Week 24: Be Spicy
Let’s play a game this week!
Ask yourself, “If you were a spice, which one would you be?”
I most definitely would be curry powder.
It’s distinctive, bold, sweet and has a little heat.
But I mostly associate with curry powder because, like me, it’s a blend of several spices like cardamom, cumin, nutmeg, allspice, and turmeric.
In fact, many Eastern families have their own curry powder recipe, which means no two curries are the same.
For a curry powder to be at its best, it requires variety.
What about you?
Achiote– earthy and distinct
Cardamom-warm and perfect for sweet or savory recipes
Cayenne Pepper-sweet heat
Cloves-sweet and warm
Ginger – has a zesty and often surprising bite
Nutmeg-sweet and pungent
Saffron-subtle, delicate, floral
Pink Pepper– sweetness with mild heat
Thyme– earthy and grounding balance to flavors
Paprika – Pungent when cooked but mostly used as a garnish (who wants to be a garnish?)
You get the idea… This link will help.
I think my mom would’ve been Ginger…
Bold, distinctive and with a zesty bite. Her intelligence, insight and sharp wit meant that with just a few words, she could bring you up or tear you down. And The flavor of her words would stay with you for a long time, sometimes creating a bit of a burn in the back of your throat.
One thing is for certain, she made an impact.
Original Recipe
We had a few warm days this week, which for me means keeping a cold salad in the fridge to grab when hungry.
This recipe is delicious as is, but I wanted to eliminate the excess sugar by removing the chutney from the dressing.
The curry powder alone in the dressing would not be enough, so I definitely needed the blend of spice and sweet. This led me to experiment with the primary components of the chutney flavor profile without the sugary preserves.
The solution was to combine organic, unsweetened dehydrated mango, raisins, allspice, ginger and lime zest.
The result:
I found the salad to be completely satisfying and it totally worked without the added sugary chutney preserves.
This is one of those recipes where the spices are approximate and will vary based on your palette.
Cold Curry Mango Rice Salad
Ingredients:
4 Cups of cooked brown rice
3/4 Cup of thinly sliced celery
1 Cup thawed or cooked frozen peas
3/4 Cup slivered almonds
1/2 Cup dehydrated mango cut into pieces
1/2 Cup raisins
Creamy Curry Dressing
1 Cup Yogurt (I used full-fat goat milk yogurt)
2 Teaspoons curry powder
Pinch of ginger and allspice (or to taste)
Directions:
Prepare rice in a rice cooker or pot. I put the chopped dehydrated mango in with the rice while it cooked, but you can also soak it in water to soften. Originally I added curry powder and raisins to the rice(hence the photo) and it was sticky and tasted like burned sugar.
Make the dressing by combining all ingredients in a bowl and stir or whisk.
Combine cooled rice, celery, peas, almonds, and raisins.
Stir in dressing and chill
Enjoy!
Week 24 Recipe Pick
Another cold summer salad. I was going to make it this past week, but one recipe post per week is all I can handle.
I’m super curious about the flavor combinations here.
This sounds great! If we could keep the heat down on the curry, which I used to love pre-chemo, it’s worth a try. We had curry recently. It was flavorful but a tad hot for me. The rice helped to reduce the bite.
Your pictures look wonderful and add a lot to this post.
Thanks Sweetie, I bet D could create his own curry powder mix with less heat and he would enjoy it.