Sunday sous: Chicken Curry with Sweet Potatoes

My adventures in cooking this weekend included whipping up a big batch of hummus (which I have recently discovered is really great with a tablespoon of cumin added in) and making a birthday cake for Dan & Molly’s joint birthday celebration. My favorite cheater cake recipe is to just make a cake with Betty Crocker white cake mix straight out of the box, then frost it with homemade cream cheese frosting with a hint of fresh lemon zest and decorate the top with loads of fresh berries. Beautiful, delicious, and super duper easy.

Thanks to a tequila headache induced by Molly’s stronger-than-I-expected margaritas this afternoon, I’ve pretty much been a lump on a log this evening…but I managed to get through my ironing pile (aided by last week’s episode of Glee on Hulu) and fulfilled my Sunday night cooking ritual by making my current favorite curry recipe: Chicken Curry with Sweet Potatoes.

Like so many of the cooking genres I like (including soups and quiche), curry is pretty forgiving. Once you figure out the ratio of curry powder, aromatics (onion, garlic, ginger, etc.) and coconut milk that works for your palate, you can throw in all kinds of vegetables that may be loitering in the bottom drawer of the fridge. This recipe helped me use up a bunch of carrots that were starting to look bendy, and a lonely sweet potato that wanted to belong to something.

I love that moment in curry making when the oil is hot in the pan, and you get to throw in exciting ingredients like minced garlic, chopped shallots, chili paste and curry powder, and then stir them together and see (and smell!) the beauty that emerges. It’s like fireworks for the senses.

Curry, though, is not for the faint of heart or wimpy of tastebud. If you prefer your meals tame and predictable, turn right around and go back to spaghetti with red sauce! This recipe here – it brings out the big guns like fresh ginger, lemongrass, and the abominable FISH SAUCE.

Fish sauce, ladies and gentleman, is not to be trifled with. It changes everything about your curry, so you best not leave it out, but if you’re like me it will require a healthy dose of courage each and every time you open the bottle and stand over the stove, poised, ready to splash it into the pot. Fish sauce is scary. And once you work up the nerve to stir some of that mysterious amber liquid into your bubbling pot, your courage will not be immediately rewarded…for the most offensive smell will waft up into your nostrils and make you rue the day you darkened the door of an Asian market. But don’t give up hope…not yet. Stir it in, wait a minute, and taste your curry. Mmmmmm…yes. The fish sauce has worked its dark magic and you are ready to dig into the best curry yet.

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