I need help with curry!
Last night, trying to make up for the not-so-bad-but-not-so-good Red Curry Beef dish that I cooked last week, I decided to try my hand at Curried Chicken. I had it all ready to go; chicken breasts, onion, lots of garlic, mushrooms (instead of green pepper), thyme, and curry powder. I was sure I had the makings of a hit dish that couldn't fail.
It was so bland, I almost cried out of sheer boredom eating it.
Now, I'm no culinary master or a food critic that can taste the subtle hints of esoteric spices in some unique dish. However, while the smell of curry filled the kitchen, the thyme completely overpowered it in flavour despite me using less of it than I should have. I effectively tasted zero curry in my Curried Chicken.
I spoke with a lady here at work who cooks with curry often to find out what I did wrong. She is suspects that I simply used a very mild curry powder, which would make sense since I got it from the Caucasian spice section of the grocery store, rather than the East Indian aisle. I have a couple of ideas on how to fix this; I can either go back and get some curry powder from the aisle with ethnic foods, or go to a food mart behind a local hotel brought to my attention by a friend of mine. Either option should work, and at least I can safely assume that my next attempt at a more authentic East Indian dish will be met with more praise and less snores.
Does anyone else have any hints they can give me on cooking with curry?
~MikeR.
Yum, curried beef
Dinner last night was, in my opinion, a success. I had to improvise a fair amount because some of what I bought for ingredients just weren't the right stuff (ie. it called for red curry base and I bought a red curry Tandoori paste), but in the end it was quite tasty. I put in a lot more vegetables than the recipe called for, which was nice. The beef was a little too well done but that's because I kept futzing with the heat on the element to get it to simmer. At least I know I can be a bit creative with food and just throw a bunch of stuff together and make it work. Lann thought it was a bit sweet and not quite spicy enough, but said it was alright.
Next up, curried chicken and vegetables.
~MikeR.
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