Two and a half recipes today! Because it's Spring Break, I'm off work until next Tuesday (my birthday, by the way), and I was a little bored and I wasn't quite ready to get to grading on my vacation. Also, all this past weekend, Caleb and I and the rest of the Gamers Northwest gamers have been stuck inside the house during our Epic Disney Marathon. It was super fun, but also really exhausting. I felt like recharging a little by getting some time in the kitchen with my other favorite past time.
These two recipes today can definitely be made separately, but together, they make a fabulous Asian-ish fusion meal, which I had all to myself for dinner last night. Because I'm a lonely lady and the cat doesn't eat Asian-ish fusion. My point is, I have naan and Pashwar filling for days.
When I was 11, I made the horrifying discovery of a purplish rubbery tendon in my chicken sandwich at a fast food place. Since then, I've been a steadfast vegetarian. It wasn't very hard, I never really liked meat anyway (something about the texture makes me feel ick). I did go through a brief period in college when I would eat chicken on a dare, but that was always more out of my challenge-y side than out of appetite. For the most part, I've stayed true to my vegetarianism, or rather ovo-lacto-pescatarianism (eggs, dairy, fish). There were only a handful of meaty foods I actually missed when I stopped eating meat, all of them yummy memories of my childhood: tamales at New Year's with my Hispanic family side, lumpia and wonton soup at the Asian family side. I've found some substitutes in fancy-pancy grocery stores and in some amazing food carts (gotta love the Pacific Northwest), but few have stood up to the homemade goodiness of my grandmothers. Being far from home and all my family, sometimes all I really need are the flavors of my childhood.