Some days are easy, some days are hard

Today has been harder than usual getting to my blog. It's one of those days where everything is moving much more slowly than expected, and I'm taking it easier than I usually do. So, let's keep this short and sweet!

Chicken Korma

Last night's dinner actually started on Wednesday. I made Chicken Korma, a northern India dish that has yogurt, coconut, and a slew of spices in it. It starts with mixing garlic, plain yogurt and turmeric together, and marinating the meat in it over night. I used chicken thighs because that's what we had in the freezer. Next up, you cook an onion with ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, coriander seeds, cumin and chile powder in some oil or ghee, and add chicken and dried coconut in when the onions are soft. simmer for about 45 and out comes amazingly tender chicken in a fragrant sauce. We made up some saffron rice to go with it, and dinner was  ready to go! I got this recipe from the Complete Indian Cooking cookbook by hamlyn. I tried to find the recipe online, but all I could find was links to buy the book, which I decided not to put in this post.

MMMM, bread!

Earlier in the day, I also made a loaf of bread. I've been trying lots of different recipes, and I think I finally found one that I'm going to focus on until I've got it down by heart. It's from Jamie Oliver (https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread-recipes/easy-homemade-bread/), and has basically 4 ingredients - flour, water, yeast, and salt. I used the yeast solution from the yeast starter Walter made me, and baked away. I think it came out pretty good, although it seemed to be done before the very middle was completely cooked. It's not raw, just squishy instead of firm. When I looked up the online version of the recipe, I noticed that the temperature had been lowered, and the baking time was a bit longer. Interestingly, that was what I was thinking I'd do next time - lower the temp and leave it in longer to give it a chance to cook through before the crust burned. So, there you are - sometimes instincts are just as good as instruction!

My fabulous yeast starter

That's all for now. I'll see you on Monday, when we'll start another week. In the meantime, be safe, be well, and take care of yourselves and others.