Super-Easy-Vegan-Veggie-Coconut-Curry

Made this one in a pinch the other night, and it was a DELIGHT. (No pictures, lo siento.)

1) chop an onion, 3-4 cloves of garlic, and about a table spoon of ginger. Place all three in a food processor and mince (if no food processor available, just chop into little bits).

2) Start a pot for your basmati rice and add once water is boiling. (the rice will take about 20 minutes depending on how soft you want it - be sure to check the pot and stir rice occasionally so it doesnt dry out and stick to the pot. Add water if necessary)

3) Add a tsp of olive oil to a sauce pan, heat, and then toss in your minced onion/garlic/ginger. Sizzle until aromatic (a few minutes).

Now the fun part. In the same pan add (according to taste):

1.5 tsp turmeric
1.5 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin powder (or freshly ground cumin seed if you're a stud)
1 tsp coriander powder (" ")
1 tsp of garam masala
a few cardamom pods
2 bay leaves
A pinch of rock salt and ground pepper.

Stir into onion/garlic/ginger mixture.

4) Immediately add your vegetables to the pan. If you have less time, grab a bag of frozen asian stir-fry veggies. If you have more time, pick out some fresh favorites (potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, okra, eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms would all be good) and chop them prior to cooking.

Stir vegetables into seasoning and minced mixture until evenly dispersed.

5) once the veggies have become soft, add 1 can of coconut milk (be sure to shake the can to achieve proper thickness. Stir.

let ingredients stew for a short while until you think it looks delicious enough to eat.

6) spoon rice onto a plate and ladle the curry over the rice.

voila!

Preserves!!

Sue and George came to visit this week and while they were here I heard that the peaches were ripe at Shelburne Orchard so we went to pick a few. We may have overdone it a little because we ended up with 12 pounds of peaches! Some got eaten right away, some got sent on to mom and dad, but I was still left with almost five pounds of peaches. Which is a whole lot when you can't eat fresh fruit. I asked a friend for help and got this recipe for peach preserves.

4 pounds of peaches: peeled, pitted, sliced

1 package powdered pectin

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

7 cups sugar

Combine all in a saucepot. Bring to a boil, stirring gently until the sugar is dissolved. Boil 1 minute. Ladle into jars (can or freeze).

Seemed easy enough so I brought all the fixings out to the farm to get help from Laura (and because it just seemed right to make preserves at a farm).

Laura suggested par-boiling the peaches to get the skins off quickly and easily so I checked the Joy of Cooking for instructions. I love that book, it gives the most basic instructions in detail.... which I need.

In the end it was really easy. I made 5 pints of preserves and had a bit left over in the pot which we ate while still warm over ice cream.

I won't know until it all cools if it successfully gelled but it's tasty already anyhow.

You can expect to get some the next time I see you :)

I also got a recipe for peach butter that I'd like to try but have now run out of peaches. I may have to pick more.