First TRINIDADIAN food ever...

We really did two main courses last night...a pretty hefty Asian soup, and a Trinidadian curry over Moroccan whole wheat couscous. (tastes just like the normal stuff, score huge)

The soba noodle and Napa cabbage soup came from Claire's All-American Vegeterian Cooking, written by Claire Crisculo, the owner of the BEST vegetarian restaurant in New Haven county. I do appreciate the irony in having chosen an Asian dish from an all American cookbook, but then I'm all about irony, and I tend to find classic American food pretty boring. (No offense to the American Gourmet Academy...)

This soup was made start to finish by my boyfriend, who unlike me, actually follows recipe directions to a T, and it was absolutely delicious. The only change we made was adding a diced up portabella mushroom, because it was starting to look pretty sad and I didn't want it to go to waste. In the end the portabella was voted a great addition, and we'd probably include it again in future enjoyment of the soup.

For my part, I made the Trinidadian Mango Curry from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian. I was a little concerned when the first step involved puring a whole bunch of onion and garlic in a blender (not a smoothie I'd want to drink straight) but it turned out great. They key part of the recipe is to really let it simmer for awhile, so that all the sugars caramelize and sweeten the dish. I also replace the called-for jalapenos with one (seeds and all) Serrano pepper.

The couscous made the perfect base for the sweet and spicy curry in the starring role.

Selah.