Self-Righteousness 'n Gas: Curried Taters and Outsourced Tech Support Rice

It was either "Not Native American, but the Other Kind of"-Rice but it was too long. Therefore, the panelists ruled in favor of a shorter name.

This recipe came about by chance. I had tangerines from that illustrious Groupon and was completely clueless about what to do with them. I came across numerous recipes for cakes, and I almost went that way. But by way of extreme coincidence a blogger I'm subscribed to surprised me on the morn of my Tangerine Cupcake Recipe Modification Adventure Day (which may have ended up being mini donuts) with a recipe entitled Spicy Zesty Curried Potatoes. The picture drew me in, but then I saw that the ingredients included tangerine or orange zest and I was sold. Conveniently, I also had the rest of the ingredients. My next adventure was to make some form of complimentary rice. I found this recipe and proceeded to get all the missing ingredients, which were all whole versions of seed-type spices since apparently I only own ground.

I modified both recipes, so read below for my mods! And I also make a lot of rice in anticipation of having some on hand since it takes FOR.EV.UH. to make brown rice. On that note, you might want to time how long the rice takes to time it with the curried taters since those take almost an hour in the oven. So, really, this is a recipe that requires a major time investment, but super low on the labor intensity scale. Super low. Perfect for a marathon of a sitcom... like Parks and Recreation...

CURRIED TATERS AND OUTSOURCED TECH SUPPORT RICE
2 servings of the potatoes, and rice is approximately 1 cup each of cooked rice... or whatever you want!

CONTENTS
Curried Taters
2 medium sized potatoes, chopped (I leave the peels on)
1 medium onion, chopped
1" fresh ginger root, grated
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 cup milk with 1 tsp white vinegar (mixed early and set aside to make "buttermilk"
Tangerine! zest from two tangerines, and their juice (be mindful, these buggers are seedy)
pinch of salt
sesame seeds (optional, and I recommend toasting them early if you remember to)

Rice
Enough brown rice to feed a small army... or however much you want.
2 cinnamon sticks
4 whole cloves
2 cardamom pods or 1 tsp ground cardamom
2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seed
1/2 tsp cumin seed
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
3 chopped garlic cloves
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp garam marsala (optional)
pinch salt and pepper

FASCIST DIRECTIONS
1. Make the "buttermilk" to let it sit and get ready... Also, heat the oven to 400F. Hopefully you have an awesome rice cooker that will make the rice ahead of time with no worries... If so (and really, even if not), prepare brown rice how you normally would, except add in the cinnamon sticks, whole cloves and cardamom pods, if you have them. If not, the ground stuff can be added in a later step.

2. Meanwhile, prepare the Tater dish. Chop the onions and potatoes. In a small bowl mix the ginger, red pepper flakes, garlic, curry powder and buttermilk.

3. Mix the taters and onions in an 8x8" baking dish, drizzle with some oil and stir to coat. Add the spicy milk mixture and toss to coat. Add the coriander seeds and tangerine zest, plus juice. Toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

4. Cover with foil and bake for about 40 minutes, until potatoes are tender. You may want to stir them about halfway through.

5. Remove the foil, stir and return to the hot oven and bake an additional 10 minutes to dry it out a little.

6. When the rice is ready...remove the cinnamon, cloves and cardamom pods. Toast the sesame seeds in a heated pan if you want to before adding anything to the frying pan. Otherwise, heat a tsp of oil in a frying pan. Add the mustard seed and the cumin seed. Let them start popping.

7. Add the rice (enough for what you are serving) and the garlic. Stir it around and mix it up well. Add the red pepper flakes and turmeric powder, and any salt n' pepa that you might want (plus the cardamom powder if you haven't yet). Stir it up, little darling.