Day 29 - Friday Night Curry

I decided to give my slow cooker another bash today after yesterday's slightly disappointing affair. Gerry had been through my recipe book and noted that she quite fancied a curry and since it was after all a Friday night I thought it was a good plan. I checked the cupboards and found I had just the right ingredients for a Kashmiri Butter Chicken.  There was a little bit of prep involved before I could add it into the slow cooker so I got cracking.

• First up, I roughly chopped 2 onions, 4cm of peeled fresh ginger, 3 garlic cloves and a quarter of a green chilli (seeds removed).  This was all whizzed up in a food processor until it made a fairly smooth paste. 
• I then chopped up 3 chicken breasts into bite size chunks, not too small though as I didn't want them to break away into nothing. I heated 1tbsp of groundnut oil in a wok and cooked the chicken pieces over a high heat until they were all nicely browned.  These were then drained and set aside on a plate. 
• Next I added 1oz (25g) butter into the wok and cooked the onion paste over a medium heat until it just started to colour. I then removed it from the heat briefly while I stirred in a symphony of spices - 1tsp crushed cumin seeds, 1tsp crushed fennel seeds, 4 crushed cardamom pods, 1tsp paprika, 1/4tsp ground cinnamon, 1tsp turmeric, 1tsp garam masala, 1/4tsp mild chilli powder and a few red chilli flakes. 

Spice Selection

• This mixture was cooked for a further minute until the final ingredients of 1/2pint chicken stock, 2tbsp tomato puree and 1tbsp brown sugar were added and brought to the boil, stirring all the time.
• I transferred the chicken to the slow cooker and poured the onion mixture and sauce over the top, making sure all the chicken pieces were below the surface of the liquid. I popped the lid on and cooked on low for just over 5 hours.
• Ten minutes before plating up I steamed some fine green beans and basmati rice to serve with it. 
• Finally, just before serving, I added in 2tbsp of half-fat creme fraiche to the curry to give it a nice golden appearance.  I garnished with some finely sliced spring onions and had intended to toast some flaked almonds to top it all off but promptly forgot! 

Dinner was served and my oh my, the second slow cooker attempt was so much better than the first! It was creamy with just the right amount of spice and it had a deliciously silky texture. Also, the quantity of ingredients I had used was enough for 4 people so half of it will go in the freezer for another time, which is certainly something to look forward to. Gerry said it's a definite keeper.  However, next time I would make one slight change and use boneless, skinless chicken thighs because I think it would withstand the longer cooking process better than breast and because it's simply a cut with more flavour. However, I used what I had and it still turned out brilliantly!  I'm a happy little cook tonight.

Kashmiri Butter Chicken

Kashmiri Curry & Rice

Day 14 - Food & Friendship without Facebook

Today's post is not as much about food I've created as about how food brings people together. After spending the afternoon doing a little exercise and searching the job market I was off out to dinner. Going out for dinner is perhaps my most favourite thing to do.  I love exploring new restaurants or going to friend's houses for supper because I believe that it brings us closer together. We can relax and laugh and offer advice and support all while enjoying one of life's biggest comforts - food. It's an incredibly social activity and a great way to catch up with someone you might not have seen for a while.

So, I made my way south of the river to C's house. I've known C for around 10 years now after we met at university.  Many a lecture was spent helplessly laughing rather than concentrating on what was actually being taught. Good times. C did a bang up job with dinner with a delightfully creamy butternut squash soup to begin, followed by a Prawn and Mango Curry with basmati rice. It was simply delicious despite C's concern over the slightly under-ripe mango. To finish we had a Strawberry tart with cream and it was all washed down with a lovely Chenin Blanc.  A perfect end to a really great evening. We always have such a fab time together that I'm very thankful we've remained firm friends all these years.

I've realised it's so easy these days to lose touch with people that were once very special to us.  I think in a way the plethora of new ways to contact people like Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging apps etc can actually lead to us to drift further apart. It's almost as though the fact we can contact people so easily now leads us to not contacting them at all. I think I actually stayed in contact with people far more when I had to try a little harder.  I would obviously much prefer to see someone in person but failing that I liked phone calls or even emails.  They always showed a little more thought than just firing off a message on Facebook or putting something on someone's wall.  Don't get me wrong I'm guilty of doing both those things on occasion, if only because it seems like the more accepted way of contacting someone now. It just seems that all these social networking sites often create more problems than they solve. If I had a penny for every time a friend told me about issues that have sprung up in their life due to something said on Facebook, well, I would be much better off.

I think that certainly on FB there are two distinct groups of people - the FB Givers and the FB Takers.  The Givers seem to feel the need to share every amazing thing that happens in their lives at every given opportunity, a constant electronic boast so to speak. The Takers, silently check out everyone else's lives but share little of their own, often a hair's breadth away from what might be considered stalking at times.

There are many reasons why people say they are on FB; to network, to share photos, to stay in contact with people who might not live in the same country to name but a few. Whatever the reasons, and they are certainly all valid, the one that people admit the least is that we are innately nosey individuals who like to be included in everything.  We like to know what is going on in other's lives and can achieve this without actually having to ask. We can check statuses, see photos, read walls and comments and all with the click of a mouse or the tap of a finger.  Thus it brings me back to my original point. These sites often do the exact opposite of their intention.  We are not brought closer together, rather we experience other people's lives from a distance.

Perhaps I am just stuck in the past and in resisting change I will be left behind.  However, I do know I am not alone in preferring life PFB (Pre-Facebook), a time when life seemed that little bit simpler. Life *can* exist without FB and all these other social networking sites it would seem, take dinner tonight for example, it was all arranged via SMS without FB in sight. Still using today's technology but without letting the entire world know of my plans. If I were brave enough I would log off Facebook permanently but then what if I missed something....