How is it that I haven't posted a post here since 2020? OMG. Anyway.

I made a Recipe yesterday, because I had a craving and decided to look up recipes and decided that they didn't all suit either my craving or my typical way of cooking.

Being fall, the veggie situation at the Greenmarkets (I regularly visit 2) has transistioned to potatoes, sturdy hard-shelled squashes, leeks, beets, parsnips, cauliflower and apples. Oh so many apples. But I digress.

A few of the farms are from south New Jersey, so they have greener produce for longer. I bought green beans just last week! Still tasty and good! And broccoli, and zucchini. And tomatoes? I don't trust fall tomatoes. They never ripen up properly at home. SO that was the root of my craving: green tomatoes. 

I didn't grow up with southern cooking, or green tomatoes. I'm not usually thrilled with the pinkish unripe tomatoes one gets in burgers and salads most of the year (which is why I stan grape tomatoes). But I became convinced that what I wanted to cook was a green tomato coconut milk curry. Why! DON'T KNOW. Never had such a thing in my life! I cook a fair amount of mock-Thai curries using jarred curry paste, but never this. 

So I bought a few very small green tomatoes several weeks ago, and didn't make the curry, so two of them got very pink, so I finally sliced them thickly and cooked them alongside some pork chops (and other veggies I forget). Freakin' delicious! Tart, juicy, exactly what I had in mind for the curry! 

So I finally made the curry. This is the non-intuitive version of the recipe. I never ever measure my ingredients! I usually eyeball the veggies and go, eh, half the onion is enough, half the zucchini, hmm small pepper so use it all...

The small cans of coconut milk are perfect for 2-person meals. I stock up whenever I find them. 

ELENA’S AD HOC GREEN TOMATO CURRY
Serves 2 (double everything for 4 servings)

½ cup chopped onion

½ chopped bell pepper

1 tbsp Coconut oil

2 tsp green Thai curry paste

½ cup chopped zucchini

2 cups sliced napa cabbage

1 tsp Fish sauce

1 small can coconut milk

1 cup chopped green tomatoes

1 cup diced cooked chicken

Heat coconut oil in a medium pan. Cook onion and bell pepper until becoming tender, about 7 minutes. Add the Thai curry paste and stir well until evenly distributed with the vegetables.

Add the zucchini and the Napa cabbage, stir well. Douse everything with fish sauce. Add the coconut milk (shake it first). Stir well. Allow the coconut milk to cook down for at least 5 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, and chicken. Allow 2-3 minutes for the tomatoes to soften and the chicken to heat up. Serve with plenty of cooked rice.

NOTE: the protein can also be tofu, raw shrimp, raw sliced calamari, raw firm fish in small pieces, etc.  If using raw seafood/fish, add a couple of minutes before adding the tomatoes.

I visited the NY Botanical Garden with my BFF today, whose special-needs kids will likely be home for weeks and weeks so I won't get to see her for a while. They won't get educational therapy while they're at home, so she despairs of keeping them entertained while trying to get work done. 

The orchids were very pretty. There weren't many people.

I went with her to the Aldi on Broadway in the Bronx. The lines wrapped up and down the aisles. I didn't need anything from there. Just curious.

Ed starts working from home tomorrow. I had a shopping list in hand, for my own neighborhood. 

As I rode a bus home, my iPod offered up, in a row:

The Weeping Song, Nick Drake

I Wanna Be Sedated, the Ramones

Bad Medicine, Bon Jovi

THEN the supermarket all-70s muzak offered up OH MY MY by Ringo Starr.

"I called up my doctor to see what's the matter

He said come on over, I said do I haveta..:

THANKS UNIVERSE.

I bought a lot of durable groceries this week, to supplement the stuff we already had: rice, pasta, ramen, canned tomatoes, butter, cheese, potatoes, turnips, carrots, hummus, peanut butter, crackers, chocolate, cookies, frozen sausage, frozen veggies, matzoh, popcorn. Hot sauce for all the rice and beans in our future. WINE. Got a hunk of corned beef for the weekend, enough to share with Ed's elderly aunt whom we are still planning to visit on Sunday.

(We already had beans, coconut milk, jam, canned soup & shelf-stable broth, corn chips, pumpkin, couscous, bulgur, cornmeal, coffee, tea, cereal, raisins, nuts, granola bars, chutney.)

The supermarket had lines, but I've seen it worse on just a regular weekends. Shelves were being restocked all week. The usual stuff was flying out: paper goods (we have plenty), bread (we have enough), Clorox wipes (we have LOTS). I did buy extra laundry detergent and dishwashing liquid.

I got good at prepping due to 9/11, Hurricane Sandy and various big blizzards. I know how to cook meats and veg nobody else seems to bother with.

The bus home passed the Met Museum. I felt heartsick for the street vendors who won't have thousands of tourists thronging their carts for weeks and weeks. I hope they can survive.