the core!  Every once in a while I make it in the summer and it reminds me of Winnipeg – enjoy & stay warm…

Winnipeg Curry Chicken

3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 jar of Pataks curry paste (there are a few different ones, pick whatever one you like)

1 medium size yellow onion

1-2 cups of chicken stock OR 1 can of cream of chicken soup + 1 can of water

2 cloves of fresh garlic

little bit of white flour

1. Cut chicken into small bite size cubes
2. Dice onion and garlic and cook in frying pan until golden brown
3. While onion is cooking place a few tablespoons of the curry paste in a bowl and coat all of the cut up chicken in the paste, making sure each piece is covered
4. Once onion is cooked add chicken to the pan and cook on med-high until chicken is no longer pink (shouldn’t take more than a few minutes as the chicken pieces are so small)
5. In the meantime, in an oven safe dish with a lid, add the chicken stock/broth or the cream of chicken and water (both ways are equally yummy)
6. Once the chicken is cooked place in the liquid in the oven safe dish and then top up with water so that all the chicken is covered       *** the more liquid you add the more “curry-ey” sauce you’ll have in the end, I tend to top things up more than just covering the chicken
7. Add a few more spoonfulls of the curry paste to the chicken in the liquid and stir
8. Place dish in oven with lid for about 30-40 min, no specific time really, if you have longer it sits well
9. About 10 minutes before you take the dish out of the oven add a few tablespoons of flour to thicken things up a bit, make it more saucy than soupy.  Be sure to stir the flour in really well or it will get lumpy – no one likes a lumpy curry!  Return to oven to let thicken.
10. Serve curry on jasmine rice and top with cut up fresh banana & orange pieces and sprinkle with unsalted peanuts! …if you can get garlic naan that’s the best!

Voila – curry chicken!!! I guarantee your entire house will smell absolutely amazing! YUM!