For dinner tonight we will have a January Fruit Curry. Meaning we've run out of eggs. Which tends to happen when we get snowed in during the winter. So we made do with onions and apples.

I got the curry recipe from a co-worker many years ago. It made a delicious dish, but required a slight effort -- something entirely at odds with my cooking philosophy. I began to eliminate ingredients. One by one. As long as the concoction still tasted vaguely like curry I kept pruning. As it turns out, about the only ingredient you really need for a recognizable curry is curry.

Finally, after becoming vegetarian and putting the chicken out of the picture, I ended up with what Mary dubbed "Justinian's Minimalist Egg Curry" (when we were given the chance to contribute to an authors' cook book.)

As for historical accuracy, I don't know if they had curry in Justinian's day, but he was reputed to be a vegetarian.

A Second Helping of Murder.
More Diabolically Delicious Recipes from Contemporary Mystery Writers, edited by Robert Weibezahl, from Poisoned Pen Press.