Monday, October 30, 2006

October 27, 2006: Vegie stir-fry with tamarind and chipotle sweet-hot sauce

Cindy and I spent most of last week working our way through a massive, cheesy lasagne that we cooked on Monday (the lack of a relevant blog entry provides an indication or the overall success of that venture). By Thursday evening, our arteries were filled with cheese, and the only solution was a fresh, vegie-laden stir-fry. Generally, we've made up stir-fry sauces using some combination of seasonings mixed up with soy sauce and lime-juice. This time, in a concession to our food-blogger status, we opted for something more adventurous.

Tamarind and chipotle sweet-hot sauce (adapted from a recipe in Ken Charney's The Bold Vegetarian Chef)

Start off by blending up 2 chipotle chillies (if they're fresh, you'll need to soak them in water first to soften them up) and a can of chopped tomatoes. Meanwhile, combine 1/2 cup cider vinegar, 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon of paprika, 1/2 teaspoon of cinammon, 1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander, 1/2 a teaspoon of cumin and 1/2 a teaspoon of ground cloves in a medium sized saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes.

In a different, larger, saucepan fry a chopped onion in olive oil until it startes to go brown. Add a few cloves of minced garlic and fry for another couple of minutes. Stir in the contents of the previous saucepan along with a tablespoon of tomato paste, a tablespoon of tarmaind paste, 1/4 cup of unrefined sugar and a reasonable sprinkling of salt. Turn the heat down, cover and simmer for about 25 minutes.

For the stir-fry, we simply cut up some vegetables (carrot, capsicum, zuchini, broccoli and beans) and threw them in the wok for a couple of minutes before adding in a cup or so of the sauce and a packet of noodles. Crispy and delicious.


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