Hi! My name is Meadow.Let me introduce you to my new kitchen.
It's so much bigger than the old one! More than one person can stand in it! And it has a dishwasher!Ok. I've got too much to do, between napping, destroying blinds, and fighting with the other cat in the house. Gotta go!
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Now that we're more or less settled in the new house, I can finally cook again (and blog again.)
Aren't these peppers gorgeous?
I like bell peppers just fine, but I never found them all that inspiring until last Saturday. At the downtown market right now, every stall has an abundance, in colors and varieties I've never seen before. I sampled one, and the taste was a revelation. It was a little spicy, very juicy, and not at all like what you typically find at the supermarket.
I also decided to try a new kind of pepper. This is a cubanelle pepper. It's a little sweeter than your typical bell pepper, and its skin is a lovely bright orange.
I'd been wanting to figure out ways to use tempeh for a while. I've been a vegetarian for the last decade or so, but I've tended to focus on fresh vegetables and ok, cheese, rather than the products some of my friends swear by, i.e. tempeh, seitan, Bragg's, TVP, etc. I'd bought a package of tempeh at the small, independent grocery store across the street from our house (love this neighborhood!), so I decided to make a tempeh curry with my fresh farmer's market peppers.Tempeh curry with bell peppers
1 8 oz package tempeh, cubed
1/4 cup olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4–5 peppers (I used a blend of cubanelle and bell), cut into thin strips
1 14 oz can coconut milk (I used lite, and it was still pretty creamy)
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp turmeric
pinch cayenne
rice for serving
1. Heat the oil over medium heat. Brown the tempeh in oil, about 3 min. per side. Set the tempeh aside on a plate covered in paper towels. Make sure you get all sides of the tempeh browned.2. Add the onions and peppers to the oil. Saute until softened, about 4 min.
3. Add the coconut milk and spices. Simmer covered for 5 min. covered and 5 min. uncovered, until the sauce thickens.
4. Add the tempeh back in and simmer for 5 min. more.
Just for fun: a super-70s photo of our dining room!
