I made these two dishes for dinner tonight. I followed the directions almost exactly for both. I bought two huge garnet yams for the curry. It was plenty for both of us for a main dish (I thought we would have leftovers, but Kathy had a second helping--unexpected--and then I finished what was left). We are not sure why it is a "curry" except that it is possible that the savory bits (ginger, garlic, jalapeño, shallots, green onions, basil and lime) may be components of a curry paste. It was pretty hot--you could cut that back with less ginger and less jalapeño, but then it might be boring. Kathy and I like hot food, so it was perfect for us. You could easily cut this in half for one or double for four.
The salad was a great find. Somehow, I always thought I had to make a dressing, then pour it over the salad. This is an instant salad--done in less than a minute if you use a bag of greens (we did--a mix of baby greens and baby spinach). Put the greens in a bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper, drizzle on a little olive oil (I used a lemon olive oil tonight), toss that, then drizzle on a little vinegar (I used a lemon balsamic tonight). Serve and eat immediately! It was so good, I made another serving for myself to finish the meal.
The authors have meal suggestions in the front and back covers of the book. This one is at the bottom of the second page of the front. It suggests to serve mango iced tea with the meal, so I made some of that today, too. But then I found a light and fruity Spanish rosé at Whole Foods. It went well with the meal.
