Skip to main content

Thai curry

 A Journey of Thousand steps begins with a small step - Lao Tzu

Paraphrased into cooking

Every recipe starts with a single ingredient.

Today all I knew, when I started making the curry was that it was going to be Tofu curry. I also knew that I would be using up the ground groundnut/peanut powder in it. In the first place, the peanut powder came to be, because I added it late in the sabudana vada  game. There was some left over. 

At this point, it was only going to be Tofu curry with peanut powder. while the onions were sweating it out with the crushed peanuts, I realised a gravy was stirring up. I gave my little one a chance to cut up the tofu - the only vegetable that she can cut because it is soft. In a karate chop, she wielded some gross cuts to the Tofu which ended up as good chunks. 

When the Tofu chunks joined the party, it looked done. This is where I would call it a day. Infact, Tofu was the chosen candidate for a day like this. With 3 more such Tofu boxes left from the Costco's packaging, expiring on Dec 22nd, at the rate of one a week, there is no way that we wont finish them. Its not everyday that we have time for elaborate dishes. There are going to be days where we want to make something quick. Or not.

Then, I started adding some water to the curry, seeing that it could take some boiling. At this point, there was a vision of spicy red pepper flakes. It was high in the cabinet, with spouse magic, it landed into the curry. I realised what the curry longed to be, again relying on the special spouse magic, specifically, memory of its existence as well as the geolocation of it, there was dried lemongrass in my hands. I crushed it a bit into the curry. 

Now the curry too was up for adventure. Powdered curry leaves powder turned the yellow curry to green. In went more water. Some reasons for it. It felt salty, so I knew I would have to correct that. I recalled how the gravies look at restaurants. Thick liquids. It had some give. After a quick boil, here is a curry that came to being because the crushed peanut powder was ready.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vadi biyyam

Vadi Biyyam We do this for the 21st day of baby's birth. The rice is then cooked in a couple of days, with all neighbours invited for lunch. number of times a woman can receive lap rice odi biyyam songs
Post a Comment
Read more

Egg Malai Masala

  Egg Malai Masala  Its fun when things turn out as they should. I pureed the onions and then cooked them well. I added the milk for the egg Malai Masala and made chicken curry with other half of the onion base. I used kasoori methi in both. Many times I have felt the onions grainy, but this time I got it right. Patience.
Post a Comment
Read more

Mohanthal

Today I learnt of Mohanthal from a neighbor at community potluck. One of the dishes was a malai kofta made from mexican squash. Another neighbor spoke about how hard she found to make batura. She said that as she would shape the dough, it would spring back to its original shape. That makes me appreciate the complexity of dishes and the act of cooking. My neighbor impressed with my interest in he sweet, shared some Mohanthal with us. It is truly a sweet from heaven. I was reminded of a sweet from my marriage. Another neighbor quipped about the satisfactoin of eating when very hungry and not as much when you eat on time everyday, which resonated in the following lines of Charles Bukowski in  Wandering in the cage. "the best thing about near-starvation and hunger is that when you finally eat it is such a beautiful and delicious and magical thing. people who eat 3 meals a day throughout life have never really tasted food… "
Post a Comment
Read more