I asked my sister yesterday if she had ever made curry, and her response was no thank you, I don’t want bananas and coconuts atop my main dish, but thanks for asking.

I rarely make curry. It’s one of those things I sort of feel is best left to the experts and I can get pretty good curry at our local Thai or Indian restaurants if I am in the mood. And, I really do have to be in the mood. Otherwise I’m all, “No, Curry, not tonight, I have a headache.” But it doesn’t have to be as weird as bananas and coconut and mango with meat. It can be made of basic ingredients you probably have around.

Yesterday, curry was in luck. I was In The Mood. Mr. Meat and Potatoes also counted himself in luck as curry is one of his favorite things, since it is HOT! and HE! LIKES! HOT! FOOD! Also, I happened to have some random ingredients floating around my house that needed to get used, and if you know me, you know I can’t stand the thought that a lime might go bad on my watch. These random ingredients just happened to be things that would go deliciously in a simple curry, so I set out to whip something up that would not only satisfy my craving, but would also satisfy my compulsive need to use up everything in my produce bowl.

Let’s back up for a minute, though, and talk about what curry is. It is an elusive term, really. I had a teacher friend once, she who wore long, flowy skirts with birkenstocks and lived in an old divided-up house with her musician boyfriend. We were green when green wasn’t cool, and car pooled to Kansas City to work back in the old days when teaching was still fun.

This friend of mine would often mention having made curry the night before, and I’d nod approvingly, as if I had a clue what the flip she was talking about. This was back when I thought I’d done something really gourmet if I added cheddar cheese to my burger instead of American. I wasn’t exactly broadening my culinary horizons at that point in my life. Finally, I caved. I couldn’t stand it anymore, and I had to ask her, “What, exactly, is curry?” She laughed and said that honestly, no one knows.

Curry is a loose term for all sorts of cuisine that includes an array of spices in varying degrees of hotness. Do you know any more than you did before? I didn’t think so. Curry is not a spice. It is a blend of spices, and it doesn’t have any hard and fast rules. Some curry actually does include the curry plant, but much does not. Generally, curry includes some combination of turmeric, red pepper, coriander, and some others. But it doesn’t have to.

So yeah, just agree to smile and nod and know that curry is something that we know when we see it. It usually accompanies a rice or noodle dish, and is found in African, Thai, Indian, and other Asian cuisines. And it is delicious. You can make your own curry spice mix, but I am not that kind of girl. I don’t want to spend the money to buy twelve different spices and then end up with something inedible, so I buy pre-mixed curry. You can get it in the spice aisle at your local supermarket, and it will do just fine. Or, you can get it at The Merc, which is nice because they tell you what they put in their mix.

Last night, I made a simple chicken curry, because, like I said, I had some odds and ends burning a hole in my pantry, and they needed to be used up. This dish took me about twenty minutes to throw together.

I had a half a bag of frozen chicken tenders (I love frozen chicken tenders, because you can get exactly as much as you want out of the bag at a time and they thaw very quickly), a lime, the end of a jar of peanut butter, and a hunk of fresh ginger, among other things. A perfect list for a good curry dish, if ever there was one.

Simple Chicken Curry

1.5 lbs chicken pieces
1/2 C peanut butter
1.5 C chicken broth or stock (I had stock frozen from my last crock pot chicken. See why I save stuff?)
1/2 C pineapple juice
3-4 T curry spice mix (depending on hotness and your tolerance for it)
1 C flour
2 T minced ginger
1 T minced garlic
1 bunch green onions
3 T chopped cilantro
1 lime
1 can coconut milk
1 C chopped peanuts
2 jalapenos, seeded and minced
3 T olive or peanut oil
1 C jasmine rice (uncooked)
salt and pepper

serves two

Step 1) Start your rice cooking. Also, heat the oil in a deep skillet or a large saucepan.

Step 2) Cut your chicken into large bitesized pieces. Rinse and pat very dry.

Step 3) Combine the curry spice with the flour and a healthy dash of salt and pepper.

Step 4) Dredge the chicken pieces in the curry/flour mix until well coated, and then drop them into the pan. Cook for 5 minutes or so, until they are cooked through.

Step 5) Add the minced garlic, jalapeno, and ginger to the pan, along with a small amount of the chicken stock, just to prevent sticking and burning. Let those ingredients simmer until flavors have melded and the spices have cooked, maybe 3 minutes.

Step 6) Add the peanut butter, coconut milk, pineapple juice, and the rest of the chicken stock to the pot, and stir. Allow the sauce to reduce to your desired consistency. We like ours to still be a little bit runny because it is so good when it soaks in with the rice.

Step 7) Serve the chicken and sauce atop the rice. Garnish with cilantro, peanuts, green onions, and a wedge or two of the lime. I really love the taste of the lime squeezed over the top of the dish, and it also cuts some of the spicyness for me, because I am a wimp.

If you are not yet ready to jump onto the curry boat with both feet, you might consider making something else and just sort of dipping your toes into the curry waters. That might be the worst analogy I ever wrote.

I like to make curry chicken salad, and again, it’s one of those things that is perfect when you have a few odds and ends to get rid of. You can play with the ingredients based on what you have on hand.

Curry Chicken Salad

2 C cooked chicken pieces, diced
1 T curry spice mix
1 C grapes, halved (can sub golden raisins if you’re into that sort of thing)
1/2 C cashews
1/2 C mayonnaise
2 T green onions, chopped
2 tsp lime juice
1 T spicy mustard
salt and pepper

Mix it all up and serve on some good crusty bread. Mmmm. I want some right now.

Or, maybe you have some more “traditional” American leftovers to get rid of. I am a big fan of throwing together a curry shephard’s pie.

Curry Shephard’s Pie

4 C leftover mashed potatoes (also really good with mashed sweet potatoes)
2 lb ground beef
2 C mixed vegetables, such as carrots, onions, green beans, peas (whatever you have around, frozen or fresh)
3 T curry spice mix
2 C cheddar cheese
3 T olive oil
3 T flour
salt and pepper (takes quite a bit)

Step 1) Cook the ground beef. When it’s cooked through, drain the grease and add the flour and curry spice mix to it. Salt and pepper generously, set aside.

Step 2) Cook the vegetables. Saute them in the olive oil until they are fork-tender.

Step 3) Add the vegetables to the hamburger, and put the mixture into a deep casserole dish.

Step 4) Press the mashed potatoes over the top, and cover with cheese.

Step 5) Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, until potatoes are hot and cheese is bubbly. You might salt again over the top before you serve. Those potatoes really need some sodium to kick them up.

I love shephard’s pie. It’s easy and a great use for the odds and ends of the bags of frozen vegetables that are littering your freezer. It’s also cheap to make and serves a lot of folks, and that puts it amongst my highest-ranking recipes. Plus, it’s total comfort food. If you make it with sweet potatoes, you can pat yourself on the back for all the beta carotene and other good nutrition you are getting from all those vegetables. Unfortunately, Mr. Meat and Potatoes won’t get within thirty feet of a sweet potato. Seriously, I can’t even get him to feed them to the baby.

Go home tonight and expand your culinary horizons. Skip your pork chop and baked potato. Clean out your pantry and make something spicy. You don’t have a headache, do you?