Curry Fry

Once upon a time, I was making stir-fry, and I had a thought.  It went like this: I'm using about 1/4 cup of soy sauce and just as much brown sugar for this meal...for two people.  That's a lot of salt and sugar per serving.  Since then I've been trying to style my Asian-inspired foods after curry, rather than regular stir-fry.

Usually, I'm very good at over-steaming my vegetables so that the result is somewhat...gray.  Ugh.  The following was a lovely success.  I wouldn't go so far as to call it curry, as I don't keep things like coconut milk around, but maybe 'curry fry' would be an appropriate name.

Ingredients:

 - 3/4 cup of brown rice

 - 1 1/2-1 3/4 cups water

 - 1 tsp butter

 - pinch of salt

 - 1 large carrot, chopped

 - 1/2 large onion, wedged

 - 1/2 cup of frozen peas

 - 1/2-1 cup of pumpkin, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes (remember my nativity pumpkin?)

 - 1-2 Tbsp oil

 - 1/2 tsp garlic

 - salt & pepper to taste

- 1/2 cup of chicken broth or 1/2 cup water + chicken boullion

 - 1 Tbsp cornstarch

 - 1 tsp curry powder

 - 1/4 tsp ginger powder

 - 1/8 tsp mustard powder

 - shot of soy sauce

 - teeny tiny dash of red pepper, if you like it spicy

Prep:

1. Combine water, salt, butter and rice and prepare per package instructions (mine cooked for 45 minutes).

2. Heat oil in a frying pan and add onion and carrot.  Toss until coated and slightly softened.  Add peas, pumpkin, garlic, salt, pepper and 1/2(ish) cups water.  Decrease heat, cover, and let steam - and be careful.  That pumpkin and carrot will absolutely LOVE to adhere to the bottom of your pan.

3. While veggies are steaming, combine water/broth, boullion, cornstarch, curry, ginger, mustard, soy sauce and red pepper.  Whisk together until smooth.

4. When the water has all evaporated and the vegetables are soft, turn the heat up a little and add the sauce (cornstarch mixture).  Mix with a spatula or wooden spoon until the sauce thickens and begin to bubble.  Remove from heat.

Serve curry fry on top of rice.

*Only after the fact did it occur to me that it might have been very very yummy to crush some fennel seeds and saute and steam them with the vegetables.  If anyone tries this before I get the chance, please let me know how it goes!*

And here's a picture of my helper. :)