adding to the list

I’m becoming more accustomed to cooking real food again and how to enjoy it.

Mostly.

I’ve been cooking my way through the Spring selections of The Flexitarian Table (I ended up purchasing The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen, more on that tomorrow). As I have a large selection of lentils and no place yet to store them I decided to make two selections from Menu I for spring, which would also allow E to work his way through some pita before it went bad or pesach arrives (whichever comes first).

For this shabbat I made Lentil and Rhubarb Curry with Potatoes and Peas. It allowed me to use up almost all my remaining lentils, potatoes, and frozen peas. I decided to serve it with a Cucumber Lime Raita.

It was the Raita which almost did me in.

While I am familiar with most spices (thanks mum) there is one I haven’t often used.

Cilantro. The few times I’d used it (mostly sprinkled on top as a garnish) I really was turned off finding it bitter and with a taste I didn’t enjoy.

I have a jar of dried cilantro, which was just perfect to mix in the Raita as per instruction. I was excited to actually have all the ingredients a chef had listed. Most of my cooking is still as my knitting, I can often make substitutions, but if I’m combining elements with which I’m unfamiliar (in this case creating a curry and a raita to go with it) I want to follow the instructions.

During dinner caused me to break out from head to toe in incredibly hot and itchy hives. It’s a good thing it was just the two of us for dinner. It was not a very fun two hours until the symptoms went away and it’s the first time I’ve ever experienced a reaction like that. It was pretty scary until we determined that if I stopped eating dinner the symptoms stopped getting worse.

I’ve added to the list of foods to avoid..

*sigh*

Anyone want a slightly used jar of cilantro?

ps I have determined it is the cilantro by successfully eating some of the curry tonight.

• Category: food