Easy vegetarian thai curry and days out

On Saturday, I had a long Christmas shopping expedition with Sylvia and we had a rather dismal dinner on the train as we came home at 7.30pm.  So the following night I made a Thai curry that I make from time to time.  It was so satisfying to have a dish of lots of vegetables and flavour.  Today I am sharing how I made a curry with a jar of curry paste when I am in the hurry.  It is embarrassingly simple.

Before telling you about the recipe, here are a few snaps from some days out.  We had a weekend in Geelong recently to see family.  We also had time to go into the city.  I enjoyed seeing some street art around St James Street.

When I stumbled across Uncle Donut in Little Malop Street I thought I had better make a purchase for my doughnut loving daughter.  I liked the lamington doughnuts but quibble at the custard as well as jam in the filling.

E and I visited the Archibald Prize exhibition.  This is a prominent Australian portrait prize.  It is held in Victoria in different regional galleries each year.  This year it is at Geelong Gallery.  Such an eclectic collection of artworks with lots of clever ideas.  Above is Anh Do's portrait of Uncle Jack Charles.

After the exhibition, we stopped next door at the Geelong Library's cafe called Public.  While it is not cheap ($4.50 for a cookie is just too much), we enjoyed our wedges with sour cream, salsa and jalapenos.

As an aside, while looking for the cafe link on the library website, I found a reference to their Food for Fines program where people can have their library fines waived if they bring in donations for food banks.  Such a great idea.

On Friday we got along to the Coburg Night Market.  I enjoyed some Ethiopian curries and ice cream but did not get as much time as I had intended for browsing the craft stalls.  Our time there was cut short by an imminent thunderstorm.  I was relieved to get home just as the heavens opened.  Sadly it looks like more rain on Friday for the next market but maybe we can sneak in early.

And we had our Christmas shopping session in the city.  Sylvia is all into Christmas and delighted by all the decorations.  I wanted to get some Christmas shopping done because there are busy days ahead.  My proudest and most nervous moment was when Sylvia decided she wanted to buy me a present and went off by herself.  This was done with quite a lot of planning and discussion but she was very happy when she had done it.  I am being quite restrained with my Christmas photos as I plan to share more closer to Christmas.

So back to the curry.  Above is the curry I made on the weekend.  It is quite soupy when cooking but the top photo is after sitting for a day when the liquids get soaked up.  I cooked the noodles separately each night and then put them in with the leftovers for the third day.  Often I cook the noodles in the curry.  But I also often make rice to serve with it.

This last photo is of a Thai curry I made earlier in the year with a whole lot of different vegies but I did not write down the list.  In fact I have been making this style of curry for a long time but it is so easy and I often change what is in it so I have never blogged it.  Now that I am going through a busy patch, I thought it useful to share some of the meals I have when I am busy.

More Thai inspired dishes on Green Gourmet Giraffe blog:
Skye's Tomato and Pumpkin Curry with Lime and Coconut (gf, v)
Thai curry split pea soup (gf, v)
Thai pumpkin and lentil soup (gf, v) 
Thai style salad with noodles (gf, v)
Vegetarian Pad Thai (gf, v)

Easy Vegetarian Thai Curry
Serves 4

1-2 tsp neutral oil such as rice bran
1 onion
1 carrot
2 dessertspoons Thai curry paste*, or to taste
300g tin of coconut milk
1 cup water
1 tsp stock powder
350g tofu, diced (or chopped cashews)
Chopped vegetables - whatever you have*
Noodles or rice, to serve

Fry onion and carrot in oil until softening.  Stir in curry paste until it smells aromatic (30-60 seconds).  Add coconut milk, water, stock powder, tofu and vegies.  Simmer 10-15 minutes until vegies just cooked.  Hold back any delicate vegies like asparagus, spinach , snow peas until just before serving.  Keeps well overnight for leftovers.

*NOTES: I have made this with different curry pastes - green, red and yellow.  Vegetable suggestions: tonight I had 1 carrot, 1 large sweet potato, 1/3 of a cauliflower, 2 corn cobs, 2 mushrooms, 1 bunch asparagus.  On other occasions I have used pumpkin, spinach, cabbage, capsicum, snow peas, bean sprouts, spring onions, zucchini.  Mostly quick cooking vegies work well here.  If I don't have tofu I often throw in some toasted cashews at the end.  Or sometimes I put in both tofu and cashews.

On the stereo:
The Sound of The Smiths