Currying Favor

I owe this curry to Peter Barrett, who gave me the idea to use my leftover kabocha squash soup as a base for curry. I would never have thought of that but it makes so much sense!

When I pulled my pot of soup out of the fridge and My Beloved raised the lid, the expression on his face told me he was not, and I do mean, not looking forward to another go-around with that soup. While he is normally fine with leftovers and he did enjoy the first serving of the soup, he's also a variety guy and loves a mix of tastes and flavors.

Providence smiled upon me when that same day I read that Peter had concocted curry from soup himself. Being the cheerful plagiarist that I am, I immediately stole his idea.

I sautéed a chopped onion in butter, then added some chunked carrot and fingerling potatoes for a Thai-style curry with vegetables. I even dumped in the very last serving of those colorful roasted veggies I made for Thanksgiving. I whisked curry powder into the soup, then poured both into the pot with the veggies, stirred and simmered for about 15 minutes. While the curry was cooking, I crisped a few rashers of bacon to crumble and set out (Peter's) little dishes of peanuts, green onion, raisins, chutney and minced white onion. I think of the toppings as more typical of Indian curry but we love the crunch and mix of flavors so I added them to the Thai-style as well. For the last few minutes, I stirred in about a cup of chicken picked from the roast one I made that week, just to heat it through before serving over jasmine rice.

The result was simply lovely, hearty and yet not heavy, savory and a little spicy without being nuclear, with lots of texture and sweet-salt toppings. I hope my variety guy won't mind - there's enough left over for dinner again tonight.