Tomatillo Chickpea Curry

 

I just love it when supper is something to get excited about. This one, which I found while perusing Pinterest, was wonderful, a relatively simple, plant-based concoction with lots of flavor and a healthy nutritional profile. A bit of broiling (or grilling if they weather still allows it) gives some delicious vegetables some depth of flavor and the whole saucy combination is so satisfying.

The star of this chickpea-based curry dish is a perky and zesty green sauce made from roasted tomatillos and poblano chile. The tart and acidic tomatillos make up a thick puree that’s spiced up by the chile and enhanced by fresh cilantro and oregano. This spicy-sour sauce is a great accompaniment for starchy, creamy chickpeas, but they also get a bit of earthy curry powder and some sweet and creamy coconut milk. The whole thing goes over rice, which not only soaks up the delicious sauce, but also builds a complete protein with the chickpeas.

 The flavors of this dish are actually somewhat complex, but the process of creating them is relatively simple. The methods here can serve as an introduction to making saucy, stewy curries with deep flavors without requiring so many ingredients or complicated methods. This is still a practical dish to make for a weeknight supper. And since the leftovers are easy to pack up and reheat, lunch can be something to get excited about, too.

Tomorrow, October 1^st, is World Vegetarian Day, and this would be a great dish with which to celebrate that. You don’t have to be vegetarian (I’m not) to love these flavors or benefit from such a healthy and satisfying meal. This particular recipe is not about replacing animal products, but enjoying plant-based ones in a delicious combination. Something to get excited about indeed!

Roasted Tomatillo and Chickpea Curry

Adapted from Chef de Home

6 medium-size tomatillos

1 medium-size poblano chile

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

½ cup chopped cilantro

1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano

1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste

3 cups cooked chickpeas (about 2 15-ounce cans), divided

1 tablespoon curry powder

1/3 cup coconut milk

1 cup water

1-2 limes, sliced for garnish if desired

1. Remove the husks from the tomatillos and scrub off the sticky residue. Preheat the broiler or a gas or charcoal grill. Broil or grill the tomatillos and the poblano chile until the tomatillos are charred and soft and the skin of the pepper is charred all over.

2. Remove from the oven and place the tomatillos in the bowl of a food processor. When the pepper is cool enough to handle, peel of the thin layer of charred skin. Remove the stem and seeds and chop the remaining flesh coarsely. Add to the food processor with the tomatillos.

3. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, cilantro, oregano, and 1 teaspoon salt. Process until smooth. Pour into a medium-size saucepan and place over low heat to warm through. Stir occasionally.

4. Meanwhile, add ½ cup chickpeas to the food processor (no need to clean it out first.) Pulse until well-mashed.

5. In a large skillet, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add the curry powder and cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add ½ cup of the warm tomatillo sauce. Cook and stir about 2 minutes.

6. Add the mashed and whole chickpeas, coconut milk, and water. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally, about 10-15 minutes, or until the sauce is thick. Taste and adjust seasoning, especially salt, as desired. Serve over rice with additional tomatillo sauce and a lime wedge to squeeze over it if desired.

Makes about 6 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Chickpea and Spinach Curry, Winter Squash and Onion Curry with Yogurt Sauce, Grilled Tomatillo Salsa

One year ago: Mozzarella and Olive Baked Pasta

Classic Apple Pie

 

Was it a perfect apple pie? No. Absolutely no. I promised to tell you about it no matter how it went, though, so here are some words on the subject.

I maintain that the best and most important part of an apple pie is the apples. That being said, I really don’t care if they are the perfect baking apples that soften just right without slumping into sauce. I wouldn’t mind if they still had some crunchy bite to them even after being cooked. I mostly just want them to taste great, to have a well-balanced, warming sugar-and-spice accompaniment, and I’m much happier if they came from a tree in the local area. There’s just some kind of fresh punch unique to new-crop apples, even if they’re baked in a pie.

Also, though, the baked fruit in a fruit pie is even better if it is encased in a great crust. I’m not even going to say perfect. I’m not going to say professionally fussy. Great is good enough. That’s an area, however, in which my baking is kind of meh. (I swear, I used to be better at this!) It’s not because I don’t understand the subtle nuances of great pastry. I know that the butter (or other fat) needs to be kept cold and to end up in flaky layers of not-too-wet flour. That flour also should not be over processed so that too much gluten develops, making a crust that isn’t crisp and doesn’t flake, and, at worst, is tough or gummy. I know that pie crusts should be egg washed so that they bake up to a lacquered golden brown.

 

My excuse? I baked this pie on a Monday afternoon/evening after having escaped The Day Job early. I had put in too many hours on too many days and was pretty much exhausted, bleary of eye, weak of leg, apathetic of perfection. I wanted apple pie, not the experience of making a perfect one.

It was still good, of course. It was apple pie. Classic, double crust. Lots and lots of local apples, enough, but not too much sugar, plenty of cinnamon, a hint of nutmeg. Served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it filled the niches and hit the points that apple pie ought to: homemade, delicious, warm, and comforting. Utterly successful in the representation of early autumn. A warm sweater in anticipation of sweater weather.

 

Would it have been better if I hadn’t added too much water to the crust, and processed the dough too long, or if I had egg washed it and baked it longer to achieve a crisper texture and lustrous golden hue? Probably. Do I need to evaluate my life so that I can make changes that allow for fulfilling, perfect-pie making experiences? Probably. Right now, this is what is real. It is also what is good.

There are lots of other people on the internet that strive for perfection in things like this. They are wonderful. They are inspirational. Maybe some of them are even perfect. I will leave The Perfect Apple Pie to them. Mine will do for now.

Classic Double-Crust Apple Pie

Based on a recipe from Better Homes and Gardens

It is best to use “baking apples,” that is apples that get pleasantly soft but hold their shape when baked. I used the Wealthy variety of locally-grown apples, which work pretty well. Granny Smith apples are usually reliable if you do not have a go-to favorite. Personally, I do not mind if the apples do not cook perfectly in my pie.

For the crust:

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon fine salt

11 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces

About ½ cup ice water

For the filling:

3 pounds apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Egg wash (beaten egg mixed with water or cream), if desired

1. To make the crust: combine the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times to mix. Add the cold butter pieces and pulse until the butter is in pea-size, flour-coated pieces.

2. Add about 4 tablespoons of the ice water. Pulse to distribute. Continue adding ice water about 1 tablespoon at a time, processing and adding water until the dough just begins to form a ball and holds together when firmly squeezed.

3. Press the dough together with your hands to form a large ball. Divide the ball into two equal portions. Form each portion into a disk and wrap well with plastic wrap. Chill until firm, about 2 hours. (Or chill until needed for about 2 days or wrap well and freeze for up to 3 months.)

4. Preheat oven to 375 F. On a well-floured surface roll one portion of the crust dough into a circle about 12-inches in diameter. Drape into a 9-inch pie plate. Arrange to fit without stretching, allowing excess to drape over the edge of the plate.

5. In a large bowl combine the filling ingredients. Mix together to coat the apples well. Pile the apple mixture into the pastry-lined pie plate. It will be very full.

6. On a well-floured surface, roll the second pastry dough disk into a 12-inch circle. Cover the filling with the pastry. Crimp the edges of the crust together, sealing in the apples. Press the edges into a decorative shape if desired. Cut a few slits in the top of the crust to allow steam to escape. Brush the crust with egg wash if using

7. Place the pie on a baking sheet to catch any overflowing juices. Bake at 375 F for 1 hour to 70 minutes, or until the apples are soft and the crust is golden brown. Check after about 40 minutes. If the crust seems to be darkening too rapidly, cover the pie with foil.

8. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature (or re-warm cooled pie slices in the microwave.)

Makes about 10 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Apple Turnovers with Dried Fruit, Pear Apple Crumble Pie, Apple and Cranberry Crisp

One year ago: Pear and Blackberry Galette

Coming soon: Tomatillo Chickpea Curry, a new apple cake, and World Vegetarian Day….

Monday Night

Late Monday afternoon may not be the traditional time to make an apple pie from scratch, but that’s what I did today. I had part of the day off, and my husband works late tonight, so I got it done. Double crust and all! (I’ll tell you about it even if it turns out to be terrible.) If that’s not news, then nothing is, so I figured I’d check in with a bit of a chat, even though it’s not Friday, or even Saturday night. Here’s what’s up:

The Day Job…

**Half dead. At the risk of offending the all dead, mostly dead, and undead, I have to state emphatically that The Day Job has left me half dead. Last week was a nightmare that included covering other persons’ shifts, covering open shifts (for which nobody was scheduled at all), and putting on a banquet dinner for about 225 people. The event was a great success, and so, so many people were involved in making it happen, but, dang! By Friday morning, I couldn’t feel my legs. (I got better.)

**More of the same. The next 20 days or so don’t look much better, but I really am learning to improve my time management at least a little bit. We’ll see how often I can cook or bake something new.

Links…

I sat down to write this and couldn’t think of anything I had cooked or read in, like, forever. I had to go to my Twitter page (@The_Messy_Apron) to remember what I’ve been up to, besides making a pizza or two and some egg sandwiches. Now that I’ve recovered a bit, I can see that some good stuff has been going on around here.

**Crying at Starbucks. While I don’t think I’ve ever actually done such a thing, I enjoyed this article, especially the discussion of “third place theory.”

**Dinner party strategy. I really liked this article. Realism!

**These tips to make you a better cook. I like #12, because it means I get to be nice to myself.

Recipes…

**PotstickerTortellini. Or something like it. I tried out the method of cooking tortellini much like potstickers outlined in this post at the blog Smitten Kitchen. I made mine with garlic, tomatoes and olives, rather than the peas and prosciutto in the original post. Fabulous!

**I need to make this butternut squash sandwich. The squash in my garden are ready to harvest!

**Tomatillo Chickpea Curry. Doesn’t that sound yummy. I’m hoping to try out a recipe this week. That is, if I don’t use the poblano chiles I bought for it to make Macaroni and Cheese with Roasted Poblanos and Smoked Paprika.

 

**Apple Cake. In addition to the apple pie that just came out of the oven, I’m hoping to try out a new apple cake recipe. (As if this one and this one aren’t enough.)

Sometimes I don’t know how I am going to continue living my life the way I do right now. My current Day Job may not be for me, but I really do know how necessary and meaningful the work that I do is. In tough times I’ll try to remember this quote to get me through.

“We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say 'It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.' Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes." -Mr. Rogers

And then, there’s apple pie.