I guess I did use
Every dish in the kitchen
How else could I
Prepare the veggies
Saute the peppers and onions
Roast the sliced eggplant, carrots and ginger
Bake the pumpkin
And puree the tomatoes, cumin and curry powder
Combine everything
And then cook it all together for awhile
So, yeah I guess I did use
Every dish
And the cutting board
And a few knives
And the blender
It’s not a bad thing
It’s just the thing
It’s just what it takes
To make
Eggplant curry
And after I sit down
And eat a bowlful
And go back for seconds
Then belly warm
Feeling content
I’ll cheerfully clean up
Every dish
—
About the poem:
I learned to make veggie curry in Saudi Arabia from my Irish-British roommate, who learned it from her Pakistani-British roommate before me. Phew! Well, I never actually studied the recipe and I know there are more steps. But I like to cook fairly simply in general, but in this recipe there are two steps: the base and the veggies. Today, I used a sauce I’d made earlier and frozen of tomatoes, peppers, and garlic. I added to this sauce, pureed fresh uncooked tomatoes, cumin and curry powder. When I make this curry, I like to prepare the lightly cook the veggies separately: either by steaming them , sautéing them or roasting them …depending on what equipment I have available. (In Korea and Riyadh, we used a rice steamer to steam each veggie to perfection.) A great mixture is eggplant, carrots, peppers and whatever you have: sweet potatoes, pumpkin, potatoes or cauliflower (all cut fairly e.g. 1-2″). Then toss the lightly cooked veggies together with the sauce. Then bake or heat on the stovetop on low for another hour or so before serving. Most people would serve this with rice. I prefer to just eat twice as much of it, sans rice. Try it! The eggplant suffice for that big stuffed feeling you want, with so many more nutrients than rice.
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