Xiang Chun Curry

Hyper closeup!!!

We had a lot of simple, close-to-vegetarian meals this week, one of which was a simple chicken curry. I know, chicken isn't vegetarian, but I only used two small pieces of thigh meat for a whole pot of curry. I always switch up my curry ingredients depending on what I have in the fridge. This week I used onions, a red bell pepper, baby potatoes, and yama imo. And then to really kick things up a notch, I added the leaves of xiang chun, an edible tree from Henan, China. Xiang chun leaves are purple when they're babies, and mature into long beautiful green leaves. They have an intensely musky flavor, so much so that when my young cousin saw me picking leaves off her tree she asked "Those are edible? I thought it was just a smelly tree."  I think they're delicious, and they added a whole new dimension to boring old Golden Curry.