Green Tomato Curry
Greetings food adventurers! Today we are back at the camps on the Shattered Plains to enjoy an unusual Green Tomato Curry. This can easily be made either sweet or spicy depending on your preference, and it can be made vegan or include meat if you like. The Alethi people love curries and there are so many different versions to enjoy!
Tomatoes on Roshar grow differently than on Earth, and are only planted on the western side of buildings and walls so they have protection from highstorms. Even with that precaution, sometimes a huge wind gust in an unexpected direction will knock a bunch of unripe tomatoes from the vine. We can’t let these go to waste! Fried green tomatoes are the default use but are really best fresh (and personally I can only handle so many of those). This curry can be made in large batches and frozen for future meals.
Meal Time: The base recipe is for the sauce. You can add whatever you like to this – I do potatoes, carrots, and chicken. Rosharans use longroots and other tubers, with chicken or pork likely only included for the upper classes. You can use tofu or all veggies to keep it vegetarian / vegan, and whatever curry-friendly veggies are handy. It might be a good fridge-emptying “dump all the veggie scraps into curry” meal.
Here is another Alethi curry recipe: Vorin Sweet Carrot and Prune Curry
And here is another idea to use green tomatoes: Green Tomato Enchilada Sauce
This curry is inspired by Brandon’ Sanderson’s Cosmere / Stormlight Archive and adapted from One Hundred Dollars A Month. The original recipe is for water bath canning, but I am not a canning expert and don’t feel confident on a recipe that includes butter being shelf-stable so I am not including that part. I recommend freezing any extra sauce.
Green Tomato Curry
Ingredients
Curry Base:
- 3 lbs. cubed green tomatoes (no peeling or coring needed)
- 1 yellow onion coarsely chopped
- ¼ cup butter or non-dairy butter
- 4 Tbsp curry powder (see note)
- 1 ½ tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp red chili flakes
- 1 cup water
- ¼ cup brown sugar (increase to 1/3 cup for sweeter version)
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp table salt
Meal Time:
- 1 to 2 Thai chili peppers (optional, for spicy version)
- Potatoes diced
- Carrots diced
- COOKED Chicken or Pork diced (optional)
Instructions
- Heat butter on medium in a Dutch Oven or similar heavy-bottomed pot until it is melted.
- Sauté onions in butter until translucent, about ten minutes.
- Stir in curry powder and cumin. Cook for an additional 3 minutes.
- Add cubed tomatoes, red chili flakes, water, brown sugar, lemon juice, and salt. Stir.
- Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, and give it a stir occasionally.
- Remove the lid and let simmer for another 15 minutes.
- Use an immersion blender to get curry to your preferred consistency. ** Wear an apron! The turmeric in the curry powder will stain things if it splatters!
- At this point, you can put the curry sauce base in the fridge for several days or freeze in blocks in the freezer for future meals.
Meal Time!
- Start rice, if you are making this as a side.
- Boil and drain your cubed potatoes, carrots, and/or other root veggies. Cook your meats of choice, if including. Fried tofu cubes might be good too. This is a great use for leftover veggies, just pull them out of the fridge and pour them into the pot.
- Thaw the curry sauce in a saucepan if it was frozen. Heat just barely to a simmer, not to a full boil. Add a Thai Chili or two, if you want it spicy.
- Stir all the pre-cooked goodies into the curry sauce. Let simmer for ten or fifteen minutes to let the flavors meld.
