For anyone feeling festive, pick up some puff pastry and let's bake a curry tree!
For this particular dish (baked version below), I used regular puff pastry. I then painted on my tree using spoonfuls of red korma sauce for the background, palak sauce for the tree, and baked tofu cut with star-shaped cookie cutters!
You can use any pre-packaged curry sauces or make your own. For the base, I used my chik'n korma recipe (but without the chik'n strips), and I used palak sauce for the tree.
To make the palak sauce:
Heat together 2/3 cup of milk or coconut milk + 1 tablespoon of curry powder + 1 teaspoon of garam masala powder + 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper powder + 2/3 teaspoon of salt + 2 tablespoons of cashew nut or almond butter + 1/2 cup of water.
After 3-5 minutes, when the sauce is simmering, fold in 12 ounces of fresh spinach. Cook for another 3 minutes until the spinach is wilted, but still green. Remove from heat and blend the sauce.
You can play with different ingredient variations for your tree scene -- try marinara for the background and maybe a blend of pesto and alfredo for the tree, with halloumi, paneer, or tofu for the stars, or even fried zucchini! When choosing and seasoning your sauces, just remember that they will develop a stronger taste after baking in the oven, as some of the water will cook out.
To assemble and cook your tree scene:
Prepare your sauces and "stars," using the ideas above or anything else you'd like.
Preheat the oven as directed by the puff pastry package.
Roll out one sheet of puff pastry onto a greased baking sheet.
Spoon on a layer of your choice of red sauce. (Treat this like a pizza and don't layer on too much sauce.) Then carefully spoon out rows of the green sauce for the tree, with shorter rows as you get to the top of the tree. Then layer on the stars or any other veggie or cheese "trimmings" you'd like.
Bake as directed by the puff pastry package, but note that you may need to bake a little longer, or at least until the pastry is puffed and golden.
Happy Holidays!