Original Recipe: http://bit.ly/VT8eaI
I had known when I set out to create an Indian meal that I wanted to do some curry dishes, but I didn’t want to have to buy a million spices. After searching for popular recipes, I thought this one was interesting. It wasn’t curry as I thought of it: it was dry, without a sauce. It relied more on spices as flavor enhancers than as flavors for the liquid. Since I had a lot of these spices on my shopping list already for the Tandoori, I thought this would be a good recipe with which to experiment.
Substitutions:
1. Used Bay leaves instead of curry leaves, as the recipe indicated.
2. Used 1 tbsp. of crushed red pepper flakes instead of the whole dried peppers.
3. Did not include the rice.
Final Result Impressions:
It’s important to note that, while I do enjoy the flavor of coconut, I have issues with its texture. J. does not have this issue. So I ate the beans freely, with a piece of coconut stuck on here and there, and left behind the coconut flakes for her. She ate them with relish. There was a lot of flavor added to the beans just from cooking with the coconut, so I don’t regret making it at all.
Cost v. Outcome
Ingredients
◦4 bay leaves……………………………………………………………………….. Had on-hand, 1 oz. bag ~ $4
◦3/4 cup coconut (finely shredded dried unsweetened)…………12 oz. bag ~ $5
◦1 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin…………………………………………….Had on hand, 4 oz. bag ~ $6
◦1/4 teaspoon cayenne………………………………………………………….Had on-hand, 4 oz. bag ~ $6
◦1/4 teaspoon turmeric…………………………………………………………4 oz. bag ~ $5
◦2 cloves garlic, minced…………………………………………………………Had on-hand, 5 bulbs ~ $3
◦2 tablespoons vegetable oil………………………………………………….Had on-hand, 1 q. bottle ~ $3
◦1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds………………………………………..4 oz. bag ~ $3
◦2tbsp crushed red pepper…………………………………………………..Had on-hand, 4 oz. bag ~ $6
◦3/4 lb green beans………………………………………………………………1 pound ~ $2
◦1 teaspoon salt…………………………………………………………………….Had on-hand, 1 tub ~ $3
Yields: ~ 6 servings
Like the Tandoori, this is not cheap if you don’t have the spices on-hand. I had help paying for these spices, and some I did actually have. Again, I buy all my spices at Penzey’s (www.penzeys.com). While this was delicious, the unsweetened coconut was not easy to find, nor was it particularly cheap. I think, in the future, I was try a different dish that was coconut milk-based. That shit is easy to find and cheap, too!
Half Assed Gourmet 