Sequestration Meal #380

 

Although I don't often force myself into such situations, I swear some of the best meals I eat come out of an abject refusal to do any grocery shopping, which necessitates me doing new things. Because I've had time off work, I guess you're seeing a lot of that right now! (When I have extra time to think about food, and cook the food, I can more easily just work with what I've got.)

Here I have basmati rice (the very end of a bag--I didn't even have a full cup to cook!), a lentil curry that is nearly this one from Chelsea Messy Apron (but cut in half and using regular canned petite diced tomatoes rather than fire roasted and green curry paste rather than red (because that's what I had)), and the first homemade naan I've ever made (recipe from Minimalist Baker). I needed naan since I had so little rice. This was plenty of rice for one meal but there isn't enough for my leftovers. So naan it was!

Although I soaked the lentils according to recipe directions, and it helped matters, I still had to cook these lentils for well over an hour; I just don't have luck with the cooking times listed in lentil recipes unless they're split red lentils, so that's one reason I don't make lentils as often as I think I should. But once they were soft, I loved this! It wasn't overly spicy and yet it did have a mild bit of heat to it so there was a nice kick. This was so good. Every time I make a lentil dish I promise myself more lentils, even though the cooking times are so frustrating.

Basmati rice is basmati rice, of course; nothing much to say about that other than I really have enjoyed learning about all the different types of rice out there and exploring them. I don't often use basmati but it's so nice with curries.

The naan was so exciting! I used to love naan, but since it typically has dairy in it, I hadn't had any in my five vegan years. I don't think my technique for the first naan I made was that great, but by the end, I was making really beautiful naan! I froze some for later meals like this so I can just warm it in the toaster oven. It has been ages since I had naan and it was once one of my favorite bready things. This time I dispensed with the melted vegan butter and garlic treatment but I can so very much see that in the future. (And cilantro, I guess? I didn't have any fresh and I sprinkled it on my serving dried but I didn't add it to the bread.) But that should be a lesson for me: You do not always have to do everything exactly right for it to be good. And this was great, if not the absolute best outcome imaginable. I'll add vegan butter and cilantro and garlic if I want to impress someone.

While I was cooking this, my apartment management finally showed up after nearly two months of service requests to make some repairs in my kitchen and bathroom, totally unannounced, so in the end I did not enjoy myself as much as I might have if I got to eat at my leisure rather than holed up in my bedroom while alarming noises came from elsewhere. In the aftermath of the big flood, a lot of things got neglected. I'm glad to have functional things (especially a functional toilet and kitchen lighting that doesn't flicker or just refuse to come on at all, especially in winter when it gets dark before 4:00PM), but I never really do super well with the feeling of intrusion. But the leftovers made for a great second round, and much more soothing.

And I got to freeze some of these lentils for the coming apocalypse. (I'm joking, of course. Sort of.)