My Mom’s Curry

My mom came across curry shortly after she moved to California in 1969. I think the person she got it from was Indian but really just made it with what she could in the 1960s and 1970s.

My mom came up with a recipe from the experience and from some discussion with the woman. I am probably not quite telling the story right but I have it in essence. It became a staple of my diet growing up. It mainly was a way to use up left over turkey and chicken. When we were in the UK we found ‘real” curry and liked it as well. But in my book I loved my mom’s curry.

It is simple and easy to make. The hardest part is cutting everything up or, for me, remembering all the extra’s.

The curry itself is sliced onions and some garlic sautéed. Add to it left over cooked chicken or turkey (my mom usually allows about ¼-½ cup per person). Warm through and season with curry powder. Add gravy to make a sauce and heat through.

Serve over rice with toppings

Peanuts
Sautéed sliced bananas
Chopped green peppers
Toasted coconut
Chopped hard boiled eggs
Chunk or diced pineapple
Golden raisins
Sliced scallions or green onions
Bacon (we have been using turkey bacon to cut down on fat)
Chick Peas

Today we made this for our usual Sunday night gathering. We are using low fat everything and because we forgot to thaw out the left-over turkey from Christmas we bought some chicken breasts. Also Holly and I have become “grossed out” by meat.
So I made a veggie version with squash and firm tofu. It turned out very nicely. Holly liked it a lot too.

Veggie version of Mom’s Curry:

1 small winter squash in large cubes (we used a small acorn)
1 12 oz block of very firm tofu in large cubes
12 oz vegetable broth
1 small onion sliced
2-3 cloves of garlic chopped
2 tsp arrowroot
2 Tbsp flour
4 tsp curry powder

In a sauce pan sauté the onions and garlic in oil or white wine (white wine works well to sauté when you want to save on fat). Once close to being nice and brown, add more wine or oil and the cubed squash and just toss in the pan, almost searing the squash.

Meanwhile whisk together vegetable broth, flour, arrowroot and curry powder. Pour in sauce pan with vegetables and gently stir in tofu.

Bring to boil and then lower heat until broth gets thick and squash is firm but pierces easily with a fork.

Serve over rice and top with appropriate toppings (see above)

The tofu will break up some but that is fine. Holly loved the little bright yellow tofu “bombs”. She was very happy with the curry which is great since I made this up in my head and I was worried that she wouldn’t like the texture of the squash.