Midnight in the Kitchen of Good and Eatin'

  A while back I was working in a kitchen in Shady Grove, MD and, every day on my commute, I would pass a little strip mall in Redlands. One day I stopped in to go to the post office there and came across the Spice Lanka grocery store. Always on the lookout for spicy condiments, one of the things the very friendly owner urged me to try Katta Sambol because it is very popular in Sri Lankan cooking. While it's not much spicier than, say, Hungarian paprika, it has a nice citrus tang and has a little chewiness because, according to the label, it's made with "red onions, Maldive fish , chili pieces, salt, lime juice & permitted preservatives (E211 & E224)". Outside of this recipe I like katta with any buttered starch, especially rice or baked potatoes. What you'll need: about a lb of yuchoy, washed well (it can be sandy) and chopped Mmmm! I love YuChoy!     a medium-sized onion sliced 1 or 2 tbls minced garlic 1 to 2tbls. katta sambol* sli...

The reason this is called a "dry curry" is because it is cooked until the liquid in it is nearly all evaporated. With this, it's the coconut milk, that is reduced until it's very thick and the oil in it has started to separate. The traditional way to cook this requires a lot of ingredients that I rarely, if ever, have on hand like garam masala . I know it's probably easy to make my own and even easier to just buy it already made but, hey, I'm lazy and  cheap so I have to be more creative with the ingredients. One ingredient that I do manage to always have on hand is  Maesri  Red Curry paste. It come in little 40z. cans and I tend to use about a teaspoon at a time and it keeps for a long time in the fridge. That having been said, my version of this doesn't have any garam masala but it does have some of the ingredients in it only because I just happen to have them around fairly often. about 2-3 tbls. minced garlic, fresh or from a jar 1-2 tbls. m...