The First Rule for Cooking in the Silas Kitchen is that the recipe must satisfy the three primary requirements:
The Second Rule for Cooking in the Silas Kitchen is that any cut or cuts on the fingers from previous cooking adventures must have healed before chopping up food for another one. That was mostly true last night so I got started and nicked myself almost immediately. It wasn't a big one but it served as yet another reminder of why I do not use power tools!
I had splurged €7,60 for three beautiful chicken breasts and they had been in the fridge for three days, teasing me with the idea of an Indian chicken curry feast. I've been living mostly vegetarian but this is by circumstance rather than choice and the anticipation of this feast has been quite pleasant but last night it was time.
The only other costs of any significance at all were the jar of Sharwood's Hot Curry Paste at about €4,00 and a can of chopped tomatoes which was probably less than €2,00. The curry paste has enough in the jar for at least three meals so the actual cost for last night was about €1,00. Only two of the three chicken breasts were used so that cost was less than €6,00.
The other requirements for this feast were relatively trivial in cost as there was a cup of Basmati rice, at least a cup of frozen mixed vegetables, a large potato, a large onion, a few cloves of garlic, and enough olive oil to get all the stuff cooked.
The first thing is to saute the onions and the garlic in the olive oil until soft and brown. Take your time with this as otherwise the onions will burn and this will yield either a large wasted onion or a very unsatisfactory dining experience!
When the onions and garlic are ready, add in multiple tablespoons of Sharwood's Hot Curry Paste. I use over three as I want a rippin' big taste. After you add the curry paste, give it some minutes to open up and welcome the world and after that you can add your chopped up tomatoes. Mine were from a 400g can from Pummaro ΕΛΑΤΣ (no idea what that means but they're chopped tomatoes) but it would have been better to put another one in there.
While the curry paste is welcoming the world, brown the chicken bits but don't cook them all the way through as they will spend a lot of time simmering. Once that is done, drain off the olive oil and throw them into the mix. Give them some minutes to get happy in there and then throw in a chopped up potato if you like. The potato won't do much for taste but it's a cheap way to make it seem like there's more chicken than there really is! Keep this simmering for some while as the potatoes need some serious time to soften.
Most of the cooking for this is done on a simmer as the objective isn't to let the ingredients swim in the curry / tomato mix but rather to give them time to absorb it into their souls and this needs some time. Cook it slowly!
After you are satisfied the potatoes are sufficiently softened, add in as much mixed vegetable as you would like. To keep this cheap I use frozen and of course that is heresy but I'm not concerned with philosophy so much as eating cheap! The taste of the curry is so strong that the taste of the vegetables will be overwhelmed anyway but they add some and they add lot of texture.
That's got all the stuff in there and still the objective is to keep it simmering for a good while to slow cook it. It will still take another twenty minutes to cook the rice so it will be a solid hour to do all of this. The result is worth it!
I find that rice works perfectly every time and much better than a rice maker if I mix two cups of water to one cup of Basmati rice with about a teaspoon of salt and a glob of butter or olive oil. Bring the water, salt, and butter / oil to a boil and then add the rice. Take the heat down low and cover the pot. Don't do anything to it for eighteen minutes and it will be perfect with zero waste after that time.
The rice sets what time your feast will go to the table as you will serve it as soon as the rice is done so time this part right! Don't rush it as you want all the bits to have plenty of time to absorb the flavor of the curry.
The result of all of the above is a big pot of Indian curry chicken and no addition spices were necessary as Sharwood's Hot Curry Paste is already quite a good mix of spices. Using a curry paste is very, very easy!
The meal was scrumptiously delicious and the result of the cooking of the chicken and bits was a quite thick mix of really tasty stuff. The thickness of it is why I think maybe I should have used a second can of tomato bits as there wasn't a whole lot of sauce after all that cooking. What I may do is use another can next time and put a bit of corn starch in it if it needs any thickening.
The total yield of this exercise was a lot of food. There was more rice than I could eat in one sitting so the remainder got some scoops of the Indian curry chicken and that was enough for another meal. There was still enough of the curry chicken after that for two more meals so that went into the fridge as well.
The way it wound up is that this yielded four meals at about €2,00 for each one! Since a one-kilo loaf of Greek bread costs €1,60, I call that an excellent deal. The meal has all kinds of wholesome goodness in it and the taste is marvelous!
- Costs only a little
- Makes a lot
- Tastes very damn good!
The Second Rule for Cooking in the Silas Kitchen is that any cut or cuts on the fingers from previous cooking adventures must have healed before chopping up food for another one. That was mostly true last night so I got started and nicked myself almost immediately. It wasn't a big one but it served as yet another reminder of why I do not use power tools!
I had splurged €7,60 for three beautiful chicken breasts and they had been in the fridge for three days, teasing me with the idea of an Indian chicken curry feast. I've been living mostly vegetarian but this is by circumstance rather than choice and the anticipation of this feast has been quite pleasant but last night it was time.
The only other costs of any significance at all were the jar of Sharwood's Hot Curry Paste at about €4,00 and a can of chopped tomatoes which was probably less than €2,00. The curry paste has enough in the jar for at least three meals so the actual cost for last night was about €1,00. Only two of the three chicken breasts were used so that cost was less than €6,00.
The other requirements for this feast were relatively trivial in cost as there was a cup of Basmati rice, at least a cup of frozen mixed vegetables, a large potato, a large onion, a few cloves of garlic, and enough olive oil to get all the stuff cooked.
The first thing is to saute the onions and the garlic in the olive oil until soft and brown. Take your time with this as otherwise the onions will burn and this will yield either a large wasted onion or a very unsatisfactory dining experience!
When the onions and garlic are ready, add in multiple tablespoons of Sharwood's Hot Curry Paste. I use over three as I want a rippin' big taste. After you add the curry paste, give it some minutes to open up and welcome the world and after that you can add your chopped up tomatoes. Mine were from a 400g can from Pummaro ΕΛΑΤΣ (no idea what that means but they're chopped tomatoes) but it would have been better to put another one in there.
While the curry paste is welcoming the world, brown the chicken bits but don't cook them all the way through as they will spend a lot of time simmering. Once that is done, drain off the olive oil and throw them into the mix. Give them some minutes to get happy in there and then throw in a chopped up potato if you like. The potato won't do much for taste but it's a cheap way to make it seem like there's more chicken than there really is! Keep this simmering for some while as the potatoes need some serious time to soften.
Most of the cooking for this is done on a simmer as the objective isn't to let the ingredients swim in the curry / tomato mix but rather to give them time to absorb it into their souls and this needs some time. Cook it slowly!
After you are satisfied the potatoes are sufficiently softened, add in as much mixed vegetable as you would like. To keep this cheap I use frozen and of course that is heresy but I'm not concerned with philosophy so much as eating cheap! The taste of the curry is so strong that the taste of the vegetables will be overwhelmed anyway but they add some and they add lot of texture.
That's got all the stuff in there and still the objective is to keep it simmering for a good while to slow cook it. It will still take another twenty minutes to cook the rice so it will be a solid hour to do all of this. The result is worth it!
I find that rice works perfectly every time and much better than a rice maker if I mix two cups of water to one cup of Basmati rice with about a teaspoon of salt and a glob of butter or olive oil. Bring the water, salt, and butter / oil to a boil and then add the rice. Take the heat down low and cover the pot. Don't do anything to it for eighteen minutes and it will be perfect with zero waste after that time.
The rice sets what time your feast will go to the table as you will serve it as soon as the rice is done so time this part right! Don't rush it as you want all the bits to have plenty of time to absorb the flavor of the curry.
The result of all of the above is a big pot of Indian curry chicken and no addition spices were necessary as Sharwood's Hot Curry Paste is already quite a good mix of spices. Using a curry paste is very, very easy!
The meal was scrumptiously delicious and the result of the cooking of the chicken and bits was a quite thick mix of really tasty stuff. The thickness of it is why I think maybe I should have used a second can of tomato bits as there wasn't a whole lot of sauce after all that cooking. What I may do is use another can next time and put a bit of corn starch in it if it needs any thickening.
The total yield of this exercise was a lot of food. There was more rice than I could eat in one sitting so the remainder got some scoops of the Indian curry chicken and that was enough for another meal. There was still enough of the curry chicken after that for two more meals so that went into the fridge as well.
The way it wound up is that this yielded four meals at about €2,00 for each one! Since a one-kilo loaf of Greek bread costs €1,60, I call that an excellent deal. The meal has all kinds of wholesome goodness in it and the taste is marvelous!
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